Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1879 — A Hell on Earth. [ARTICLE]

A Hell on Earth.

The following is an extract from the letter of a missionary’s wife, and vividly describes the terrific heat which prevails in India during the summer; “I remember seeing a fantastic lining by Gustave Dore, representing Tophet. The fire burst forth from the mouths of huge caverns, and everything had a molten and red-hot appearance. India at present is very much in this condition. The hot winds blow uninterruptedly from four to eight hours daily as from a fiery furnace, The fiercely blazing sun scorches and burns everything in the most uncompromising manner. The earth has an Oveny appearance, and is cracked open in large fissures with the intense heat, and scorches the feet even through thicksoled boots. The miserable trees look unhappy and hang their poor wilted leaflets. Thereis not a spear of grass visible. Folks out of doors drag their weary lengths along as though each were carrying a ball and chain. They seem to have no ambition on earth but to drop down and die quietly in some shady nook. The roads-are some inches deep in dust and the air is filled with it so that breathing is difficult and painful. There are no vegetables nor any fruits.; Wells and tanks and cisterns are low and the water muddy and unhealthy. Indoors the furniture burns the body through the clothing. The sun glares into every crack and crevice so persistently that blinds and shades and thick curtains

can hardly darken a room sufficiently. Every outside door is closed tightly, from early morning until after sundown, to keep out the heat. The air becomes stagnant and suffocating. v A little relief is obtainable from the punkah, a large fan suspended from the ceiling and worked by a servant from the outside. The punkah swings day and night. The man whose business it is to keep it swinging sometimes falls asleep, and then the air seems to press upon one at the rate of a thousand pounds to the square inch. Breathing is next to impossibly. At night there is still less comfort to be had. The Ded is hotter than the body. We sprinkle the bed first and then jump in, but it is dry and hot again in almost no time. We sprinkle the floor and furniture and do everything imaginable to cool the sleeping room, but ml uselessly. It is like trying to sleep in a well heated oven. Although we may long to renounce the flesh and sit in our bones, still we know that both flesh and clothes are absolutely necessary in order to protect the body from the hot air. How superlatively happy must fhose be who live in a cold climate. What would I not give for a breath of cool air from the Ardiondacks, for a plunge into the surf at Newport, or for a walk on the strand, or for a distant glimpse of the sea?”