The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1897-03-18
HIND00 HORRORS.
Terrible Suffering Occasioned by
the Drought.
A Ceylonese In Chicago Tells of the
Miserles of the Poor Buddhist
Contagion and Starvation
Are Rife.

The present drought in India is one
OF the most severe ever known" said
Mr.. Vincent L. Tissera recently.
Il am from Ceylon and know what
the horrors of a famine resulting from
drought are. Ten or l2 years ago the
Ceylonese were the victims of com
paratively mild water famine. but the
suffering | witnessed then wrung my
heart and l can see as plain,ss though |
were in the country the af&ay of the
starving Hindoos. The Br - apers
have not given the truth ats pitiful
completeness, and even though they did
all in their power to alleviate the pres
ent distress thousands must die of
starvation. Russia's protfered aid was
refused by the English for political rea-
sons. John Bull wants nothing done
that will augment the kindly feelings
OF the Hindoos for the Russians. There
are 2O0,OOO,00O people and nearly all of
them are yegeterians. They believe it
sin TO kill an animal and the result is
easily seen. No vegetation on which
they can subsist can escape the drought,
and pathetically sincere in their belief
of the teachings of Buddha. the poor,
ignorant people will 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 |. 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 countrymen are not merely
subjects of discourse but real condi-
tions Aid from America would do more
for the conversion of these people tAan
all the preaching that has been done in
all the years since missions were first
established in India. 1t is charity
the ignorant could understand and [
know and God knows how woefully they
are in need Of it now.
~ ear load of husks would be re-
ceived with the joy of people who
have been living on roots that tho
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 eases, but what will not starv-
ing man do? Thinl, of your own arctic
explorers who resorted to eannibalism.
But leprosy, though the most dreaded
disease and 4 common one in India, is
not the most prevalent or fatal of the
ills that come from root diet and i'm
pure water \ plague called in the
native tongue 'burbonic' fever, some
thing like yellow fever, carries Off
thousands. | hear daily that it las be-
gun its ravages to add to the horror of
starvation and poverty. One day 500
died of it, but il has not begun to do its
worst yet"
Mr.. Tissera is a Ceylonese. AT the
time of the worlds fair he came TO
America in charge of the agricultural
products of Ceylon. Obtaining 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-
ality to 20 into business in this city
Beside his native tongue. be speaks
Portuguese. Tamil, he tongue Of south
ern India, Spanish. English and is now
mastering the German language lie
is not recent convert to Christianity,
as the religion has been handed down in
the family from the time OF the first
missionaries, 100 years ago, when the
forefather Of the present Tissera was
converted.-Ch Chicago News