180 TWO TEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



pared immediately and taken to him, but the dying bigot refused 

 to touch it and expired the next hour. 



Instead of allowing all those to starve, who, on account of caste 

 prejudices refused to come to the rehef camp for food, the ever- 

 patient, long-suffering government officials caused money to be dis- 

 tributed among them, in sums sufficient to purchase daily food. To 

 the missionaries fell the important and arduous work of ascertain- 

 ing which were the deserving ones, and distributing the funds 

 among them. At the Animallai bungalow I had the pleasure of 

 meeting the Eev. Mr. Hutchison and lady, English missionaries 

 from Coimbatore, who had for months been engaged in going from 

 village to village with their native Christian helpers, and distrib- 

 uting the "money doles" among those whom they found to be de- 

 ser-ving of help. If I remember rightly, he distributed about four 

 hundred rupees every day while he was in Animallai. How I envied 

 him the satisfaction he undoubtedly felt in handing out hard cash 

 to those hungry wretches. 



It would be impossible to say too much in praise of the energy 

 and activity displayed by the Madras Government in fighting for 

 the lives of the millions under its charge. I do not see how a 

 government could have done more. Month after month a perfect 

 torrent of grain was poured into Madras from seaward, and for 

 months the entire resources of the Madras railway systems were 

 strained to the utmost to carry it into the famine districts fast 

 enough to keep the people from dying by thousands. 



But, in spite of all efforts to afford relief, the mortality during 

 the famine was very great. Many died from sheer starvation, and 

 more still from diseases engendered by the long scarcity of food 

 and water. The official report places the number of deaths from 

 the famine in the Madras Presidency and Mysore, at 1,400,000, but 

 the most careful reckoning made by private individuals, who could 

 have no reason to mislead, shows that in reality the number oi 

 deaths was over five million. It is highly probable that only a mod- 

 erate proportion of the deaths that really occurred were officially 

 recorded and reported. The total cost of the famine to the Govern- 

 ment was about thirteen million pounds sterling. England contri-. 

 buted, by the donations of private individuals, £800,000 ($3,840,- 

 000). The churches of the United States have spent millions on 

 missionary Avork in India, but so far as I can asceriain, the Great 

 Republic contributed only $800 for the relief of the starving peo- 

 ple in Madras. Verily, this is a case of " be ye warmed and fed ; " 



