The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-02-27

HozRlbie BuaeflnEs Of she Natives ThrouH
sIeNnesa and Hnnger.


slcsnes and Hunger.
''The present drought in India IS q
Of the most eyere ever known" said
Mr. Yincant Z. Tissera recently.
II am from Ceylon and know what
the horrors Of a famine resulting from
drought are. Ten or 12 years 2 the
Ceylonese were the victims Of q com
p~aratively mild water famine, but the
suffering / witnessed then wrung my
heart and / can see as plain as though /
were in the country the agony of the
starving Hindoos. The British papers
have o given the truth in it's pitifui
completeness, and even though they did
gil in their power to alleviate the pres
ent distress thousands must die Of
starvation. Russia's profFered aid was
refused by the English for political reas
sons. John Bull wants nothing done
that will augment the kindly feelings
Of the Hindoos for the Russians. There
r 200,00O,0O people and nearly ali Of
them are ~vegeterians. They believe IL
a sin to kill an animal and the result IS
easily seen. No vegetation on which
they al subsist can escape the drought,
and pathetically sincere in their belief
of the teachings of Buddha, the poor,
ignorant people win starve rather than
prove unfaithful to this time-honored
tenet of their religion and eat the flesh
of animals.
America has spent millions of dol
lars in sending and maintaining mis-
~sionaries in India and 1, as a Christian,
am thankful for it, but now is the time
when the Americans, and the churches
especially, can show that the love and
charity they have preached so many
years to my c~ountrymen are not merely
subjects of discourse but real condi-
tons. Aid from America would do more
for the conversion of these people than
all the preaching that has been done in
all the years since missions were first
established in India. 1t is a charity
the ignorant could understand and /
know and God knows how woefuIly they
are in need of it now.
ga car load of husks would be re-
ceived with the joy of a people who
have been living on roots that the
drought has spared. Millions of people
have no other food and knowing the
likely results of such diet they still
must eat. LeprosY is the outcome in
many cases, but what will not a starv-
ing man do? Think of your own arctic
explorers who resorted to cannibalism.
But 1eprosy, though the most dreaded
disease and a common one in India, is
not the most prevalent or fatal of the
ills that come from root diet and i'm
pure water. A plague called in the
native tongue 'burbonic' fever, some
thing like yellow fever, carries off
thousands. 1 hear daily that it has be-
gun its ravages to add to the horror of
starvation and poverty. One day 500
died of it, but it has not begun to do its
worst yet"
MI. Tissera is a C~eylonese. At the
time of the worlds fair he came to
America in charge of the agricultural
products of Ceylon. Obtaining a three
months leave from the railway by which
he was employed at home that.he might
visit further the country with which he
was fast becoming impressed he trav.
eled all over the union. That decided
him and he resolved to make America
his home. He is the first of his nation
alit~rt9v~at 1s-:~~s this CITY.