Year: 1875

! TIc cid Canni5aIs starving Forty Thou
People Alive.


Further information from FIJI con-


veys still darkey accounts of the plague
which has recently passed over the new


colony. \ resident of long standing,


writing to a Victorian contemporary,
says: The death rate Is not yet made


up, but the probability is that forty
thousand Fiiians died during the four
months plague The native population
Of FIJI is now about one-third only of
what it was when | landed here about
| twenty-five years ago" The accounts
given of the magnitude of the disaster
are less narrowing than those of the sut-
ferings of the victims. q Very few
died of the measles, the majority dying
of subsequent disease in the form of dys-
entery, congestion Of the lungs, etc.


Want of nOurishment or starvation car
ried off thousands" We are told that
all work was suspended for two months.


You could pass through whole towns
without meeting any one in the streets,
which were soon completely covered
with grass. Entering a house you would
find men, women and children all lying
down indiscriminately, some just at
tackled, some still in agony, and others
dying. Some who were strong enough
TO attempt suicide, and not always I'M
successfully" We are further told that
"as the scOUrge became more permanent
four or five were buried together in one
grave, and generally without religious
service. In some cases the dead were
buried in carthen floors of the houses,
in others Just outside the house. The
burials were hurried, and the probability
is that some were buried alive. In many
instances the husband, wife and children
all died. In one village all the women
died, and in another all the men," 1t is
interesting to read of the different mental
effects produced by the torture of the
disease. 1t is not surprising to find that
some made fruitless appeals to their
ancient god. Some inland tribes, who
had only recently embraced Christianity,
considered that the disease was conveyed
to their religious teachers, and they dis
missed them and then abandoned their
new religion. Among these some were
for killing the teachers, but their wiser
cOunsels prevailed. 1t is said that one
tribe buried alive one teachers wife and
child, whose husband and father had
died of the plague, to stop Infection
But while some in their distress fell
back on their former superstitions, the
greater number are said to have borne
their calamity with foTtitude, and to
have suffered and died under the intlu
ence of Christianity.-SjdeRy Herald.


MAGNrF1CENT Custom Writing of
the dresses worn by Mile. Persons as
the Baroness de Cambri, in perform
anCe Of " Frou-Frou" in Paris, Lucy
Hooper says: In the second act she had on
a costumewhich must have madea serious
hole in a two-thousand-franc note 1t
was marine blue velvet and silk. The
bodice was of velvet cut loose and square,
and the upper part filled in with silk to
make it high up in the neck; the sleeves
were also ofsilk The front Of the dress
was of silk, with broad band of velvet
around the bottom. The back Of the
skirt, which fell in long train, was of
velvet, drawn back in the centre, and
confined with large bow of gold-cOlOred
satin. The top of the bodice, the edge Of
the skirt, and the sleeves were bordered
with a broad band of embroidery in
golden yellow floss silk. The bonnet was
of the toque shape, of blue silk and vel
vet, with Il single gold-yellow feather.
In the third act she wore a long trailing
skirt of black velvet, finished with a
wide gathered founce, with a long, loose
sacque-shaped cloak of velvet with wide
sleeves falling to the knee, and widened
with a fur and richly embroidered with
let. The bonnet was of black velvet,
edged with fur and adorned with single
glistening green bird.