Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-08-13
De FamIna : ] PLaaua d PsrsIa.

with double crops; OF an accumulated
wealth which dates back to iliusfriOus
kings and c0nquerOFs three thousand
years ago. KhOrassan is the scene OF
MoOre's eastern r~hapsOdies, and we
often refer in common ~phra8eOlOgy to
I" an almost Persian magnihcenCe p
but the tidiugs we talk Of now ara a
lOng.cOntinued and dreadful famine,
destined probably to number more
than a million victims; Of a ter
rible drought which has ruined
the crops; of q widespread desti-
tuition and misery all winter. sue
ceeded By q dearth perhaps without
parallel ii the worlds history. Of
whole provinces deserted by the living
and tenanted by the dead and diving,
to whom there r none to give even
the rites Of sepulture; OF mothers IN
Khorassan selling their cons and
daughters in bondage to the THreO-
mans, in order to save their lives; Of
fathers IN Faristan killing and devOur-
ing their children, "all their domestic
animals and vermin being eaten" OF
men IN 1saphan caught digging up
cOrpses to feed their starving families,
and the government calling on IFS
troops, not % save the living from
death, but the dead from the raVages
OF human beings more hercelg
hunger-mad than wolves. 1t is IS d
a nation had been Transformed, bV
some horrible metamOrphOsis, as in
ancient fables, into q race Of starved
jaekals; and already one half Of Persia
is depOpUlated.
Compared with this frightful scene,
even the death-strieken city Of Buenos
Ayres, the volcanic destruction in the
Philippine islands, and the hundred
other terrible incidents of commissions
in nature II contagious in disease
which have marked these two por-
tentOus years, 1870 and 1871, sink into
relative insignifcance. The great war
between Germany and France has
not, probably, slain a tenth Part of the
victims already sacrificed on this twin
altar Of Persian plague and famine.
A London dispatch to the New York
Herald declares that 'tthi5 deaFth viii
probably be the most horrible on
record. Two years ago two millions
Of people died 10 India of starvation.
| Unless, however, the Persian Govern
ment consents 10 the deportation Of.
its subjects, there will be among IFS
eight millions Of people a mortality
even more-appaliing than this For,
it must be remembered, that not only
is the scanty spring crop gone ia
! Persia, and even the very grasses and
roots eaten, but that the agricultural
regions are deserted and no autumn
crop will be gathered. Meanwhile,
the cholera and feVeFs ARE committing
terrible ravages, 50 that the crowded
cities, TO which the country pOpUla-
ton has fed, viii doubtless become
50 many pest-hOuses of stricken hu-
manity. The people, we are told,
fare covered with hideOus sores, the
consequence Of hunger while they
burn in the fortunes of a devOuTing
fever.
To crown these horrors, the govern
ment has been guilty Of the gr0ssest
barbarity. It is not enough for nature
to seOurge Persia with a fearful rod,
but the land must witness ".man'5 in
humanity to man." Crushing taxes,
running agriculture, have starved the
people, and restrictive laws forbid
them even to fly from a country
within which is certain death. In
deed, the political blindness and
cruelty Of the government may be
said 10 have directly caused CHS hOr-
ribie disaster. In the famous couplet
which DR. Johnson pTefixed to sold
smiths Traveller" il IS said, Glow
small, OF all that human hearts
endure, the part which kings OF laws
can cause or cure" Here, however,
is a case in which the woes of eight
millions OF people, and the cruel tor
ture, even to an ag0niZing and h0r-
rible death, Of perhaps a million
OF them, can be directly traced 20
"kings and laWs'-t0 rulers aud
statutes thai only have Caused the
calamity, but now Want0nly neglect
or refuse TO 'eure" what remains of 10.
In 1870, a drought had already created
a partial failure of the crops, and
thereby caused much distress in Per
STA; all, however, might have been
prepared with the coming of the next
season. But what did the Govern
ment doc The correspondent Just
quoted tells Us: "Eariy in the wear.
in spite OF the general Improvement
Of the people, the Government, with
shocking inhumanity, raised the tax
es. This completed the misery Of its
unhappy subjects. What little money
they had left was torn nom them, and
they were Ieft-beggared 10 face a year
whose horrors had but begun. The
first effect Of the increased taxation
was to drive the people from their
homes in the country TO the big cities,
as, owing to a curious law, the impOsts
upon tillers Ofthe soil are very much
heavier than those eXacted from the
jewellers in towns. Ilcities, indeed, the
mass Of the population practically
escape taxation, and the revenue is
raised, with the exception of a poll
tax, from the merchants. Before the
end of winter the famine had spread
from Faristan to the other provinces
which depended upon it for supplies.
The cities Of Isp8han, Yez1, herman
and Sheraz were crowded with starry
ing m~ultitudes. ieheran, the capital,
suffered least, but even there the
privatiOns were terrible. Wheat in
Herman rose TO nine times its usual
price" To those who smile with in
credulity when told sometimes how.
in our own country oT in any other,
the imposition OF enormous taxes
upon the agricultural regions can Inn
poveriSh and distress the whole
country, we may commend this ter
rible lesson in Persia. He must be,
indeed, perverse who points the
wrong moral.
It is true that other things combined
to help this disaster, for so fright
full a plunging of a whole nation into
misery could not well be produced by
a single cause. Curiously enough,
too, our own civil war was one Of the
primary, indirect starting points of
the famine-a fact which is not only
singular in Itself, and ca eulated to at
tract an increased sympathetic infer
est in the sufeFings Of the PeFsians,
but which may well serve MANY q
mOralist hereafter with a fresh and
pungent illustration Of how war.
crowded as it with horrors during lis
continuance, may breed other mise
rie5 also, never to be known for years
its own career is ended. The
Herald correspondent says: at IS a
curiOns fact that this famine IS. to
certain extent, one result, though OF
an Indirect one, of the Ameri-
can civil war. There is a belt
OF country in Persia which Is
eminently well calculated for the pro
duetiOn of cotton, and the high price
Of that article seven OF eight years
ago induced many of the smaller eUl-
to abandon raising other crops
and embark in its production. This
opening for commerce rapidly devel-
Oped into a large trade, and a couple
Of lines OF steamers have been started
from Bombay to Bushire, a port on
the Persian gu.f, which is the only
one Of Importance on Persia's limited
seacOast. The money gained by the
sale OF the cotton was employed 70