The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-03-14
fnf0rmatiou.
Gaumi Famine.

O0umt Famine.
1t is difficult to recollect a time whcn as now,
the cry of famine has gone up from so many diff.
ferent quarters. In Algeria, the suHerings of the
Arabs have been, and continue to be, terrible,
two hundred thousand of them, it is computed.
having persisted from starvation. In parts of
England, the restitution is extreme and the
condition of large sections Of the people, always
poor, is now more than usually deplorable. Some
of the districts of France are scourged in the
same way. But it is in parts of Germany and
Eastern Europe that the misery and distress are
post intensified; at least the horrors of the sta
alton in those regions are brought more home to
the sense Of the European public East Prussia
is a marked victim of this awful visitation 1t
is hardly conceivable that under such Govern
mont as Prussia and among such people the
russians human misery and woe could attain
such height. In Western Prussia, the facts
could not, for a long time, gain belief For some
time the Government denied their existence, or
treated the reports gross exaggerations though
doubtless, 1t could not have been ignorant of
their truth-a truth which, it could not but feel
was Il reflection upon the character of the add
mnistration and even upon the national char
acter
In one district, Germbinnen, there are 1 800
little villages and 100000 destitute people Lit.
orally it may be said that nearly all these people
are at the starvation point They are classified
out aid from abroad be able TO exist through the
severe months till next harvest; laboring farm
hands, heretofore subsisted by their employers,
but now necessarily discharged and lastly, small
trades people in the villages. OF the intensity
of the suffering some idea may be formed from
the following account of intelligent ye-witnesses,
whose report appears in the Berlin correspon-
dence of the New York Times.
They the village lay before US like the for
saken dwellings If a vypsy tribe. and remind cd
us OF cemetery by their lonely and forsaken
aspect. There was not to be discovered q single
token Of the usual village life. Outside the huts
there was not shed to be found, nor less tree :;
for every piece of wood had been used for fire.
wood. The huts themselves were built of mud
and covered with straw, and seemed TO be scarce
ly fit for cattle, still less for human beings
Here and there even the roof of straw had been
partly removed To make litter for the COW,
which the proprietor has managed to keep alive
The partially covered part Of the hut is occupied
by mon and cattle. On entering abodes of this
kind one would not think it possible that men
could live there. The barking of dogs does not
welcome you, for these poor animals have been
killed and eaten long since. Neither do you
hear the Growing Of the cock, for he and his
wives are gone with the dogs No human being
is to be seen in the streets nor even at the win
dows and rs even at dinner time no chimney is
smoking, one would think the village forsaken.
On entering more than twenty such huts in one
village, we discovered that they were tcnanted
We found persons of both and all ages,
mostly skeletons: even the children bore deep
despair of stupid torpidity in their faces A few
men and women were spinning oakum, furnish
ed them by one sof the committees, by doing
which whole family may earn three or four
cents in currency day. The floor was our
mother earth, frequently soaked with water to
such degree that the barefooted children stood
in it up to their ankles, and that in holes with
out fire, at a temperature several degrees be-
low zero. As the natural heat of the inmate is
the only kind of heat, the window is carefully
closed, and the air is truly pestilential. 1t is
wonderful how men can exist in such an atmos-
phere, for it is more intolerable than that of
piggery. In some Of the places We found the poo
pie eating the soup furnished by the soup kitch.
ems, established by the outlay of 200, 900 thaers
mentioned above. We could not discover in this
Cruel trace Of fat, and poor it its distri-
button was made with extreme parsmony. Only
aged persons and children are entitled to it, and
two children receive one pint day. We saw
family consisting of seven members dilute this
stuff with hot water to make il suffice for all of
them Not even piece of bread is distributed
with this SOUP
The misery which those two gentlemen saw
affected one Of them so much that he wept like
child. They had taken money with them and
gave as literally as they could. Where they
'penta thaler they made happy family for on
that thaler they expected to live month longer
In village poor despairing mother saw a hun
cry dog with piece of carrion in its mouth.
She ran resolutely after him, and when she had
succeeding in conquering the coveted delicacy,
she fell in kind of ecstacy on her knees and
thanked God that He had sent her food for her
poor children"
In Austrian Poland and Russia, on her west
frontier the famine is said to be as appalling
as it is in East Prussia, a report which can be
easily credited. If there is such misery among
Russians, how, in districts of contiguous country
exposed in the same way the Prussian districts,
can the case be any better I? Under such a gov
ernment and among such people as the Russians
1t Is quite likely to DO much worse But of the
misery of the people in Russia, there is seldom
any record. As these people live like dumb
beasts they perish like them, and of their star
walton by thousands and all the inconceivable
sutterings which precede starvation, :he world
outside has but small chance of knowing any
thing.-St. Louis Republican,