The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-13
THE FAMINE IN INDIA,
.FEATURES OF THE DISTRESS THAT
 TT IS SOUGHT TO .4LLETIATE.

From the Current Publication "o"r
 Orphan Children In India" a Copy of
 Which Is Sent to Thts Paper With a
 Reuuest for the Publication in Behalf
 of inc Sufferers, the Following Is
 Taken.
 For some time we have been receiv- iue information through both private and public sources of the probability or another famine in India. From the Bombay Guardian of, September Ed, we give our readers as follows: Week py week the distress in certain districts mas grown more acute and hopes or ram more slight while relief works, that last resource to staVe off dissolution have been sought by thousands Crops are reported in some sections as perish ed or stunted, or in a Wlthered condl- ton. But there are two factors in the situation that call for special remark: Firstly, is the water famine, actual or threatened in many districts, and this it must remembered at the close of the rainy season, when wells and tanks should be brimming full. Unless rain falls in these areas, or unless the winter rains are much heavier than usual the condition of the country through the coming hot season may be more terrl- ble than in the recent years of food scarcity. A water famine will also materially interfere with relief works, unless the deepening of wells should prove successful in increasing the sup ply of life-giving fluid, otherwise relief works will have to be located where water may be found and migration of the population of entire districts, II ever it is accomplished, will be very serious undertaking.
 A second factor in the situation IS the enfeebled resources of the people both physical and material, to success fully put through one season of dis tress when thousands succumbed, is no proof of ability to pull through an- other such season, so that the poorer classes, whose condition is always pre- carious, have nothing too look forward to but lingering, suffering life termin- ating with death by thirst and hunger
 Another most distressing feature of the present scarcity in the shortness of fodder for cattle. No water, no fod- der. No water for farming operations when the time comes round for the following years rains to commence This two-fold scarcity of food and water will affect both man and beast in an intenser degree than food famine when water was plentiful. It is not our wish to paint the picture with shadows dark CT than the reality, but when wide spread and dire distress becomes to be generally admitted as almost inevi- table, it is none too soon for warning to be given"
 EXTRACT FROM LETTERS.
 Since the foregoing article was given to the printer, we have this day (Oct- ober 9, received news from India up to Sept. 9, in which the previous advices are confirmed. Thousands have already left their homes willing to work for food that will keep them. Under date of September 5 MT. M. B. Fuller writes to the Bombay Guardian, "The time for living naked skeletons has not yet come, and if it can possibly be avoided it aught not to be allowed to come. In Ahmedbad there are groups of people begging who have forsaken their vil- lages, and have nothing to buy one days food with. It will only be a few { days or weeks before some of these will be reduced, to skeletons, and some will die.
 Herds of cattle are roaming over the barren fields, and hundreds have al- ready died, and thousands must die soon unless rain comes sufficient to start the grass for them. But any amount of rain would not avert the | present great distress. Even if grain was cheap, the people have nothing to buy with and no work 10 earn money. |
 Under date of September 4, J. Lam pard of Balaghat, c. F., in the same | paper says, "Once again the dread ! specter, famine, is lowering over India | and once again this (with some other | districts of the central provinces) prom | ises to be one of the worst affected | areas
 Beyond doubt, we are entering upon another famine which here locally at least, must be more severe than the last. grain can only be got with | difficulty, at double and treble the rates of few weeks ago. The servant clas- ses have had little or no work for the past two months, and the existing dis IISSS udlly -illCISdSGS III EtNelILy anu extent"
 OVER 5000 CHRISTIANS IN ACUTE
 FAMINE.
 That famine exists in India has al- pready been announced in the columns of the Bombay Guardian. But there are few persons outside of the district affected who realize how serious the present situation is, or what it involv- as. A Bombay gentleman who is well Informed said to the writer yesterday that while he knew of the failure of the rains in Gujerat and understood the real famine to be certain, he had ex- pected it to be some months before the situation would become serious. The real conditions therefore need to be made known and the present crisis 
 At a Quarterly Conference of the Iodhra Circuit, held in the village of xasar on the 20th inst, at which twen- y-six preachers were present, repre- | ;enting Christian communities In forty i've villages, I made careful inquiries The substance of the replies is contained Il the folloging answer to the question IS to whether the people were yet act ially suffering from want of ood said If they eat this evening they will eat | gain in the evening day after tO-n1Or- |