El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-06-11
FRANK q. CARPENTERS LETTER

in 1880, the average increase being IS
percels every year.
Girls Not Wanted.
Indeed, the condition of women in In
dia is such that no parent wants to
bring a daughter into the world. He
knows she will be slave as wife and
an outcast as a widow. For this reason
infanticide was common a few wears
ago, and for the same reason it is still
practiced here and there away from the
eyes of the police. / hear it whispered
that girl babies are strangled and that
poison is sometimes laid on their moth
ers breasts so that when they suck they
eat no more. The poisoning of them
with opium was common in the past,
and it IS mentioned by old writers.
About 90 or 80 years ago the govern
ment passed an iRfanticide act, and at
! that time investigated conditions. 1t
was found that in certain localities hun
dreds of children were annually carried
off by wolves and. Strange to say, the
wolves took only girls. In the year 1870
300 girl babies were stolen by wolves
from the city Of Amritsar. Before that
the wells of some parts of India were
polluted by the drowning of infants and
typhoid was common thereby.
One of the worst things that can hap
pen to these baby brides IS to be mar
ried TO old men. This is not uncommon,
family often being glad to make a
union with a higher caste, even if the
husband be gray. In such cases widow
hood is almost sure to come early, and
in India to be widowed is he'll.
India's Baby Widows.
Of all the women on earth there is
w mi 81
of the widow Of India The moment her
husband dies she becomes an outcast,
her touch is pollution, and she Is the
slave of the family. She must take off
her good clothing and dress in coarse
cottons. Her head must be shaved and
she cannot battle as the rest of the fam
lily do. She must not sleep On bed,
but on the bare floor with nothing but
a piece Of mating between her and the
bricks. She cannot eat with the family
and must have but one meal day and
that Of the coarseSt food. She must
fast every two weeks with special fasts
now and then, the idea being that the
more she is tormented the greater will
be the happiness of her husband in
heaven. She must not allow her shadow
to fall upon the food or drink of the
rest Of the family, and all told she is
worse than leper- She will bring bad
luck to any one who meets her. and no
man Will continue a journey If ne pass
es a widow on starting.
Such is her condition at home and
she cannot get away She IS ostracised
everywhere. She cannot hire out as
servant, for no one will take her. II
she is good looking she may be employ
ed at the temples; but as a rule her life
is the most horrid slavery. This is
added to by the belief OF her husbands
mother and sisters that in prosecuting
her they are helping the dead. They do
not dare to pity her, for the supersti-
tfon is that those who pity a widow
are likely soon to be widows themselves.
At the same time she is dependent upon
the rest of the family. Women cannot
inherit property among the Hindoos,
and all that is left by the husband goes
to the children.
What a fatG is this for the woman
full grown or the old woman who as
widow has but few years TO live 1t
is still more terrible for the babies and
children who become widows before
they know what marriage means. Their
whole lives are continuous torture, and,
unsinning, they are punished until
death.
Twenty-Six Million Slaves
And how many humaR beings do you
think are now undergoing such tor
mcntS? can give you the Figures
from the census of British India, as
they were gathered last year. They
put the number of widows at 26, 900, 600,
a number equal to almost one-half of
our whole female population. India has
one widow for her every six women and
girls, and millions of these widows
have many years yet to live. AS to
the baby widows, there are $4,000 Of
five years and under. and more than
100000 of between five and ten years.
There are 275,O0O young girls who
range between ten and fifteen years OF
age undergoing the slavery of widow
hood, a worse slavery than has ever
been imposed upon any nation, white
or black, in any other part of the
world.
You have heard how in the past the
widows threw themselves on the funeral
pyres of their husbands and burned
themselves to ath. In 1904 the Brit
'@h s''SFnms count and Its