The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1869-05-14
Awful Famine in the North Of Europe.


The letters of Iren@us from Finland
have spoken of the prospects of famine in
the countries neaf the Baltic Sea- Ac-
counts now reach us that are truly appall
ing, and the evident helpessness of the
case renders it doubly distressing. We
were told in Finland that the crops had
failed for several successive years, that the
people in the interior were eking out their
lives by consuming everything from which
any support could be drawn, even the
bark of trees, and that another failure of
crops would be the utter ruin of thousands
We find in the World a statement that
the worse fears are made real, and dire
famine, with all its horrors, is now reign
ing there. The same report comes from
Finland, Livohia, Esthonia and Courland
from the shores OF the Gulf of Bothna
and Lake Peipus, from the lowlands of
Poland, and from the denslcy peopled
towns along the Baltic coast There is no
seedcorn to be had for the crop of this
year bread, having long been obtained at
famine prices, has now become unobtaina-
bic at any price; pestience has made its
appearance, and is adding its horrors to
the overfowing cup of misery pressed to
the lips of the stricken people of those uns
happy lands. Here is a picture of the
scene as described by writer at St. Peters,
burg =" Fields lying waste villages de-
populated; private houses turned into hos
pitals lever. parched skeletons tottering
from the doors of overcrovded places OF
refuge children wandering over the
country in gaunt and squalid nakeduess
crowds of men, driven ito desperation by
long misery and ripe for any outrage,
roaming the streets night and day d"
There is no exaggeration in this fearful
description ; it is only too we'll supported
by official accounts transmitted to St.
Petersburg from the afflicted regions.
In Esthonia, Livonia and Courland,
three provinces of vast extent, there is
population of 1904, ABS souls ; in inland,
where there are immense tracts of barren
and irrecailnable soil, there is population
of l,766,000 These countries are reached
but by single line Of railroad, aud the
greater portions of them are almost as in.
accessible as are the mountains of Abyss
sinnia. The soil is thin and rocky and
wretchedly cultivated, and the people are
never secure from the terrible evils that
are now exterminatipg them. A letter
from one of the central districts of Estho
MIA says that the distress this year is sorer
than ever The harvest of 1867 was
bad one but there was little corn stored
up, and there was hope of relief in 1868.
But no relief came. On the contrary,
from the 23d of May to the 18th of
August, last year, no rain fell, and the
summer crops were scorched up. Bread
can now be scarcely got, even at the most
exorbtant prices, and as the roads are i'm,
passible by reason Of the extraordinary
wet winter, no help from abroad can reach
the people, and their herding together in
the larger villages in the hope of getting
food and shelter, has engendered disease,
which is making fearful ravages. All
heart for work is gone out of the peasants"
says this letter " their once fresh and
hopeful faces show only the blankness of
despair. Children are deserting their
parents, parents their children some wan
der about the country, begging and plum
dering; others fock into the town to swell
the aggregate Of want and misery already
gathered there, and perish in scores by
famine and disease. Crowds have to be
turned away for want of means to supply
their need, and their imploring faces haunt
me night aud day"
The inhabitants Of st. Petersburg and
Moscow, as we'll as the vernnent, are
doing what they can to alleviate this dis
tress ; but the difficulty of reaching the
sufferers is so great, and the transportation
of supplies to them is attended with so
much loss Of time, that it is fesred they
will be relieved by death before the assis-
tance provided for them can arrive.-N
2. Observer.