Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-01-21
THE INDIAN FAMIN e.

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India. Novenaber 10Th, 1871
Imagine family of eight having to
live on four rupees month /! That
might do when paddy was sold at four
annas, or sixpence, kalam; but now it
is sold at seven or eight shillings per
kalam. What are they to do? 1t is
simply impossible for them to live un-
helped. How then about those who
have nothing?
We did what We could privately,
helping such as seemed most needy ;
my wife giving midday meal to about
score of poor children, and to paupers
day by day. In the most scorching
part of the hot season, people from the
south of this district, and numbers from
the zemindaries of Ramnad and SILVA
gunga the Madura district, began to
pour in-whole families in rags and tat
ters, two had been starved out. I spoke
to the native gentlemen of influence,
and called public meeting at our high
school. The result was subscription
of 1,020 rupees, and the opening of a
canjy-house. About two thousand lean
people, young and old, used to receive a
meal of rice water mixed Then re-
lief camp was formed and opened after
about two months, very near our house,
just little to the southeast of this
tope. There several hundreds were ad-
mitted. but very soon Government or
der was received to close the camps of
this district. 1t was arbitrary. Knut,
king of England and Denmark, was un-
able to bid back the rising tide; and
the Government in this instance has
been, as it were, disobeyed by the waves
of want and destitution. Men had al
ready been parted from their wives and
children at the guarded gates of camps !;
and though some of them appeared able
bodied, and might have done some work,
no work was found for them, and so
they were disappointed. And SO, on
the closing, the sudden closing of the
camps, the inmates turned adrift sank,
many of them, into hopeless beggary,
and worse.
Before the Manargudi camp was closed
we opened a children's camp here in the
tope. Suitable sheds of bamboo and
keetas having been erected on an excel
lent site, and sufficient establishment
appointed, we began to take in tempo
rarily little boys and girls of ages vary
ing from three to twelve. Up to the
present time we have admitted one hun
dred and eleven, and still we are hav-
ing applications. All are caste children,
belonging to various Sudra divisions.
Brahmans on the one hand, with their
extraordinary rights and privileges, not
to mention pride and prejudice out Of
the common, have not repaired to
camps; and outcaste pariahs, on the
other hand, have not needed relief SC
much as the lower orders of the great
middle castles; and for this reason the
same i'll wind which has blown fabulous
prices into the Golfers of the greedy
grain-dealers has blown heaps of dead
cattle to the carrion eaters.
Of the children admitted, the majori.
ty are or have been connected with the
weaving trade, some of the Telugu and
others of the Tamul guide. Most Of
them are either fatherless or their fa
theirs are not to be found. About two
dozen are total orphans, having neither
father nor mother. Scarcely any o.
them knew single letter of their owr
language, but we are teaching them
and they do not lack natural sharpness
We have given clean clothes to them
and they battle daily and have clear
mats spread in their camp, they ar,
very comfortable and as we teach then
to bring to their meals the spices O
work, hunger and content, they are re
markably happy.
The present famine prices will in al
probility rule for two months more
Heavy rains have fallen and continued
! to fall. Freshets and foods are doin,
damage. Rivers and streams are over
flowing. Roads and railways are inter
fered with. We hear of breaches an,
broken bridges In various places. TIL
great crop. which ought to be ready b
the end of January, has been very prom
ising. but there is danger now of los
by floods. Anyhow, there is littl
chance of permanent relief for the poo
Al eACoc pdIeS 1oI INV moutnS VI wv
and half months to come. Afterward
the children of our camp will mostly b
claimed by their relatives, but th
friendless ones will remain with us an
become part of our own orphan estat
lishment.
One little boy has just died at th
hospital. He was skeleton when W
, took him, and too far gone to be reco,
cred. His father had died on the joul
| ney; his mother was picked up very i
by the side of tank, and after linge
; ing for several days, died. The poe
| little boy was pitiful object. Th;