Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-08-25


his brothers keeper.
IT took a train northward from Bonn
bay. It started out in the night, al
most silently, anyway with the least
possible noise, as If reluctant to enter
the area Of desolation and death. There
were very few passengers-only a
plague doctor, cholera expert, an en-
gineer, a famine inspector and DR..
Louis Klopsch, then touring the strick-
en- districts in the interest Of the relief
fund raised by the Christian Herald, OF
which he Is owner. For why should
any, save those who are compelled, go
out into that vast waste?
Twenty-Five miles from Bombay
vegetation grew sparse. OF course, a
few weeds grittily clung to life, cactus
thrived pluckily, and some Of the trees
still had leaves enough for shade pur-
poses. Fifty miles up, however, vege-
tation ceased. From the carriage win
dows, eyes searched the miles rainly
for single green speck. We had pass
ed the last weed.
"At small station we came to a
dead stop and I began uttering Amer
lean blue words against the slowness
Of train service in the East, when
perceived a horrible, hideous group rep
resenting starvation. The anathemas
I was still venting stopped in my
throat, and like flsh-benes, almost
choked me. The group included a
young mother and her babe, and long,
young man lay on the ground. The
woman stood by him, the child resting
a-straddle on her thigh-bones. They
typifed family life In a foodless year.
They might have been the originals in
the pictures I had seen In the papers
before leaving New York. They had
become skeletons while yet alive. They
might have risen from the grave.
Brown skin covered their bones. like
leather stretched over a frame. The
young wOman's shoulder blade had
burst through the skin. I could have
filled the basin-like stomach Of the
long man on the ground and in It
washed my hands. He arose and
slapped his hollow stomach with one
hand and, with the other hand, smote
mis- brow The woman pointed to the
naked mite on her thighbone. They
implored in weak, far-away voices,
'Salam, Sahib. You are our father and
cur mother. Give US food, and God
will bless you with many children
"And from that time saw similar
groups, and scenes, heard similar pitt
side.
Human skulls and bones dotted the
sun-baked fields, telling terrible tales.
The whole country as far as the eye
could see was level as prairie, barren
ss desert and dust-colored. Even the
train we rode in was Of the same color
and our khaki suits approximated it as
closely as woman can match ribbons.
Rivers, streams, lakes, pools had disap-
peared, leaving beds, like the ields,
parched wastes Of earth. Water, ex-
IN ha ipt In W.T.
wells, had disappeared entirely.
About every ten or fifteen miles
there was a relief camp or a poor
house. At the camp people were given
work at four cents maximum wages
a day, hardly enough at best for them
to live one. In the poor-houses, people
who were too weak to work. delicate
women and little children, were cared
for stintedly at government expense.
II described these. camps and poor
houses fully in my letters from India,
describing in detail the spectacle Of
over six millions Of people eating
the two meals a day supplied by the
government. There are other and
with these camps, however. For in
stance, the starving people have to
walk from ten to fifty miles to get to a
relief camp. They do not allow people
who live in a certain village for in
stance, to enter the camp adjoining
that village. If they are willing to
walk number Of miles to get to re-
lief, they are pretty certain to be gen.
uine sufferers, and We thus get a min
imum Of impostors.
I'm case of any wrong-doing, how
ever, no corporal punishment is inflict-
ed upon the culprits. If such culprits
are we'll enough, they are dismissed.
How do the workers entertain them
the evenings? They sleep, principally.
On Sundays the men go to the bazaar
and buy grain for their maintenance
during the coming week, and the wo-
mn Scour the desert in search Of fire
wood. There is minimum task at
which work may stop. But the mini
mum wage Is aways given, whether the
task is finished or not. At some camps,
the workers are divided into gangs Of
30 and that gang must have '30-man
task finished by nightfall. If the task
is finished, they all get the maximum
wage. If not finished, they all get the
minimum wage. And herein Is one re,
spect in which the Famine Code could
be improved. For, in a gang Of 80
men, there are often one, or two, or
three, who are lazy, who shirk, who al
low the others to do most of the work.
Therefore, when the 'thirty-man task
is not finished, the entire gang must
suffer the penalty and be content with
minimum wage, all because Of the sloth
of a few. Would not the government
do better to pay in grain at cost price,
instead Of money. No, because If grain
were thus supplied, the government
would enter into competition with the
bunniahs, and hence would close up all
the private grain dealers shops. Is
not the government completely rein-
bursed for it's famine expense, you ask,
by improvements in which camp work
results? No-by no means, no-for 1t
must be remembered that most Of such
work is performed by unskilled labor
and has often to be done all over again
when the famine Is passed. The main
object of the government is to give
employment. If the work thus secured
is satisfactory, so much the better.
"It seems incredible that so many
millions of people can be starving at
one time, that so many thousands are
dying, that such distress exists among
the living. But the scenes I have des-
cribed are Just as true Of the stricken
district this moment, as they were
when I sailed from Bombay a few
weeks ago. The famine will last
throughout this year, and it's effects
will be felt for more than a year to
come.
IT stopped overnight at Godhra,
where cholera was moving people
down as in battle. The collector, the
only white man in the district, met me
at the station. To his bungalow, two