The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-28
'The Famine in Indiu.

l
 ter was well known to many New Ha
 ven people while he was in the semina
 ry some years since:
 To the Editor of the Bombay Guardi
 am"
 Dear Sir-The outlook before the peo 1ple of this district is not reassuring
 Although prices as a whole may be
 somewhat easier than last year at thie
 time, yet the very last limited remain
 ing resources of the country are so com pletely exhausted that if grain were one-half or one third it's present price 1t would still mean hard times and high prices to the majority of the ordinary
 tradesmen, farmers or day laborers,
 simply because there is nothing left for them to purchase grain, though offered
 ever go cheaply. The two principal
 crops, harvested about August and Feb
 ruary respectively, have failed in very
 large sections of the district to return 1 even the cost of seed to the growers.
 It was with the greatest difficulty and
 not without generous charitable help that seed was sown al all, so that now this having failed to bring an average return to the farmer, he is left high and dry without anything in hand or any, thing to expect
 In isolated places, like oaees in the
 brown, dried up country, there appear
 small green spots surrounding q well
 not utterly dry, keeping alive a few
 head of cattle, and keeping farmers
 family from deserting or starving.
 These small spots might have dotted the
 country thickly had the rains not failed
 consecutively for several years back
 because there has been a very generous effort made on the part of the govern ment through loans to increase the number of wells all through this dis trict But the springs and water sup ply underground being so far reduced has resulted in dry wells, and this in turn has driven the farmers from their fields, loaded with the loan from gov ernment, the repaying of which has be- come well nigh an impoSsibility.
 In spite of the efforts to secure a good sowing, unmberless fields were left un- sown and even unprepared. This has iNlb iiOiC s hHitlS idiit lol teitlitA anu sheep, and has been in it's way some thing of an advantage to animals if not to men. There is another way in which losses amounting to considerable sums have been sustained by land own CTS. Grazing timber and fruit trees, such as mangoes, have dried down to the ground in vast numbers. This has given wanderers many opportunities to carry off fuel to sell or even large tim Der and sell 1t for house building and other needs. Many farmers have been great losers in this way. These causes, i with many others not wholly due to famine times, are beginning to turn vil- 1 lagers land farmers into "tramps.' who are often seen in groups near cactus I hedges, gathering the thorny fruit even before it is ripe, to appease the crying ! of children and their own hunger. 1 Many are seen walking over the unsown | fields now covered with parched grass and weeds, gathering scanty handfuls | of grass seeds of different kinds | These are carefully winnowed in the | breeze and taken home to pound or grind and made into thin, hard cakes n appearance and feeling, if not in aste, like mud pies. These seeds have he appearance of fine sand, and when ground in the mills make a hard, grat- ng sound. The cakes when eaten are absolutely without taste, and are diffi- .ult to distinguish from hanGsful of ,arth which may be put in the mouth to 'hew. I am sending sample to you, ound in the house of some of these peo- ,le as they were preparing it. To this Iiet may be added wild fruits and even oots and leaves of trees.
 RELIEF CAMP TERRORS.
 It is true that a few relief camps are till open in this district but the hard and want implied in work and fife at these camps keep the people way from them until the very extreme f want is reached, This perhar9 is he design, but the recent testimonies efore the famine commission in Bom- ay have made it plain that the designs nd plans of the government have been cry materially, and with disastrous esults, interfered with by unscrupu- JUS underlings, upon whom, from force circumstances, many responsibilities, nancial and others, were placed Such t0uutl HdS uOllS IlUl llttle to keep { lose who have been really in need and ,gitimately proper subjects for relief amps far from tho@e places purposely { rovided for their care. Despite this, of people in their extreme . aad are again gathering at relief amps. Many of them have come long stances. They are unacquainted at le camp. They are not paid for a eek or more; meantime who can ad- ance them loan? They have with lem no mill for grinding grain and not 'en a single earthen vessel for cooking o clothing for day or night. Nothing ,
 hand, and nothing in hope with hich to begin their camp life; but ork they must, food or no food--all in e family who can. The number of beggars to be seen anywhere is daily increasing In wn and in country, along the highway Id in the market, from door to door, Id everywhere, are wandering lonely ildren, men and women, alone and in ours, many of them next to naked Id very much reduced in body s Now what is the duty of the Chris 2 In who wishes to learn from the par le of the Good Samaritan to love his ighbor in need and to make that love . pear real to the neighbor? With linn b d resources at his command with q ed of strictest economy in his own &