Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-02-05
THE INDIAN FAMINE
And the Awful Bubonic Plague

which Is similar to the "BInck Death"
which Devastated Europe and Asi"
over 500 Years Ago.
The famine i'm India, and its terrible in
cidcnt, the bubonic plague, have reached
a stage which attracts the sympathetic at
tention of the world. The government
of India for some years has had famine
code by which the horrors of previous
famines have been sensiby mitigated, and
it is to be hoped that the government will
be able to relieve the present deplorable
situation before the story of the famine OF
1S77-7S is repeated 1t is through this
governmental agency, aided by private
charity, vast relief must come. During
the two years famine in India, lS77-1S,
about five and half millions of people
persisted. Relief measures have been
more promptly taken in this visitation,
and as the Pail Mall Gazette presents the
case: "There are some CLEANS of hope for
the future, though the misery and want
are intense. 1t is a people in beggary; it
is a nation which stretches out its hand
for food"
According to the London Telegraph dis
trcts having a population of about 81
DOC, 900 will be visited by famine which
March, and may last until June. There
are parts of other districts, with popula-
ton of A 100000, which will be subjected
to the famine tor longer or shorter time
During the first week in January 1900
600 persons were receiving relief, and it is
possible that , 100000 may require aid be-
fore the situation eliminates. 1t is esti
mated that the famine will cost the Indian
treasury, in relief expenditures and loss
of revenue, about S30,000,0 900, and these
figures will be vastly increased by private
| contributions from England and elsewhere.
The main responsibility for the relief Of
her Indian empire must rest upon Eng
land, and, as Mr.. Balfour remarked in a
recent speech, England is assuming the
responsibility of saving from starvation
vast population separated from her by half
the circumference of the globe. 1t is by
figures and statements like these that we
can family appreciate the extent of the
Indian calamity and the extraordinary eff
forts that must be made to avert its direst
results.
The bubonic pague-and some forbid
ding form of disease ever follows in the
wake of famine-has added untold com
plications to a problem already sufficiently
difficult. The plague is apparently con-
fined for the present to the city of Bonn
bay, half of whose population have fled
from the city. Doubtless many Of these
have carried the highly contagious infec-
ton with them. The death rate from the
plague in Bombay last week was 40,
high weekly rate from single disease for
the remaining population of something
more than 400, 900. The disease was at
first apparently controllable, but within
few days it has assum' d a more virulent
form. Should it extend to the famine dis
tricts throughout India, the situation will
become appalling, with the possibility that
the plague will spread to southern Europe
an countries where the habits of the peo-
| pie and the lack of proper sanitation in
vite epidemics. The history OF the bu-
/ bonic plague, however, shows that its raw
ages have not been confined to warm eli
mates. 1t has made its appearance in for
mer times in various portions of northern
| Europe and Asia, where uncleanliness ard
| squalor welcomed it. Modern sanitary
| science and the cooperation of the Euro
| pean governments will in all probability
stay the march of the plague through Eu-
| rope. The disease is not to be feared
| in our portion of the world, and it will
| probably disappear in India with the relief
| given TO the famine stricken districts. This
will take time. The probability that the
| famine will not end in many districts I'M
/ til far in the spring is not pleasant pros
/ poet to contemplate, but sympathy and aid
are alike powerless to ameliorate such a
! distressing situation at once.