Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1889-09-14
POVERTY IN lNp,A.
A Country where Able-sodied Men Wosh
for SIR Cents q Day.

a country where Able Hoftfeu M on W0fN |
for six Cents Day.
i had always looked upon India as q
relocating county. ! find that great |
number OF the people here eal wheat
and grain. In Northwestern India
only about ten per cent of the people
eat rice, and in the prison at Agra
found that the prisoners were fed
upon grain. Everywhere the mass OF
the people seem TO be underfed and
the leanest scraggiest specimens OF
humanity ! have ever seen | find In
this rich valley OF the Ganges. Where
nature has done every thing the peo-
pie are starving. and you can have no
idea OF the skin and bone men and
boys whom l see daily by the thou
sands. The costume OF the people Is
such that the arms and legs and often
the breasts and waists are bare. There
seems to be nothing but skin, bones
and sinew, and the average thigh 10
not bigger than muscular American
biceps There are no calves what
ever, and the joints at the knees and
ankles are extraordinarily large.
Nearly every man you meet II he be
poor, has wrinkles In his belly. and at
every railroad station you find gaunt
dark-faced, piteous, lean men, who
slap their bare stomachs TO show that
they are hollow and ask Tor backsh
Wages are miserably low. Farm
laborers get from six to eight cents a
day and masons get about ten cents
q day. Even travellers who have to
pay the highest wages. can got good
English-speaking servants who will
travel with them and feed themselves
for thirty-three cents day. and less
than that II taken by the month.
This valley of the Ganges has more
people than 1t can support, and IL Is
probably the most densely populated
part OF the world The people live in
villages and the average country town
consists OF one-story mud huts. too
poor and illy-ventilated for American
| pig-pena You would not think OF
having such outbouses as the resi-
dences OF the majority OF this vast
population would make, and In large
part Of India. and especially in the
best part of this Ganges country. the
holdings average from two TO three
acres apiece. At four to the family
this represents half acre per person,
or over !, 200 persons per square mile
When II IL remembered that these peo-
Pile live by agriculture II will be seen
that this condition Is far worse than
that OF China or any part Of Europe.
And still the people are bright They
are brainy. too. and you will find few
sharper business men. better cut
faces and more polite people than
these people OF India Their faces In
this part OF India have much the
same characteristics as those Of the
Anglo-Saxon Those OF the higher
castles are more like those OF thu
Greeks. and l see faces every day
which. n the skin We're white, any
American might be- proud 10 own.
They belong TO the same race germ
that we do, and under the same train
ing and Christian Influences they
would be strong competitors with us.
But what can man do on six cents q
day. or how can a man learn when he
has to struggle to exist The popula-
ton OF India Is continually increasing.
England eats the liou's share of the
products OF the country. and though
the people are perhaps better of under
her government than they have been
In the past. IL Is the same old story OF
her wealth going TO the rulers and
the people working their fesh of their
bones to support them. The Gov
crnor-General of Irdia. who. by the
way. Is the rich 1arquis of Lans-
downe. gets 800. 900 year. Quite q
contrast with the wages OF the masses
ut six cents "a day. INIT itp Frank G.
Carpenter, In Boston Globe.