The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-04
One Town Had 5000 Deaths in Four
Days, and Another Had $500
i'm the Same Period.
MORE MISSIONARIES KILLED
CHURCH OF ENGLAND WORKERS
THE LATEST VICTIMS In CHINA.
Strike Situation in ChaIOn Results in
One Death and Many Injuries
Interdicted Meeting Held.

BOMBAY, June 3.-Louis Klopsch, of
New York, publisher of the Christian Her
ald who arrived here May IA and started
at once on a tour of the famine stricken
districts, has returned, after travelling
through the most sorely smitten portions
of the Bombay presidency. including
Gujerat and Barolda. He makes the fol-
| Lowing statement regarding his observa
tions:
Everywhere | met the most shocking
and revolving scenes. The famine camps
have been swept by cholera and smallpox.
| Fugtives scattering in all directions and
| stricken In flight, were found dying In the
| fields and roadside bitches. The numbers
at one relief station were increasing at the
rate of ten thousand a day. At Godhera
| there were three thousand deaths from
| cholera within four days, and at Dohad
| $500 in the same period. The hospital death
| rate at Godhera and Dohad was 80 per
| cent.
| The condition of the stricken simply beg
| gars description. Air and water were i'm
pregnated with an intolerable stencil OF
/ corpses. At Ahmedabad the death rate in
| the poorhouse was 10 per cent. Every day
I saw new patients placed face to face with
| corpses. In every fourth cot there was
| corpse. The thermometer read 115 in the
shade. Millions Of flies hovered around the
| uncleansed dysentery patients.
81 visited the smallpox and cholera wards
at viragam.' All the patients were lying on
the ground. there being no cots. Otherwise
their condition was fair.
"I can fully verify the reports that vul-
lures, dogs and jackals are devouring the
| dead. Dogs have been seen running about
with childrens limbs in their jaws.
'.The government is doing its best. but
the native officials are hopelessly and heart
Iessly inefficient. Between the famine,
plague and cholera, the condition Of Bonn
bay presidency is now worse than 1t has
| been at any previous period in the nine
teenth century. Whole families have been
blotted out. The spirit of the people is
| broken, and there may be something still
worse to come when the monsoon breaks"
Horrors Cannot BE Pictured.
NEW YORK. June 3.-The Rev. Edward
s. Hume missionary OF the American
| board, who has seen twenty-five years
service in Bombay, arrived last week direct
from India. Mr.. Hume has been connected
with the Bombay branch of the India
| Famine Charitable Relief Fund. and was
| secretary of the Interdenominational Mis-
sionary Relief Committee. Speaking be-
fore the executive committee of the Com
mittee of One Hundred on Indian Famine
| Relief. Mr.. Hume said: II have read the
accounts of the famine published in the
American papers; have seen the pictures;
have seen conditions in famine dis
tricts and can assure you that the actual
state of affairs is much more terrible than
printed or pictured. And the worst OF 1t
Is. that even II the June rains are entirely
favorable, no relief can be expected till
the crop is gathered in October.
This distress is not equal over the famine
area. At its worst centers, as in Gujarat
and Rajputana, conditions are dreadful
beyond all description. Before leaving In
dia 1 visited the government relief works
at Ahmedabad and Ghodra. in Gujarat,
and saw there awful sights that photo
graphs are making familiar to people here.
The emaciated lay around the relief camps.
Many were dying each day. for they were
too far gone for food to save them. The
dead and the dying lay side by side, the
dead being gathered daily from the living.
and buried.
Magnificent work of relief is being car
ride on by the British government and by
private agencies. The government now has
on relief about 6.Ooo,OOO persons. a scheme
of charity vaster than was ever before
conceived let alone carried out.
Distress is greatest in the native states.
where. on account of their independence.
British control is least. and whose native
rulers are more indifferent to human life.
There are 6ss native states. ranging In size
from that of an American county to nearly
the area of Italy. More than five hundred
are in the famine district. and about half
of these are in the Bombay presidency.
Knowing Of the better conditions prevail
ing in territories under full control OF the
| government of India multitudes enter
There from the native states and this adds
to the problem the government has 20 deal
with. Gujarat and Rajputana suffer most.
partly because they are composed largely
OF native states. In the former, before I
left, more than 100000 cattle had
perished out of a total of 100000.
Even under the most favorable climatic
conditions vast areas must remain untitled
for want of work cattle. The government
is dealing largely with this question in
preparing for the Importation of cattle and
by providing light hand plows. Till rains
come and grass springs up the question of
fodder for beasts is more diricult than that
of grain for human sustenance. Corn must
! be furnished so that the fields may be
sown.
I'm the native states. particularly. are
| the missionaries. both American and Euro
! pean. doing heroic work. There are hun
! dreds OF brave. devoted men and women
'rescuers In the field. The extent Of their