Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1900-08-07


The inspiration woulo certainly not be
lacking, for the villages are places Of
tragic silence. The people, driven out
by famine, took even the dogs with
them Ito the relief camps. In these
villages homes, like souls, have depart
ed, and only the mud houses, like 80
many decay ling skeletons, remain.
!, i I have Just come from q poorhouse in
charge OF q native. The native super
iintendent cares. not q twist Of his tur-
ban for the suffering of his fellow men.
I. Where pain and misery are concern
ed he Is more than q stole. He ~ sim
ply cruel, merciless, Indifferent, heart
less beast. This particular camp Is so
far from big town that cots cannot
be obtained: 30 the patients In the
poorhouse hospital lie, on the ground.
1t is all the same to the native in
charge. A new patient with lettering
limbs is led in and placed by the ma
tive attendant on the ground face to
face with body out Of which the soul
passed six or eight hours before. These
are some of the evils the missionary
makes it his business to correct. X
II These poorhouses, set apart as places
IF refuge for those who are too old or
too feeble or too young to work, are
simply huge open sores on the face Of
starving India. The poorhouse is the,
place of last resort. Many 60 In; few
come out. Oh, how the native shrinks
from the dread place! have seen 100
people in a single group enter at night
fall. At daybreak 40 Of them were
dead They waited too long-put of
betaking themselves to- the dreaded
place Of food and shelter till too late.
Just as the natives hesitate at the
last stage of starvation to go to the
poorhouse, even so do they postpone
going to the relief works when the
pangs of hunger first grip their stom-
achs. This procrastination, this re-
luctance for leaving their homes and
going ten miles to the relief station. Is
largely the result of what is called the
joint family system. 1t is the custom
among the Hindoos in the country dis
tricts for each family in its entirety to
live under one roof-the main. family
and all its branches. When famine
comes and there Is a scarcity Of food
in the house, some one must go to the
relief works. But who? II the young
man goes, there will be no one to look
after the family: If the young woman
goes, they will have no one to cook for
them; hence either. all must 90 or none
must 60, and the young couple will not
consent to- let the old folks 60 alone.
And waiting at last results in the death
OF some and the staying away Of 9th
ers, and thus eventually you have q
broken up, family and ultimately a de-
serted village. j.. 49,. y 4. IN. x
Tens of thousands never reach either
relief works or poorhouse. They stray
along the highways, Qftentimes till
death mercifully overtakes them.
Among these wanderers are thou
sands of children who have either
strayed away from their parents or
have lost them by DEATH These fam
inc waits and orphans DIR. Klopsch IS
arranging on large scale to support
not only for the present, but for three
years to, come. The half has not been
written about this worst famine Of
the century, but I think have said
enough to show that India needs all
the help the American people can give;
that even every penny counts, for ev-
cry; 2cents feeds a starving person for
a day, and the price OLA, bushel OF
corn saves human life. \ ~
I