Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-01-26
PLAGUE AND rAmIse IN INDIA.


and famine. Rev. r. S. Hume of Bonn
bay, who went to India in 1875, says:
Things have been going from bat
to worse until the situation is mos
grave and even alarming. One-thirt
of the population Of the city Is said t.
have fed and multitudes are still feav.
ing. One Of the railroads has put OF
six extra trains day, and hundreds
crowd about the municipal stations
waiting for an opportunity to get away
AT first the plague was confined t.
one ward of the city. but 1t has spread
from place to place until no section il
| free from the disease. So too al
classes, including Europeans. have
suffered from it. The published reports
| greatly understate the number OF
deaths which is probably not less thar
200 or 900 day.
1.-The native Christians have beer
marvelously protected. Not one, sc
| far as 1 know, has suffered from the
plague. The bishop of Bombay has
appointed day for special prayer tc
| be observed by all of the church OF
England congregations. and has invit-
| ed all other Christians to join with
them. This has been done none toe
| soon-Hindus. Mohammedans and
Passis have in their own ways shown
that they recognize the hand of God
in the afiiiction and know that deliver
ance must come from a higher than
any human power"
| G.. s. Eddy. one of the secretaries of
| the Students Volunteer Movement,
mingles an account of the effects of the
famine with a story of the efficiency
and demands of missionary work. His
| letter is dated from Calcutta. but re-
! fers TO previous experiences in Bonn
bay. He says:
| Leaving the steamer we step into
horse car and enter Bombay. a fine
| city Of nearly a 100000 people. The
streets are thronged with k-skinned
natives whose differing turbans and
| dress indicate their religion and caste.
Here we pass group of women beat
| ing their breasts to dirge. the city
| plague has another victim,
| From the busy street we enter the
acre of missionary compound with its
| low stone buildings. After the warmest
| welcome we ever received we go TO
| III eakfast. Just such a one as we would
have at home. AS we leave breakfast,
we notice a native woman working
! quietly in the corner of the hall. The
| few pennies she is earning keep her
| from starving these times when her
only food has been cold water. At the
| door we pass group of swarthy men
| from the famine district waiting to ask
the missionary for wark. After help
| ing them he crosses the compound to
the school About 200 of the brightest
f.a hx.f nn
| boys with their swapping bright eyes.
the girls neatly dressed in white.
While we are singing we are noting
some of the more striking faces. That
| dark. wstfuI little girl of six was
rescued from under blows. Notice
those few black faces. evidently Afri-
can. among the lighter Indian brown.
Those girls Were captured from a
SLAYER. The missionary rescued them
second time from the Mohammedans
here. who almost had them in their
clutches. That fair Indian girl, the
beauty of whose character is written
OF her face. was brought here one dag
by her heart-broken father Mem
Sahib' (Madame) he said, my wife has
just died and our law REQUIRES that /
turn my little girl of six out from
under my own roof. A man of 40 has
offered me 200 RUPEES for her, this morn
ing. | cannot give her to him. for it
will mean her death. Our priests are
waiting at my door demanding my
child for the degrading service of the
temple. They shall not have her, for l
love her. All of these years l have
watched your schoolgirls pass my
door. and l have never seen an unhap-
Ply face. Someone must love them
Oh. Mem Sahib, will you love my little
girl? 1t will cost me caste and every
thing. but I give her to YOU If you
could see the peaceful face of this
beautiful girl, and then the filthy
temple priests at the temples, waiting
for their prey like the vultures at the
Parsee burying ground. you would
never ask again if missions paid. in
sustaining girls in this Christian
boarding school. rescued from filth and
famine and vice. for S35 a year.
We next visit low caste school
for boys. Last week the best scholar
died. He had fallen from a tree and
the parents called their heather doctor,
who declared that a spirit pushed him
from the tree and must be driven out
of him. He is seized by the hair and
beaten with stick. From the fear
and pain fever sets in and the little
boy dies. This in civilized Bombay!
In the last famine, half the children
III this school ate salt so that they
could fill up with water and not re-
quire food. One little boy was dis
covered wearing a big knot tied
against his stomach to tie down the
main So he could Studvv
Rev. James l.. Barton. d. D., secre-
tary of the foreign department of the
American Board, says that while the
population of Bombay are leaving it
the missionaries remain in order to
render assistance to the stricken peo-
pie and by their presence even to re-
store confidence in and impart courage
to those who cannot get away. The
plague has approached very near to
their premises.
DIR. Leipsiger of the Kleine Journal