The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-11

millions pay to the great taxmaster Of
all, the British Indian government, for
the privilege of a haIf-starved life, and
the protection of their mud huts and rice
fields
If these villagers ever heard or thought
of the imperial power, the decorated hier.
archy of officials the red army of occupa.
ton, and other matters that fill the Indian
histories, it would all seem to them queer
satire on their pinched lives and chronic
poverty. which they might smile over a
little bitterly or a little sadly as they went
to their fields in the gray of the morning.
But they see nothing of all this pomp,
know nothing of it, do not even catch
glimpses of it in their dreams; they thinA
the whole world is their own horizon,
with its palm trees and blue wreaths OF
mist, out of which the jackas come at
evening, and chill fevers, too, when the
gods are spiteful. A hard world enough,
they find it to live in, even when all goes
well; most of them are hungry their whole
lives long, in spite of all this tillage of
their narrow fields.
But sometimes things go not we'll at all,
but very i'll. For the white rainclouds Of
July and August. that should bring abun-
dance of water, and fill all the tanks to
the brim, may drift by without breaking
through the hot summer days; and when
the time comes to water the ricefelds.
there is no water to fill the channels, only
little string of muddy pools, where the
villagers battle, and then drink the water
they have bathed in; for such is the cus-
tom they have received from their fathers,
and they from theirs, since the world was
young Then there is a gradual birth Of
dread and growing hopelessness among
the ricefields, and pinched faces grow hag-
gard in the red-thatched huts, or around
the stem of the big tree that is the VIII
iagc meeting place. They are not very
loud and articulate i'm their fear, but rath-
er submissive and resigned; so poor in hope
all their lives, they can see the last frag-
ment of 1t vanish without any passion Of
resentment. Indeed, these poor folk have
stood on the threshold of direct penury
for so many ages that they are shrunken
and bent, and can find no force in their
breasts 20 cry out aloud when they suffer.
They take death submissively, as they
have taken life, and their bodies half
burned, or not burned at all, if wood IS
too costly, are tossed into the rivers, to
be stranded on some mudbank, to the
JOY of the vultures. And that is the end.
They have lived much like this since the
world was young, these brown tillers os
the brown fields. Indian history has Moth
ing to say about them; they have not
helped to make 1t, and know nothing CT
1t beyond the occasional and erradI
changing of their tax-gatherers, with
nearer or less near approach to the FAM
Inc limit; for the rest, they are half
starved all the time. For tens of thon1
sands of years now, and very likely ion
scores Of thousands, these dusky earthf
born toilers have lived there in VILLAGES
such as have been pictured, their who'd
souls filed with the thought of their rico
helds, the summer harvest, the great VIM
ter harvest, the rains and the failure Of
the rains: that is the unchanging back
ground of the picture, on which depends
all else; their pale love-making, theiN
brown wives and babies, their little sins
their timid thefts and quarrels, where
both combatants bear all their wounds OF
their backs, and half of these painted
black and blue to make more trouble In
the law courts.
With these countless millions of with
cred, dried-up folk a brown thousand ~
them to every square mile of rice field
and steady growth of numbers year by
year, watching for the summer rain
storms, ana starving If these fail; with a
problem such as this no government car
do anything Of the slightest rea IN
value. They cannot compel the rains "a
break; they cannot thin the thousands on +
each square mile or stretch the mile &c
two; they cannot dole out food TO hun,
dred millions for year, even II a few
handfuls viii satisfy each. The life OF
these villagers, absolutely governed byai
the climate, the area of cultivable land,
the laws of population, will go on quito
unchanged till the world grows old, as its
has gone on since the earth was young7n
just trembling on the verge OF want from
generation TO generation, yet finding
gray pleasure In life-just enough 70 kecIfs
life In lean dark bodies All that the mos al
conscientious OF governments, philantho- 4
pists, helpers and counsellors Of other
lands can do Is but the fine dust In thea
balance, not affecting at all the unchanged
ing life Of these 100000 OO OF passive peas
ants who are now, and shall be ever as
they have been since the beginning. IA
face Of these realities, civilization, WITH
all It's boasts. Is so much petty futllty
-Mmo. kraicwska, the first female phy-l
slcian In Dolna-Tuzla. IN Bosnia. said M
"a recent lecture that she has in course