Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-06-11
a Pen Picture of the Famine In IndIa.

From letter t. the st. James Gazette London
This morning we numbered the dead
a pail of heat hung over the land so sti-
fling and choking that it made the brain
throh in agony. We went down a long.
topheavy. high-housed lane Every door
was locked, every easement fastened The
Inhabitants were al dead or had flown
-Four coolies came slithering their thin
shanks through the dust and shouting
MAKE way make way 80 On their shout
ders rested a pole and from ii swung an
ambulance. There was another victim.
Round the corner We found a mass of
smouldering rubbish in the roadway, emit
ting horrible. sickeuing fumes. Three
Hindu, dragged bedding and mating from
r!ckety shanty, threw il upon the fire,
and famed it to flame. They were de-
stroying all the goods of a dead family.
Down the street, house after house bore
the big red circle Oh its portals telling that
death had been hungry there We knock
ed a. one door There was no answer.
We knocked again a wretched old man.
narrow chested, with his bony shoulders
bent and protruding, rs fingers long and
skinny, his face .wrinkled. his eyes shifty
with fright, came and looked through the
lattice. "Open 49, "Why. sahibs: why.
sahibs, should open9" You have sick
ness here The old man trembled. "No,
sahibs, there is no sickness here" open :"
We said. With palsied hands he opened
the door. Through a dark passage we
struggled to a darker room. There were
four women and three men-poor, worn,
physically wretched beings. Are all well
here? "Oh, yes, sahibs We are all well.
mo one has had Sickness mo. sahibs,
none We looked at the cGouching crowd
the alert-eyed, suspicious, lying Bindus
and glanced al the huddled women. "All
are well?' Yes, sahibs" We were
about to turn, when one OF us exclaimed.
'What is this2' The head-coyering was
pulled from a woman. She was a shrivel-
led old creature. And she was dead, cold
dead-dead of the plague That is how
the Shadow spreads over India
The yigOr OF the plague is appalling.
When ii first came it attacked the Hindus.
"Ah,' said the Mohammedans this is a
Hindu scourge; We have nothing TO fear"
But death has cast its dull sinister eye on
the Mohammedans and they die like flies.
Allah is angry with us; We have done
wrong; il is a visitation?' they say.
Some months ago the statue of Queen
Victoria in Bombay was disigured "Sa-
A''f ooIA a UNIV . ~ ONtN. ldIIt-UOueQ,
rusty-voiced Mohammedan to me-'sahib.
l understand all. The English govern
ment is displeased They think we ma
tiyes did the indignity. And they punish
US; they are poisoning all our people All,
sahib, you smile. Allah is great, and this
is the truth. When our people fall sick
your doctors come to them. They give
them poison, Then they die. Sahib, have
not seen? do l not know? All the peo-
pie in India are TO be killed that way"
So the ravaging infection sweeps on its
pestllential course 1t is hid from the au-
thorities; whole families succumb. When
case is discovered no medicine will be taken.
1T is poison; you want to poison me, :" is
the cry. Fighting against the widest ia
naticism, struggling bravely, but often
downheartedly, beseeching, urging, coerc-
ing-that is the work of the authorities
The Mohammedans have a verse from the
Koran blessed by priest. They tie it in
a leather case upon their arms. If that
will not induce Allah to keep OFF the visi-
tation, what will?