Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-08-17
India's Starving Millions.

NOi"AiAS'u' "iu thS poPuidIioil Vi llllS
territory is over &C, 900, 900. The number
IN extreme destitution is nearly 25,O0O,-
600, of whom 100000 are actually
starving at this time.
The suffering of the millions in the
famine districts is beyond the power of
mortal pen to describe-terrible in its
agony ana sickening in its helplessness.
The plains are strewn with countless
bones and the rivers are poisoned with
decomposing bodies of both cattle and
men. One traveller tells of finding no
less than twenty skulls in a walk of
few minutes.
Every tick of the clock hundreds of
men, women and children sink for the
last time on the esand. Here they breathe
out their lives under the sky that hangs
like molten bowl above them, and out
of which the birds drop, lifeless, onto
the dry earth that reflects the fierce heat
of the sun.
Where these wretched beings fall they
lie, for the fiercest animals have been
tanned with intense suffering The fire
of the eye has given place to dumb
prayer, and in many instances they
stretch their ragged thin bodies near
those of their late enemies and perish
with them.
The process of starvation is gradual
one, and its pangs are most excruciat-
ing. In some instances mothers and
fathers have eaten their children. and
in many cases they have deserted them.
Left alone they roam in the bare plains,
gnawing sticks and bits of earth until
too weak to walk. Then they crawlon
tuntil, finally, they stop in their agony
and wait for death.
There is no form of death that leaves
its victim in more fearful snaps than
death from starvation. Gradually the
flesh dries down until it seems glued to
the bones like a thin covering. The ewes
grow CLASSY and protrude like balls. The
stomach, at first sunken, distends as it
goes day after day without any susten-
ance whatever, and the hair and eye
brows drop out.
AS one dwells on the horrors of this
famine it is well to bear in mind that
this is not plague, but starvation.
Money, no matter how literally nor how
wisely spent, cannot always stop a
plague, but bread can always stop starya-
ton, and money can always buy bread.
There is no lack of food in India. All
authorities agree to this The lack is of
money to buy food.
One OF the most distressing features of
| the famine is the condition of the native
women. In many of the native states
women are going about without one
thread of clothing, and the moral ruin
of these districts is assured. 1t is also a
terrible fact that starving girls are every
where sought after by designing persons
to be used for immoral purposes.
The story of this terrible famine can
not be pictured in its horrors. The
thousands of dead and the moaning
struggling, heaps of dying defy descrip-
tion but the condition of today is but
the beginning, for while the rain now
falling in the famine district is full of
promise for the future, it brings no little
immediate distress. The six millions of
people at relief camps, unprotected by
suitable clothing and shelter are in a
pitiable condition. Those leaving the
camps, so as to be back at their fields,
return to ruined homes.
The immense amout of work that is
being done i'll relief is most effective and
praiseworthy, and it is one hopeful evil
dence that there yet remain in this sell
fish world few unselfish and devoted
souls.
In the famine districts there are hun
dreds of both American and European
missionaries assisted in doing their
splendid work by thousands of honest
natives. All denominations of religion
are represented in this work, for the fine
distinctions OF creed are useless in a fight
for life, either physical or spiritual.
Often i'll II single day tens of thousands
who flock in from the parched and
barren districts are fed and cared for.
Orphans are especially sought out and
thelttle moaning skeletons are gathered
by the hundred into relief camps, where
they are clothed and fed. Meanwhile,
the Government of India has organized
relief on scale unapproached in the
history of the world. The number of
sufferers officially aided is not less than
six millions. Even that aid is wholly
insufficient for the awful need
What, then, shall we do? What will
you do? Together and at once let us