Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1897-01-15
STARVATION AND DISEASE
Has Well Nigh Stripped Bombay
of inhabitants.
IN THE. OUTER DISTRICTS
The Terrible Plague is Reaping a Frightiu
Harvest-Relatives Shun Their Dead
For Fear Of Being Stricken.

BOMBAY, Jan. 14.-EVery day the
plague situation here becomes worse, and
it is estimated that nearly half the popu-
lation of the city have fled to escape
death. The situation is greatly aggra-
waited by the prevalence of the famine,
thousands of the natives who leave the
city having absolutely nothing on which
to support themselves in the country and
thus fall victims to the slower death from
starvation
The streets and bazaars which, few
weeks ago, were teeming with life, are
now virtually deserted and many shops
and offices are closed. One result of the
plague has been great diminution in
all crimes except burglaries and petty
thefts, and these in many distances are
due to poverty-stricken wretches taking
advantage of the fact that large quanti-
ties of property have been left without
protection by refugees from the plague
INFESTED city. So great has been the fall
ing off in criminal and other cases that
the high court of justice does not now
find business enough to occupy more than
half it's time, while the courts in which
small cases are tried have abandoned
have taken holiday. $
Eight thousand fugities are camping
out in Andheri, where every condition is
favorable to am outbreak of cholera.
There is scarcity of water in and about
the town, and the sanitary arrangements
are of the crudeSt character. The refu-
gees, however, are more, afraid of the
bubonic plague than of cholera and they
will undoubtedly remain where they are
rather than to return to Bombay. The
government is doing everything possible
to assist the people, but it's efforts thus
far have been productive of little real re-
suit in the direction of cleanliness.
In Poona and Bandra the plague is
raging with great virulenee. The efforts
of physicians to stay the progress of the
disease in the slightest degree have been
fruitless and the death rate is extremely
high. Hundreds of persons attacked by
the disease have died in two or three
hours, suffering dreadful agony.
The customs of the natives add to the
hideousness of the plague. The Moham-
medan cemeteries are aovercroWded, and
it is impossible to find men enough to
dig graves and bury the dead. The
sound of dirges is ineessant in and about
the places where the Hindoos burn their
dead in accordance with their time-hon-
| most depressing influence on all who
hear it, natives and foreigners alike.
1t is stated that numbers of dead bod
les of Parsees, the religious sect who ex-
pose their dead bodies to be eaten by the
vultures, are slowly decomposing in the
open air, in the places in which they are
left. They have not been eaten by the
vultures, the birds having been over
gorged by the great abundance of
corpses furnished to them.
Everywhere the greatest difficulty is
found in obtaining men to carry the dead
to the cemeteries, burning places and the
dokhamas. Even relatives shun their
last service to their dead, fearing that
they will contract the disease by touch
ing or approaching the corpses In many
cases bodies have been found abandoned
in the streets, their bearers having been
overcome by fear while taking them to
their last resting place.
Up to today the number of the cases
of the plague is placed only at 1894 and
deaths at 1856.
The European races, those Of half ma
tives and half foreign parentage, enjoy
comparative immunity from the disease.
Very few Europeans have contracted the
disease, they apparently not being subject
to it's attack .srssss s'3'
A feature of the disease that was noted
at Hongkong and southern China while
it was prevalent there has also been no
ticed here Swine, poultry and rodents
appear to be very susceptible to the
plague and great numbers of them have
died