The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-02-03
THE TANINE IN INDIA.
Sad Tales Of Destitution from the
Stricken Districts.
FOOD SUPPLY NEARLY EXHAUSTED

The Minimum Dole Of Food Given to the
Starving People Only Sufficient TO Keep
BODY aud Soul Together, and TOO Little
Co Build Up the system.
LONDON, Feb. 8-winiam Lord Sand
hurst, governor Of Bombay, has sent q
cable message TO the effect that the bu-
bon plague patients patronizo the hos
pitfalls more freely than at the time Of the
first outbreak Of the epidemic. In the sec
ton where tho disease has its strongest
hold in the beginning tits now being sup
Passed, but it appears to be extending to
new portions of the Bombay presidency.
In places most recently infected by the
plague the mortality is evidently not as
great. In the city of Bombay the num-
Der of deaths diminished during the week
ending Jan. 20, and the feeling at that
place is one of great hopefulness. In the
city of Poonah, Bombay presidency, fifty
eight cases were reported, but a late nc
count is to the effect that forty-eight
cases were announced in a single quarter
of the town.
Governor Sandhurst reports that the
number Of deaths from the plague at Ka-
rachi reached POS for the week ending Jan.
%, diminishing Co 173 for the week ending
Jan. 29, decreasing in the two worst quar-
ters Of the town, but increasingly the two
sections formerly least infected by the epi-
demio. 1t is estimated that one-fourth Of
the total population Of the city has left
Karaohi on account of the plague. The
only deaths from plague reported from
Sind, just outside, Karaohi, are said to be
those of travellers. Generally speaking this
ANNA fBfV,rr vra.h Ia. a,EI 20. 1a Nvrr, 90 ethan
towns of the Bombay presidency besides
the cities Of Bombay and Poonah, with
the exception, however, of the towns Of
Bandora and Coorla, and their suburban
villages, and the unhealthy place Of Bhi-
wandi, in the Thane district.
The special correspondent Of the Assoc
ciated Press, who is inquiring into the
famine ravaging in Kaipur, the largest
district of the central province, having a
population of 800, 600, finds the situation
very grave. Kaipur is the center Of the
rice growing industry. which is the only
crop grown, and as it has failed there is a
total extinction Of food stuff in the local
ity, and real famine exists. About 1900
villages are affected. The relief works
have given employment and the means of
subsistence to $4,000 persons.
The worst part Of the district is Dhar-
mapara, thirty miles from Kaipur, where
%lamentable conditions prevail. Many peo-
pie have already died of hunger and many
others are dying. The staff employed in
the work Of relieving the sufferers is in
adequate to cope with the enormous area.
If the work Of relief had been properly ar
ranged earlier the mortality would have
been less, as the rains are increasing the
spread of disease. 1t will take three good
years to recoup the losses in that district.
The p%oorhOuses are a fair criterion of
the condition of the people. Besides the
professional beggars they are crowded
with laborers, reduced to the last stage of
skeletons. Their bodies are emaciated
and the skin is hanging in large folds.
Others have swollen stomachs, the Sign of
acute %privation. 1t is found that the cat
tlemen and ryOts, or feldworkers, usually
lusty men, are unable to do anything, and
the women are in the same condition.
One woman, who was lately confined,
has been attacked with rheumatism,
caused by exposure, and is paralyzed. Her
baby is horrible to look at. Its limbs are
about the size Of pipe stems, and its
sunken eyes have a most piteous look. No
provision has been made for these cases.
The minimum dole of food is only enough
to keep body and soul together. 1t does
not suffice to build up the system again.
Some horrible sights are witnessed. A
man, with both legs eaten away, was a
mass of white scabs, and others were
nearly as bad. The condition in the dis
trict is the worst yet seen. There is ur-
gent need of funds. If seed is not sown
the people will be utterly incapable of pro-
curing food, and the conditions next year
will be too awful to contemplate. The
food supply in tho district will soon be X
hnusted.