The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-15

States perishing for want of food The
carnage of the Boer war, which has made
thousands Shudder, Is q summer day
diversion compared to 1t. For every vic
tim in South Africa there are 1900 in
India, and while death has come quickly
to Boer and Briton, 1t comes slowly and
with torture to the patient Hindoo, like
the sea tide rising about a man who can
by no possibility escape The only thing
that lessons the horror of it Is that the
Hindoos are accustomed to famine Even
in good times one person in four of the
population is hungry, and the half
starved ones are said to be as many as
100000. Between the years 1860 and 1879
there were no less than sixteen famlnes,
and 12oOO.O0e Of people died from them.
A famine in India means that only O
few millions of half-starved people are
obliged to do with little or no food at all.
The actual pain which they endure is not
great; because they are beyond the stage
of pain; but they become pitiably weak,
and the little flesh upon their bones
shrinks away until they look like veri-
table skeletons. The ribs and collar
bones are expressed upon the skin with
frighrful distinctness, the arm and leg
joints seem enormous in contrast with
the thin shanks of bone between them,
and the emaciated faces assume an ex-
preston of abysmal despair in sad con-
trast to the air of intelligence, and even
refinement, which they sometimes bear.
In this condition there is nothing for
them to do but to sit calmly down and
wait for death.
Few famines have been so destructive
Of human life as has this one in the
country which extends north, south and
east from Bombay for many miles. So
ii 49, "A :; hot
for years, it is said, the country will
suffer for lack of population.
In some parts Of the country the peo-
pie had lived on pepul leaves and the
oil cake usually fed to cattle. which is
ruinous to the digestive organs; and
when they returned to diet Of cereals
after the government relief work began
the food disagreed with them and they
died by hundreds. Many people dropped
dead while trying to reach the relief
work, and children were constantly pick
ed up beside their dead mothers.
To the failure of the crops was added
a scarcity of water and cattle died like
flies, leaving those who depended upon
their milk still further impoverished. In
the midst Of all this suffering and misery
the native princes and mobiles, possessed
in many cases Of colossal fortune, have
remained for the most part quite indif-
ferent, and have proceeded with their
personal extravaganza and wastefulness
without giving any assistance to their
wretched compatriots, while in England
so completely have the people been en-
crossed with the Boer war that COM
paratively little attention has been paid
to the suffering people of India
So far almost the only relief has come
from the government of India, which is
now spending 100000 a day on public
works, thus giving 2 cents per diem to
100000 people, On this sum from 49,
100000 to 15.0OO,000 are able to subsist.
But many people are too weak or sick
to reach the works, and these are left
to die. To amelioTate their condition
the Christian Herald. of New York, has
already raised by subscriptions over Sea,-