DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24890#0065
( 56 )
The beginning of the year 1897 witnessed a steady
development of the adverse influences already at work and
of the measures taken to counteract them. The home
resources of the people continued to grow more exhausted as
each week passed, and as they failed, the numbers dependent
on State relief continuously increased. On all sides there
were signs that the pressure of scarcity and high prices was
growing more intense and showing itself in the condition of
the people. They poured upon the relief works in fresh
crowds daily, they filled the poorhouses, and they swelled the
lists of those gratuitously relieved at their own homes. A
few figures will illustrate the rapid growth of the numbers
who were thrown on Government for their support.
January opened with 410,238 people, workers and
their dependants, on relief works, while 86,641 were in
receipt of gratuitous relief in poorhouses or at their own
homes. Week by week the numbers rose by 100,000 or
150,000 or even more. The average daily increment may be
placed at 18,000. By the end of January the total on relief
works had reached over a million. During February the
recruitment went on at the rate of over 14,000 daily. When
the accounts were made up on the 27th February, the total
number on relief works was found to be 1,381,337, while
315,385 persons were in receipt of gratuitous relief in poor-
houses or at their homes : the total was thus 1,696,722,
That day was the flood mark of the famine.
The constant increase in the number of dependants
showed that whole families were turning to the relief works
for their support. In the worst tracts many villages began
to present a half-deserted appearance in spite of the large
expansion of village relief which tied many to their homes.
The poorhouse population rose steadily as the exhaus-
tion of private charity drove the wandering beggars of the
provinces, the waifs and strays of the bazars and highways
to, all unwillingly, fall back on this form of relief. By the
end of January, when the provincial total had reached nearly
60,000, this field became exhausted and thenceforth the
numbers began to slowly decline. In pursuance of the policy
of Government those inmates who became capable of labour
were constantly drafted off to the relief works, and those
unfit for labour who had any fixed home were sent to their
villages and placed on the free lists there. Death, too, helped
to deplete their numbers. They included many suffering
from chronic maladies and many who were picked up in the
last stage of emaciation by the Relief Officers and police
patrols. The reluctance of the vagrant classes to accept a
settled residence and a subsistence diet led many to refrain
from entering the poorhouse till starvation had induced
The beginning of the year 1897 witnessed a steady
development of the adverse influences already at work and
of the measures taken to counteract them. The home
resources of the people continued to grow more exhausted as
each week passed, and as they failed, the numbers dependent
on State relief continuously increased. On all sides there
were signs that the pressure of scarcity and high prices was
growing more intense and showing itself in the condition of
the people. They poured upon the relief works in fresh
crowds daily, they filled the poorhouses, and they swelled the
lists of those gratuitously relieved at their own homes. A
few figures will illustrate the rapid growth of the numbers
who were thrown on Government for their support.
January opened with 410,238 people, workers and
their dependants, on relief works, while 86,641 were in
receipt of gratuitous relief in poorhouses or at their own
homes. Week by week the numbers rose by 100,000 or
150,000 or even more. The average daily increment may be
placed at 18,000. By the end of January the total on relief
works had reached over a million. During February the
recruitment went on at the rate of over 14,000 daily. When
the accounts were made up on the 27th February, the total
number on relief works was found to be 1,381,337, while
315,385 persons were in receipt of gratuitous relief in poor-
houses or at their homes : the total was thus 1,696,722,
That day was the flood mark of the famine.
The constant increase in the number of dependants
showed that whole families were turning to the relief works
for their support. In the worst tracts many villages began
to present a half-deserted appearance in spite of the large
expansion of village relief which tied many to their homes.
The poorhouse population rose steadily as the exhaus-
tion of private charity drove the wandering beggars of the
provinces, the waifs and strays of the bazars and highways
to, all unwillingly, fall back on this form of relief. By the
end of January, when the provincial total had reached nearly
60,000, this field became exhausted and thenceforth the
numbers began to slowly decline. In pursuance of the policy
of Government those inmates who became capable of labour
were constantly drafted off to the relief works, and those
unfit for labour who had any fixed home were sent to their
villages and placed on the free lists there. Death, too, helped
to deplete their numbers. They included many suffering
from chronic maladies and many who were picked up in the
last stage of emaciation by the Relief Officers and police
patrols. The reluctance of the vagrant classes to accept a
settled residence and a subsistence diet led many to refrain
from entering the poorhouse till starvation had induced