Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1900-03-29
India's Awful Famine.

lndia's Awful Famine.
India has been called a land Of
dreams. 1t is now a land Of horrors,
as her people fight with plague and
famine. It is no nightmare, but a
terrible reality. Thousands of once
strong menare now skin and bones, with
a terrible gnawing of hunger within.
1t is a pitiable sight to see tall, manly
men so terribly reduced as to be
hardly able to walk, yet somehow
making their way somewhere to find
food. More pitiabIe are ths women
who, with a keen sense of modesty,are
fighting womaniully with their fast
rottening rags, and their children
emaciated, fretful, crying, Or too weak
to cry, adding to their terrible per-
sonal suffering from days ofinsuHicient
food. The bodies, finding no nourish-
ment, turn into those little skeletons
that one can hold in ones hand.
Thousands of families like these,
having exhausted every possible re-
source, sold and pawned the last arti-
Gle of their possession, having lived
somehow for a time on coarsest Of
wild fruits, or roots, or weeds-any-
thing to satisfy that awful craving
that comes from days Of starvation
tramp many a long, weary mile to
find some government or other relief
There is the scorchiug sun by day
unusually scorching this year-the
pangs of thirst as well as hunger, for
every stream is dry and when the
sun goes down, out in the open fields,
with nothing TO cover them, they
shiver all through the chilly night.
Other missionaries describe finding
abandoned children in dying condi-
ton, whom they have been able to
save, or failed to save because too far
gone. The familiar famine scenes are
witnessed of famishing people follow
ing grain carts and struggling among
themselves for the stray kernels that
fall by the way. Abandoned children
are found subsisting on clods Of earth
and every possible thing that has
nourishment in it, filling up with wa
ter to drown the cravings of hunger,
and producing those painful mon
strosities-bodies swollen out Of all
proportion, but with stick Of legs and
arms, and head that is but skin
covered skull. And the babies grow
weaker in their hungry cry, or,
silenced by opium, rapidly turn to
pitiable little skeletons that move with
emotion the strongest hearts that look
upon them. What wonder that des
pairing mother, unable to endure the
sight, and tempted by her own fam
ishing body, sells her little one for a
few handsfuls of grain and when the
famine Is over beats her breast in an
guish for her little one, gone she
knows not where? ?
The vast camps are being filed.
The anxiety and concern of govern
ment and officials are greatly on the
strain. All departments OF the ad-
ministration, native and otherwise are
called upon to exercise the wisest
caution and the utmost vigilance to
see that none worthy are neglected
and that those not actually reduced
to suffering take not the place Of the
needy. And it should be borne in
mind that the prospect must grow
gloomier for months to come, up to
at least the beginning Of the rains in
the month of June next. The gravity
of the situation needs to be recognized.
The Viceroy personally and the gov
ernment of Isdia are giving their un-
divided attention to this.
Contributions for the relief fund
should be sent to Treasurer F. H.
Wiggin, care Of American Beard of
Foreign Missions, IA Beacon street,
Boston, who cables at short intervals
the amount available, thereby afford
ing immediate relief to the sufferers
in India.-ReU. Justin E.. Abbott. N
Lesze's Weekly.