Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-09-29


The DFOuth and DilfFeas In Kansas.
The benevolent Thsddens Hyatt has been
On 3 tour through Kansas to learn for him
self the present situation Of that interesting
part Of our country. he has written ior the
press a-Iong letter descriptive Of the horrors
there felt and dreaded, owing to the ppprece-
ideHted 'afOuth. oi the past seasohl He states
that the desolation of Kansas cannot be told
the half is not yet known. The people have
no wheat to eat, none 70 cow, and % ROney
to buy It with. Kansas has no seed corn or
the coming spring; and in ell hsEsb0ndsrs has
not old and new corn enough to sustain her
present population beyond the month OIL
March next. The crops generally this year
are dead failure" Potatoes, and, other
vegetables as well as prairie grass haYe, been
cut off in many sections, and they who in
Kansas have. bread for themselves have nome
for their neighbors ba
z The people of Kansas have been pioneers
in settling the wilderness and establishing
free institutions in the bro,d gateway to the
Southeastern slope Of the Rocky Mountains,
and their sad case, growing out Of causes
which no human prudence or foresight could
avert gives them peculiar claims on the ae-
tive sym pathies Of their countrymen in the
older Sna Ob0uhfTaly blessed States. Mr,
Hyatt says; a1
Let the country hear me. At this mortal
hour, as | sit here penning these lines, people
are starving Whole families have literally
nothing to eat. Other families are subsisting
wholly on mere bread and water, and corn
bread at that and death from starvation has
actually occurred The hunger fend sits en-
throned in Kansas. asked the census -taker,
what Of Kansas y And he replied: Now lis
ten to what the census-taker, a man who has
visited every cabin in the country, says: a
man who for two whole days travel had for
his horse only parched grass, and for himself
nothing. In Walker Township, Anderson
county, he found family with nothing to
eat their, drink was tha milk of one COW
this was all their subsistence. In Ozark
Township, on single section, he found Eve
families living on corn meal and water An
other family of four living lWhollyCo Oh the
milk of their COW; not q erdInb of bread in
the houss-nothing whatever to eat. And
he found one death from starvation. The
neighbors bore sorrowlul testimony to the
| fact, accounting for it on the ground that they
were all circumstanced 80 nearly alike-all
50 near starvation, that they did not realize
the poor woman's actual danger until she had
got beyond the reach of aid, and beyond the
need Of it. .-.--.-..... -t
An that can leave are fleeing from the
country. Mr.. H. represents the emigrants
from Kansas during the month of August at
the rate of two hundred day. But there
are some that cannot leave. They have Hei-
theT money, nor food, nor strength to migrate.-
Mr. Hyatt oontinaes:O 81 q IL d
asked the preacher of the gospel, what Of
Kansas Hearken to what the preacher
says: "I have preached three months along
the Neosho Valley; the people on the circuit
are responsible for my support This year
they are all poor; their crops have failed. l
had not the heart to ask for my salary. All
I have received for my twelve weeks. labor is
this two bits" And the preacher took from
his pocket and exhibited in his hands exactly
twenty-five cents
The preacher talked of leaving, but his
poor parishoners wept They told him to
stay. That though they had no money and
no food scarcely, yet if he would stay they
would hunt buffalo meat for him, and pay
him with that. The preacher consented.
DR.. Samuel Aver was enquired ofas to the
causes Ofhis calamity, Among other things,
he replies: ~
In the west portion of the county, where
the lands were last year ordered to be sold,
the destitution is peculiarly great, because
the people have no money and they have
no money because they s0sTs last gear forced
to pay for their LGndsi Many of the poor set
tiers had no alternative but to mortgage their
claims to raise the money demanded OF them
by the Government. The drouth has come,
and PAY day has con1ei These poor people
unable to subsist, will be driven from their
claims, and lose all Had we a Homestead
bill, this state of things would not exist.
Mr.. Hyatt closes
Friends ofhumanity, wait not O, wait not,
I beseach you, until the opened heavens shall
food the land with rains that shall add sick
ness to poverty. For then what shall these
poor people do Delay not your work of
mercy until drifting SHOWS and drifting sleet
shall intensity suffering already too great to
be borne, For the love of God, pray you
postpone not your philanthropy an hour. Be-
lieve me there is no time to spare. Let not
the yailing winds of March be the requiem of
the dead who shall have perished for want of
your timely aid. --