The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-01-27
|0EATH STALKS
THROUGH INDIA.
PLAGUE and Famine Destroying
People by the Thousands,
hooks LIKE BATTLEFIELDS


Are no Graves. Scenes of
DesOlatiOn.
lillian Ralph, the New York Journals
ordon correspondent, sends that paper
a lengthy description of the horrors of
4 the scourge of plague and famine that
now RACES over 50 many vast areas of
British India He says:
There has been plague before, and
HI re has been famine before, but never
have the two conformity ragged with such
yruIence as now. Epidemics like this
shake the British grip on India. A
I whole nation of many millions of men is
moving uneasily in agitation and alarm
like the mutJering of the sea before the
stOrL
The disease crept into India from the
pulliens of Hong Kong, where it had
Faged furiously for weeks.
Now Bombay is veritaOle city of the
Bead and the dying. Never from the
tart have the authorities been capable
b coping with the spread of the epidem-
L.
sUPERsTITI0Ns OF NATIVES.
The natives refused to permit tie iso-
alton of invalids. They inaugurated
kiots in the streets and stormed the hos
pitals and we're fired on by the police.
Eyery new health ordinance clashed with
sOme religious custom or outraged some
cherished native observance. Everybody
ELO could fled from the town. Hun
1redS of thousands stampeded. The
kailway stations were packed, the steam
Ars were loaded down with flying human
eeings, and they seized every available
Yehicle. Those who were unable to
pave remained and died.
official statistics admit that some
800 are dead already out of the 3,700
persons who were seized with the plague,
put these figures do not nearly represent
The true state of affairs The death
Fate is now about 200 daily, and most of
Rhe victims are swept away in few
pOuTS from the time of their seizure.
Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the
Daily Mail, who, by the strange irony of
ate, went to Bombay for his health, but
Found the plague raging on his arrival
theTe, sent his journal the following
graphic sketch of the situation:
The panic is spreading. Every day
sntenSities the horrors of the situation,
Pnd the strongest nerves are breaking
gown under the terrible strain. The
streets are crowded with funerals, and
Fherever one turns one is brought face
FIth the awful proofs of the death and
ueSolatlon that are reigning in this most
Unhappy city.
ENORMOUS DEATH RATE.
Inc daily average of deaths from the
Riague Is ITO, and for the past week the
quo per thousand cases has been 4O2
aeaths' These figures are moro eloquent
pan words in setting forth the appalling
Spndltlon of things here,
The projected fine arts BUILDING has
ser postponed for six months The
oaEnlng grounds here are crowded nirht
GA day. and the pyres are constantly
L WIN The bodies of the dead The
s"ers of Silence, where tho ho5,. ~ -
e - t are lald out on an iron grating
~ TORN TO pieces by the vultures. nre.
! ~ +S an awful spectacle. A huge fl ok
0So enoullSh birds now hovers over
f. walls Of the towers The vn,,,,noa
now twice or thrice as numerous as
were !" week ago, yet these birds
9J'seo 10 repletion with their uncan-
A tremendous number 81 dood 49,.
'p, a. oeen found in the leading business
o 5. leIe' They feast on the bodies of
r ,5 and becoming iufo ,ted, die of
oina n"''Ve Journals here are expert
Lr.n ans sre't difficulty in their printing
h. @n 1a Nearly all their compost,
pton ana machine men refuse to work.and
So 'neSe Journals will be forced
l. o, aSpend publication. The schools
H. t ~ because parents refuse to Al.
W. 'nelr children to attend.
H'gn's IRE rendered hideous by