Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-01
Trip Through the Stricken Districts
of India,
FERTILE FIELDS INSTEAD OF MISERY
Conditions in Towns and Villages
Not So Happy.
MORE CONTRIBUTIONS ASKED


BOMBAY India. October Is, 1900.
I have just returned from a tour through
the famine districts. in order to acqualnt
myself with present conditions A great
and wonderful change has come over the
country. Where but two months ago not a
blade of greer was to be seen, where every
leaf had been stripped from the trees 10
keep the cattle alive. where human skeie-
tons walked YEARLY in search OF 1000,
whore the highways were almost lined with
the diving and the dead. there now wave
masnifcent fields of grain, and leaiiess
trees are throwing out their fresh new
leaves making the whole country beautnui
and filling every heart with cheer FOR the
casual observer. as he speeds along III the
train II is almost impossible to believe
that devastation and heartrendlng horrors
filled the land that now looks like the
Garden of Eden. But India has fertile
soil th. rains have in general been sufh-
Gent and the very fact that the land mas
lain fallow during the terrible year mas
made it yield all the more readily 10 the
influence of hfegiving rain ana the warm
sun Many fields ripe for the harvest,
the sickle is busy in others. man must
rub his eyes and think twice before ne can
make himself believe the tales OF horror
he hears from those VINO nave p"sseu
through these sad times.
But once leave the railway and go into
the towns and villages and it is but TOO eVi-
dent that the famine is not yet over AT
Jalna | saw a sad-looking woman Ill the
street Two hours af;erward l saw her
living dead in the same spot. and the pass
ers-by took no more notice of her than
they would of a dead dog. so accustomed
have they become to such sights
AT Prantii | went out with missionary
and collie ted five little skeleton chlldreh
one of whom at least ii did not look pos
sihIe To keep long alive. In the streets OF
Ahmedabad fifty To sixty famishlng peopie
are still picked up daily and drawn IN
hand carts to the poorhouse, TO be 1eu uht,l
strength returns and they can be sent pack
- their villages | watched these cart
loads of emaciated human beings ana my
heart sickened at the sight
The ghastliest of famine photosr a;nks
cannot produce the sensation with Whlch
those everyday sights still torture the
mind In the famine orphanages theTe are
still to be seen scores of skeleton children,
under careful nursing in hope that tneit
lives can be saved. but every day the siieEt
bearers carry off the dead. And as you ilft
the coverlet that protects them from tne
swarm of foul flies you still may see nan
A dozen diving. Neither food nor medicine
can repair the damage that starvation and
the ravenous eating of indigestible stuff
have caused to their digestive organs. In
the famine poorhouses there are still gath
cred a few hundred of wretched human be-
ings More. too. you can still walk among
the dying and the dead.
The Famine Practically Over.
But where there are scores and hundreds
today there were thousands three months
ago The famine is practically over. The
wretchedness to be seen is the legacy that
has been left behind. That legacy will not
soon cease to be a burden on the benevo-
lent for it includes not only those who
have become hopeless wrecks. but great
numbers of little children whom only the
most careful and loving nursing has saved
alive, and who have now no protectors but
those who saved them. The present esti-
mate is that at least $1,000 such children
are in the hands of missionaries, as the
wards of Christian America and England.
These 5000 mean a very great financial
burden, and missionaries will be crushed
by it unless those who have saved them
alive will also keep them alive until they
have been trained to Self-Support.
More Money Wanted.
But the financial problem can easily be
solved if those who have given once TO the
relief of the famine will but give again to
meet the responsibility of caring for the
legacy of these 5000 helpless children
Plans for their industrial training al
ready taking very definite shape. The
American Marathi Mission. connected with
the American board. with their nearly 5000
famine children. have matured plans and
ready to commence the moment the
philanthropic in America are willing to in
trust to them the necessary capital. Other
missions facing the same problem and
all bearing the responsibility of the
the trust that the benevolent of America
Will not let those be now turned adrift
whom they saved from death.
JUSTIN E. ABBOTT