Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-04
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FAMINE AND PESTTLENCE SWEEP
THOUSANDS AWAY.
Louis KIopsch and REV. Hume Tell Of
Their Experiences In the
Blightedi Country.

A dispatch from Bombay dated June
says: Louis Klopsch of New York. who ar
rived here May IA. and stated 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 following statement regard
ing his observatioIs:
Everywhere 1 met the most shocking
and revo.ting scenes. The famine camps
have been swept by cholera and smallpox.
Fugitives. 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 10000 per day.
AT Godhra there were 5000 deaths from
cholera within four days, and at Dohad
$500 in the same period The hospital death
rate at Godhra and Dohad was 30 per cent.
THE condition of the stricken simply
beggars description. Air and water were
1mpreSnated with an intolerab1e stencil OF
corpses. AT Ahmedabad the death rate in
the poorhouse was 10 per cent. Every day
l saw new patients placed face to face with
corpseS. In every fourth cot there was a
corpse.
The thermometer read 115 in the shade.
Millions of flies lowered around the I'M
cleansed dysentery patients
Il visited the smallpox and cholera wards
at Viragam. All the patients were lying
on the ground. there being no cots. Other
wise their condition was fair.
Il can fully verify the reports that vul-
lures, dogs and JackalS are devourlng the
dead. Dogs have been seen running about
with children's limbs in their jaws.
THE government is doing it's best, but
the native officials are hopeessly and heart
lesSly inefficient. Between the famine, the
plague and the cholera the condition of the
Bombay presidency is now worse than it
has been at any previous period in the nine
teenth century. Whole families have been
blotted out; the spirit of the people is brOk-
en-. and there may be something still worse
to come when the monsoon breaks"
Rev. Edward S. Hume a missionary of
the American board. who has seen twenty
five years of service in Bombay. arrived in
New York city last week direct from India.
Mr.. Hume has been connected with the
Bombay branch of the India famine char
liable relief fund, and was secretary OF
the interdenominational missionary relief
committee. Speaking before the executive
dred on India famine relief. Mr.. Hume
said:
II have read the accounts of the famine
published in the American papers; l have
seen the pictures: l have seen the condt-
ticns in the famine districts. and l can
assure you that the actual state of affairs
is much more terrible than printed or pic
tured. And the worst of it is that, even II
relief can be expected until the crop is
gathered in October.
1.-The distress is not equal over the fam
inc area. At its worst centers, as in GU
jarat and Rajputana. conditions are dread
full beyond all description. Before leaving
India l visited the government relief works;
at Ahmedabad and Ghorda, in Guiarat, and
saw those awful sights that photographs
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 burned. Magnificent work of relief is
being carried on by the British govern
ment and by private agencies. The govern
ment has now on relief about six millions of
SOUS a scheme of charity vaster than ever
before conceived. let alone carried out.
Distress is greater 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 800 are in the
famine district, and about half of these are
| in the Bombay presidency Knowing of the
| better conditions prevailing in territories
under full control of the government OF
Irdia, multitudes flock there from the ma
tive states, and thus add to the problem
| the government has to deal with. Gujarat
and Rajputana suffer most partly because
| they are composed largely of native states
\ In the former, before l left, more than
| 1,0O0,0O0 cattle had persisted out of total
| of .380,0oO.
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 the beasts is more difficult than
| that of grain for humans. Seed corn must
hn firm had ca no folds ha
I'm the native states particularly are the
| missionaries both American and European
doing heroic work. There are hundreds Of
brave. devoted men and women rcscuers in
| the field. The extent of their work de-
pei ds wholly on the means furnished
-.