The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-05-29
FAMINE and DISEASE
Claim Hundreds of Thousands
of Victims.
Human Wolves Prey on DefenceleSS
Girls.
A Strong Plea for Help for India's
Hopeless POpulation-Misery, Desti-
tuition and suffering Beyond the
Power Of Words to Describe-Death
Welcome Visitor,

tuition and suffering Beyond the
Power Of Words to Describe-Death
a Welcome Visitor.
A little over four month ago heard
of the distress OF the people in Central
India and at once my heart went out
to them in sympathy. The human
common sense said, "You had better
stop here, and Whatsoever thy hand
fndeth to do, do it, here. You have
no means and no strength to do what
you wish. Your powers are limited
and you will not be held responsible
for not doing anything to help those
famished people. Indeed, what can a
weak woman do to help the dying
thousands? Besides, the government
Of India and other benevolent people
are doing what they can to relieve the
poor and needy. There is nothing for
you to do" / tried to quiet my con-
science in this manner, but louder and
louder spoke the voice of God from
within my heart "Remember the
days of DID," Thou shalt remember
that thou vast bondsman in the
land of Egypt and the Lord thy God
redeemed thee"
Ramabai had herself experienced
the extremity Of distress in the fam
inc of 1877, which miserably destroyed
both her parents, and her only sister,
and almost herself.
| could no longer keep still, and
about month ago, started off for the
Cen raj Provinces. A missionary lady,
Mrs. Drynan of Rajputana, accom-
panied me part of the way, to gather
some children for mission orphanages
of Poona. We went to Sohagpur first,
and began the work at once. We found
out from the good people there that
we could not get the orphan children
without the permission of the govern
ment. So our first business was to go
and see the physician in charge of the
hospital, and the tahsildar in charge
of the poor house. We went to the
hospital too early, about $40 in the
morning; the doctor was not there,
but right before that hospital were
walking three little famished skele-
ton-like forms, and this first sight of
their distress l shall never forget.
The three children, we found out,
were of the Chamar caste, their father
had died some time ago, and the
mother died only the day before. The
eldest was girl of about seven, the
second boy of five, and the youngest
a nf IN
girl was protecting herself from the
intense cold with a covering of rags,
and the two boys had nothing on their
bodies. Their wrinkled faces and the
CHASTITY death-like expression told the
story of the terrible suffering they
were in. All of them were crying for
food. And as we had no food with
us, we could give nothing to them.
The youngest had sore eyes and could
scarcely open them. The poor babe
was suffering from dysentery, SO much
so that his intestines had been ex-
posed and were almost falling out, and
yet he was dragging his miserable body
through the streets in search of food.
To add to his misery, he fell down
and hurt his back, frightened at the
sound Of the bullock cart, and the
loud call of the driver. The blood
flowed freely from the injured part,
which was already so sore and painful,
but there was no one to care for him.
He was crying, but tears were not to
be seen in his eyes. The children
were right before the hospital, but no
one showed any sign of pity. AS we
could do nothing, we had to harden
our hearts and turn our steps toward
the poor house, where we expected to
find the tahsildar. We did not get
the children, though we tried our best.
1t took us such long time to go and
see the officer in charge of the poor
house, and by the time we returned,
they had gone somewhere, and no one
could tell us where they were. went
again to that place, made thorough
search all over the town and round
about it, but did not find them. Per-
haps they tainted on their way to the
town in quest of food and fell down in
some ditch on the roadside and died
there of hunger.
The poor house we saw was no house
at all. 1t was grove in the outskirts
of the town. Groups of famished
people were seen sitting all round the
grove. Some were lying down in heaps,
or sitting or lying in ashes on the dir
ty ground. Some had rags to cover
their bodies, and some had none.
There were old and young men, and
women and children, most of them i'll,
too weak to move about, and many
suffering from leprosy and other I'M
mentionable diseases. Bad men, i'm
moral women, pure young girls, inno-
cent children and old people, good,
bad and indifferent, were freely mix
ing and conversing with each other.
They slept in the open air or under the
trees at night, and ate the scanty and
coarse food provided by the govern
ment. The food was nothing but dry
flour and some salt.
Many of the so-called poor houses
are open grounds with a sort of fence
all round them. Some poor houses
are nothing but sheds temporarily
erected to shelter the people. The
miserable men, women and children,
who find shelter in these places, are
baked in the sun in the day and freeze
in cold at night. In some places these
poor houses or grounds are divided
with thin fencing, where men and
women are placed separately. But
this arrangement is not much of a
protection to the women. The devil
is at work, even in these poor houses
and relief camps, and they are not fit
places for young women and girls to
be in. The European and native Off
GERS employed to look after the inter-
ests Of the dying thousands are hard
at work, and try to do as much as they
can. But it is impossible for them
to find out what goes on behind their
backs; they are obliged to leave the
work in the hands of the Mukadams,
who can do whatever they like; they
use their sticks and tongues freely.
They pull and push the working cool
ies-even women. Young men can be
seen everywhere talking to girls and
women under the pretence Of doing
the Mukadam's work.
This is no good sign at all. Wicked
men and women are everywhere on
the lookout for young women and
girls; they entice them by offering
sweetmeats and other kind of food,
clothing, and fair promises to take
them to nice places and make them
happy. So hundreds of girls, young
widows and deserted wives are way
laid as they 60 the relief camps and
poor houses in search Of food and work,
and taken away before they place
themselves In the custody OF the gov