Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1867-06-05
Southern Famine Relief Commission


This association has, so far, shipped 1885,
| 600 bushels of corn for distribution in North
| and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and
| Louisiana yet the want is not supplied.
Daily, appeals for food are received, but as
the funds of the Commission are exhausted,
it cannot extend the desired relief, unless
its treasury is repenished by the hberality
of the Northern people. To show to what
extent the famine prevailsin the South, the
Commission publish extracts from very
large number of letters, few OF which We
here give:
Mr.. J. J. Knox. trustworthy man, wri-
ting from South Carolina, says: Il have
not been over five miles from home, and
have seen and heard direct from three hun
dred and sixty-six persons. The most of
them are now without bread, and are actu-
ally subsisting upon corn husks, and what
ever they can get to preserve life upon, while
there are others who have one and two
bushels of corn yet without any means to
get more. Some have horse or two and
are trying to raise little crop, but have
little or nothing to live upon.
Mr.. W. R. Robertson, writes from Wins
boro, South Carolina, April 4th, thus ''We
are, indeed, in most sad and distressed
condition, and unless some speedy and sub
stantial aid is rendered, God only knows
what the sad result will be. L suppose there
are, in this district, at least one thousand
human beings, including black and white,
now needing charitable assistance They
are literally without food, money, or credit. "
Mr.. G. A Nunnally Agent for the Poor,
writes from Monroe, Walton county, Geor,,
gia, April IL : I'm behalf of the suffering
ones of this county (Walton) L now address
you. The Inferior Court appointed me
agent to supply, as far as possible, the needy
and famishing. To do this small appro-
priatlon, raised by taxation, was placed in
| my hands. Early in January | proceeded
to my task and found, to my surprise and
sorrow, that more than 600 persons, white
and colored, in this county, were actually
| suffering for bread | Immediately pur-
chased corn, and, issuing the scanty subsist-
ence of one halt bushel per month to the
head have thus supplied, poorly, for four
months, that is, to the 1st of May. The
last bushel in the commissary has been
tor bread to sustain life are turned away
empty. They must starve if help is not
speedily extended to them. -
pSil. a. H. cUuLStOil, NIltSS iTOin Selma,
Alabama, April 9th: You ask concerning
fering as is described by the newspaper
press really exists You lave probably seen
an estimate of the number of the destitute
in all the Southern States as published by
Gen. Howard. The best informed here re-
gard it as far below the truth. The amount
of suffering is certainly far beyond anything
ever before imagined in America. The
crops of the planters failed, SO that few of
them have the means of charity. Many, it
is thought, will be unable to find laborers
until next corn-time, and many plantations
will thus be uncultivated this season. L
hear it often and from such sources as to
convince ME OF the fact. "
The Commission publishes this over
whelming testimony of distress, from the
want of food, as the most impressive appeal
which they can make for additional contri-
buttons. Seventy-eightcoun in Georgia,
twenty-seven districts in South Carolina, and
not less than sixty of the counties in Ala
bama, have already received bread at the
hands of the Commission. But the people
of the same counties and districts must
have other supplies of bread, from some
quarter, to save them from distress and
starvation. In late letter received from
Gen. Howard, he says to the Commission
sit is difficult task to represent proper
ly to our friends at the North the actual
condition of the destitute portion of the
Southern States, where war, famine and
flood have succeeded each other in their
march of impoverishment and desolation
L think this is the time for the Christian
people of this country, who have the means
to do so, to show that the constancy and
fortitude so generally displayed by them
during the war were in no way inconsistent
with sentiments of Christian love- [ do
hope that your Commission will continue its
operations till you yourselves shall feel sat
isfed that the extreme and unusual suffer
ing has been relieved beyond question. Op-
portunities are now afforded to the good to
do great work generously and nobly, which
when done, WILL [ doubt not, cement us as
nation more closely in the bonds of peace
and unity than either legislative, judicial,
or executive action, though of the wisest
character, could effect.
Contributions can be sent to the 'South-
ern Famine Relief Commission" No. 81.
Broadway, New York
-
A London correspondent tells of very
old lady who went tn a shon to buv noultr,-