The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-14

India is such that no parent wants
to bring a daughter into the world. He
knows she Will be a slave as a wife
and an Outcast as a widow. For this
a 1nfanticide was commo a few
years ago. and for the same reason
it is still practiced here and there
away from h eyes Of the police. |
near 1t whispered that girl babies
are strangled and that poison is some
times laid on their mothers breasts
SO that when they suck they eat no
more. The poisoning Of them with
it is mentioned by old writer's. About
twenty or thirty years ago the gov
eminent passed an infanticide act,
and at that time investigated condi-
tons. 1t was found that in certain
localities hundreds Of children We're
annually carried off by wolves and.
strange to say, the wolves took only
girls. In the year 1870 three hun
dred 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 in
fants and typhoid was common there
by.
One of the worst things hat can
happen to thlse baby brides is to ,
married to Old men. This is not I'M
common, a family often being glad to
make a union with a higher caste.
even # the husband be gray. In
such cases widowhood is almost sure
to come early, and in India to be wild
owed is hell
ndia's BABY Widows.
Of all the women OF earth there is
zone whose misery is SO great as that
of the widow of India. The mo-
ment her husband dies she becomes
an outcast, her touch is pollution, and
she is the slave of the family. h
q 800
dress in coarse cottons. Her head
must be shaved and she cannot battle
as the rest of the family do. She
must not sleep on a 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 a day and
that of the courSeSt 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
allow her shade to fall upon the
food or drink of the rest of the fam
lily, and all old she is wore than a
leper. She will bring bad luck to any
one who meets her, and no man will
continue a journey if he passes a
widow on starting.
Such is her condition at home and
she Cduflot SCI away. oIIS ID OStEd-
cised everywhere. She cannot hire
out as a want for no one will take
her. If she is good looking she may
be employed at the temples, but as a
ru!e 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 superstition 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 prop
erty among the Hindoos, and all that
is left by the husband goes to the
What a fate is this for the woman
full grown or the old woman who as
a widow has but d few years to live.
1t is more terrible still for the ba bies
and children who become widow be-
they know what marriage means.
whole ives are continuous tor
ture, and, ~unsinning, they are punish I
until death.
T~Nenty-SiX Million Slaves.
And how many human beings do
YOU think are now und ergoing such
torments? / can give you the figures