St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-08-08
Correspondence of the New York Observer.
A Lady's Letters from India.

alike-"Oh, Father, it is now!"
Correspondence of the New York Observer.
A Lady's Letters from India.
BY MRS. MONELIE- MANSELL, NJ. d.
remember seeing a fantastic Inning
by Gustave DorG, representing Tophet.
The fire burst forth from the mouths of
huge caverns, and everything had a
molten and red-hot appearance. India
at present is very much in this condi-
ton. The hot winds blow uninterrupt-
eddy from four to eight hours daily as
from a fiery furnace. The fiercely
blazing sun scOrches and burns every
thing in the most uncOmprOmising man
ner. The earth has an Oveny appear
ance, and is cracked open in large tis-
sures with the intense heat, and scOrch-
es the feet even through thicksoled
boots. The miserable trees look I'M
happy and hang their poor wilted leaf
lets. There is not spear of grass Wis
ible. Folks outdoors drag their weary
lengths along as though each were car
rying a ball and chain. They seem to
have no ambition on earth but to drop
down and die quietly in some shady
nook. The roads are some inches deep
in dust, and the air is filled with it, so
that breathing is difficult and painful.
There are no vegetables nor any fruits.
Wells and tanks and cisternS are low
and the water muddy and unhealthy.
Indoors the furniture burns the body
through the clothing. The sun glares
into every crack and crevice so persist
emily that blinds and shades and thick
curtains can hardly darken room suf-
ficiently. Every outside door is closed
tightly, from early morning until after
shutdown, to keep out the heat. The
air becomes stagnant and sutfocating.
A little relief is obtainable from the
paRkah, a large fan suspended from the
ceiling and worked by a servant from
the outside. The punkdh swings day
and night. The man whose business it
is to keep it swinging sometimes falls
asleep, and then the air seems to press
upon one at the rate of a thousand
pounds to the square inch. Breathing
is next to impossible.
At night there is still less comfort to
be had. The bed is hotter than the
body. We sprinkle the bed first and
then jump in, but it is dry and hot
again in almost no time. We sprinkle
the floor and furniture and do every
thing imaginable to cool the sleeping
room, but all uselessly. 1t is like try
ing to sleep in well-heated oven. AL
though we may long to renOunce the
flesh and sit in our bones, still we know
that both flesh and clothes are absO-
lutely necessary in order to protect the
body from the hot air. How superla-
lively happy must those be who live in
a cold climate ! What would not give
for a breath of cool air from the Adj
rondacks, or for a plunge into the surf at
Newport, or for walk on the strand,
or even for a distant glimpse of the sea.
ln the midst of this overpOwering heat
pestilence stalks abroad, staying its
victims by the thousands. Cholera
the Hardwar Fair. The temporary
population of Hardwar ut that time was
equal to that of Paris and New York
added. As the pilgrims left the grounds
they carried the pestilence with them
IN all directions. Some of the hill dis
trictsA are nearly depopnlated. The
district of KumaOn lost about twenty
thousand by cholera in a few days.
WeaTied by the long marches in these
hot days, with scarcity of water, with
no means of Supplying food, with no
medical treatment, and with cholera in
their ranks, the returning pilgrims must
have dropped off like leaves in autumn.
Along the last two miles leading to
Ramnagar two hundred dead bodies
were found on the ground, to be quar-
relied and fought over by the vultures.
wild dogs and jackals. A search along
the remaining miles of the road would
have revealed an appalling sight.
Missionaries work on patiently. hope
lully, indefatigably, taking no heed of
the heat or of the pestilence. NV hus-
band stands daily in the open street for
over an hour at a time, preaching Gods
truth to the heather and beseechinp
them to turn from their idols. Some
times the people are affected to tears.
and say they do from that moment re-
nounce idolatry. There has been an
extraordinary harvest within the last
year in Southern India. Over sixty
thousand idolaters have cast away their
Idols and embraced Christianity. This
number does not include those who