The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-07-28
Hin HwfMI Picture.
che Indian famine


deaths.
nm l have been looking over this colossal
thing, as one might say, inch by inch.
Early this morning l left the train at
If a station called Godhra and was jOlted
over the wretched road in two wheel
ed cart to a place where they were
ef- burning the dead.
Never shall l see a charnel house
more dreadful. In great basin among
We the hills lay a heap of ashes, still
white, the ashes of a thousand human
bodies. ere was a crema tory where as
to in 2 thousand others in the famine
area, incarceration was conducted on a
mighty scale. Tons of wood were piled
ST up in readiness.
Other low castles were bringing still
more dreadful fuel. And presently when
h, all was ready a match was applied to
a pile of wood here and a pile of wood
there, and the funeral pyres of a score
X more of people. who had come to death
by famine or cholera, were started. In
the center of each burning wood pile
v were the bodies of the departed. To
l. the mind. it was an AWFUL holocaust.
but the eye simply saw the number of
bGntlres. 1t is the way the Hindus
# throughout India dispose of their dead
j. and in time of famine and cholera it
is an especially good and sensible way.
took the train next TO town call
o ed DOhan. An American missionary
= /
mode of conveyance, a twowheeled
cart pulled by a horse and called
= tonga
All through that two mile ride
through the scOrching heat, the fierce |
glare of the sun, the binding driving |
clouds of dust the air was laden with |
the horrible odor of the dead. We |
could scent the poor house, as stays /
scent danger while afar off This fam |
{ inc poor house was a thing of yellow
mating, an Enclosure big enough to
hold more than a thousand people, di-
vided into dormitories for sleeping.
eating tents. resting tents and hospital
wards 1t was built as in the middle
of a desert. Not a green thing was
anywhere TO be seen. All the people
not in the hospital slept on the ground
in the dirt and dust OF the thousand
inmates, half were women and chill
dren, about 200 old men and the re
n-ainder. about 20 per cent of all, were
in the hospital wards.
This poor house, like all the poor
! houses in the famine districts, was
part of the government relief opera
! tons, 1t must be understood that at
normal times there are no poor houses
! in India. For at normal times people
! can beg enough to keep body and soul
I together. When the famine came, how {
ever, poor houses had to be established
to shelter the aged and decrepid and
=
! work at the relief camps. So every vii
lage and town in the famine area now
has its poor houses. A few are in n
charge of Englishmen, the majority Y
are in the care Of natives. Where the [
white man has taken up his poor house {
burden all is well, the camp is well b
managed, sanitary measures are OBJ c
served and the sick are cared for. \
Not so, the poor houses in charge of Re
natives. Here all is miSmanagement p
absolute, Indifference to the suffering B
and the needs of inmates. This Door Z
house at Dobad was in charge of ma W
tive and it was the worst place of the 81
kind l have yet seen in India.
ALL THE HORRORS OF THE "a
FAMINE.
all the misery and suffering resulting
from starvation and neglect seemed to q,
here The sick and the well fr
the weak and the strong were huddled al
all together. The people had come there III
to die. Many of them could be saved
but the native in charge took no note or
Of this. He simply let them die while co
he remained comfortably seated in his of
own tent with a man to fan him. vi
The native hospital assistant was
StTutting around with an umbrella oven
his head looking upon his patients
from afar. A government sanitary in r,
spector who happened to be present in
his official capacity, upbraided the hos
lital assistant for his laziness and neg
ect The man closed his umbrella and Ct
made a showing of busting among di'
he PROSTATE forms under the mating Ju
'oof. Like all native officials, soon !
Is our backs were turned. he probably S5l
'esumed his self-imoosed and usual =
luty of keeping cool and avoiding his S44
leaving all the work to an is-
lorant underling. an
The eroaciated forms living under the du
General gathering shed looked exactly to
the pictures you have seen of ia Pc
nine sufferers. Some of these poor peo- 81;
lie crawled to our feet on hands and !
nees and placing their heads in the an
ust, moaned their suoDlcations: 20 DE
ny king. help us. and it viii be WI Oil
18th thee: for we are very hungry" AM
'thers called US kings of all kings and roe
of the poor. adding that we ply
ere their fathers and mothers and Ge
'Ould surely give them food. Even lit L
e children begged thus.
In the hospital wards the scenes
light have represented
Ii THE FORMS OF SUFFERING
DEPICTED BY DANTE A
the inferno. Here was father and "a
IN dying side by side. with never a
and to lift a cup of water to their fe
cred lips. Here were children passing
way, alone, even unseen, lying under
heao Of ra"s.
Mothers addressed us, saving: Give
food and the gods viii give the
any children" Every now and then
,arers would come with a stretcher
mating and carry off vet one more
,dy to the burning place. Such is
,Or house in the famine district and a
ch is the management when it is in
arge of a native. The government
ould like to have put every relief
mp and every poor house in charge of
lglish engineers and English doctors.
1t not enough Englishmen for the -
rpose can be found in all India. Mo-
While | was there sikened in body
d mind with the appalling scenes IN
d indignant at the heartless misman- IW
ement. DR. Louis Klopsch, who has III
me here from New York to study the
mine and observe government relief
erationS was walking with the chief Do
icial of the town through all the
Irds taking notes and directing the
ergies Of his photographer. He had
st come from Godhra. where 10000 DA
ople had died from cholera within 4
Rod of four days. A stampede had
lowed and $4,000 relief workers had n
uttered in every direction, carrying ~
tn them the seeds Of the dread dis
Sc.
he mortality in this district is not
lfined to human beings. OF 100000
I'D of cattle living at the beginning
the famine,
ORE THAN 1.OO0. 600 HAVE DIED mi
m the lack of water and fodder. ~
nee the immediate future of the I'M
opy farmer who may survive the
sent ordeal is very dark and dis
raging. For without cattle how
they till the soil. and unless they WAL
' how can thew reap?