Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-05-27
A LETTER FROM INDIA.
AMERICAN MISSION,
GuRDAsPUR. NORTH INDIA,
uL TNI1.t'I I ~ .N''I0I II I7'77'
APRIL 9th. 1897

the famine in India, but want you to
know something of the real condition OF
things. and so through the kindness of
the editor of your paper, l shall tell you
of visit made a very short time ago
to one of the stricken districts OF INDIA.
At the meeting of our Ladies Presby-
terial Missionary Society, at Paual
Purdi, March 10th, the Lord seemed to
lay it upon our hearts to do something
yerv decided for the sufferers especially
for the orphan children. Miss White
and | offered to go down country and
see for ourselves the condition OF things;
SO we were appointed by the society to
do so. and were also to bring home some
orphan children, if we found any IN
in need.
We had expected to go down as far as
Jabbalpore. but when we reached Al
lahabad we learned that the Govern
ment had forbidden orphans to be taken
awav from the Central Provinces, and
that cholera had also broken out down
there. and that in the District of Fateh-
pur there was great want.
So we turned about and came back y
miles to Fetahpur, but before leaving
Allahabad we visited the different mis-
sionaries. who had been caring for the
hungry, and learned all we could how
to proceed.
Rev. Clancy of the NJ E. Mission had
cared for about 400 children, and had
about 120 under his care when we call
ed upon him The others after having
been fed by him for sometime had been
sent to the different missionary orphan
ages.
The ewes of this kind hearted mission
ary filed with tears as he told us of the
condition of the poor little children. He
had begun without any money, and the
Lord had provided for all he had taken
| in. and he was going ahead gathering
in all he could.
The village people are the greatest
sufferers The famine has been caused
by lack of rain; the fields that lat other
| times brought abundant harvests OF
splendid wheat, are either lying waste
or dried up for want of water, and the
farmers have eaten all they had in store
have either sold or butchered their
cattle: given their land or whatever
| they had, and are now left without food
or money. Many think that there Is
| still plenty of wheat in India, but wheth-
er this is the case or not, the people who
need it have no money to buy 1t. and
they are starving. The Government of
India is doing much for the people, and
| it has been said that no one need die
for there is enough for all, but we know
| that people are dying and that III many
cases what has been provided by the
| Government fails to reach those for
whom it was intended. To enable you
| to understand more clearly what want
you to take from this, shall give you
few facts, as | got them from mis-
| sionary at Fatehpur This district has
| been declared a famine one, and stands
third in distress of all the famine dis
| tricts-Jhansi and Bauda coming in be-
| fore it.
The missionary had visited about 30
villages around about the city of Fateh-
| pur and found the condition of things
| terrible. In village, say of 300 people,
on careful inquiry he found that from
| 90 to 30 people had already died of ac-
| tual starvation. Many do not hesitate
| to put the death rate at 10 per cent. OF
| the whole population.
1t is hard to get at the number of
deaths among the children They are
| the greatest sufferers A man or wo-
man will lie down when he gets hungry
but child begins to wander. Go IN
any direction you will, the missionary
said, and you will pick up little boys
and girls who are either on the hunt, or
have fallen in their tracks from fatigue
or starvation. A very large proportion
of the inmates of poor houses, or relief
works, as well as all the Mission Com
pounds are children.
Although the missionary in making
up his minutes, is very careful, still they
are far higher than government reports.
Every officer wants to be regarded as
faithful and competent. Those districts
that are declared famine districts may
draw from relief funds any amount of
money that is needed, so, except for the
difficulty in administering those funds,
no one need die.
In district there so many police cir
cles. and while | was there, the police
officer, who is an Englishman, told me
that when he reported the death rate
from famine to his superior officer who
is Mohammedan, that he was told to
change the number, and put large pro
portion of those who had died of starva
ton, as dying of fever, etc. This the
man said, he refused to do, but promis
ed to be more careful in the future in
regard to details. The government has
established poor houses, and relief
works all over the district.
The people report that the attendants
jerk off their tickets and turn them out.
The tickets are tied onto to the necks of
the inmates and the names recorded in
book Well, after ne is recorded the
attendants pull the ticket off, and the
policeman in charge finds him without
ticket, turns him out and the poor
house keepers are drawing for the origi-
nal number. 1t would be hard to prove
this in an Indian court-though quanti-
ty of evidence is not wanting. Near
one of the poor houses is mango or
chard. Two ofathe missionaries while
out looking up starving people, blunder-
ed into the place, and there saw mum
bers of skeletons torn limb from limb
by jackals, most of them had died with
in the week or SO, because the brains
were still inside the skull. These peo
pie no doubt, had been in the poor
house and were not reported dead, and
are supposed to be yet alive enjoying
poor house bill of fare at Government
expense Now, the missionary who re-
ported these things to me- was not rail
ing ON the Government He said, mo
Government ever done SO much, no Gov
ernment ever had such task. Oh, it
is no easy matter to deal with such ii
famine in heather laad, with the dense
population that we find here. The mis-
sionaries in the different places are do
ing what they can, and | shall now tell
you how the missionaries, where we
were, cared for all who would come.
In the first place they did not care for
any one until their knees We're the big
gest part of the legs. They cared for all
alike, and indeed very few thought of
their caste, but in order to be careful
that none might say that the missiona-
res had used the famine to make Chris
tians of people, those who would rather
have money than food were given that
but most of them wanted food. Quite
a number of the women who were able
to cook, were given the place, and in
this way earned their living, others as
they became strong enough were put to
grinding the wheat The boys were
taught to serve the food. When we
reached Fatepu;, about 1870 We're being
fed by the missionary there, and during
the week we remained the number in
creased to almost 200.
They were fed twice a day-about
noon and about o'clock in the evening
This is the custom of the natives. All
were made to sit in circle ON the
ground, and each one received a cup full
of pulse or rice, and from one to three
native cakes. made from what we call
Graham flour. This was as much as
they would have provided for them
seves in times of plenty; many were so
starved that they would have asked for