Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-11-20
Starving Nebraska.


ton and suffering in Nebraska, COM
municated by T. H. Tibbclls, of Re-
publican, Harlan county, to the North
western Christian Advocate, ought
to wake responsive chord of SYM
pathy in every heart in the land.
Let it not be said to our disgrace,
that we failed, out of our abundance,
to send succor to our brethren who
are ready to perish:
Your correspondent has Travelled
through the whole length of Harlan
and Franklin counties in the last few
days, and the most terrible scenes
have constantly been presented that
any American citizen has ever beheld.
Who could think that in this fair land
of ours, where millions of bushels of
grain have been stored away from an
abundant harvest almost everywhere,
that scores of women and children
should be actually starving on these
plains!
Very many families were found
without. crumb in the house, and
many had been living for days on
one meal, and that Of flour alone,
Two instances Of starving children
fell under our notice, where the moth.
ers, from lack of food, could furnish
no nourishment for their babies, and
in one instance the child must have
died inside of forty-eight hours il
help had not been furnished.
Four large mass-meetings were held
on Sunday, Oct. IS, to consider the
situation. At one held at Alma City
the county-seat of Harlan county
your correspondent noticed little
girl about twelve years old crying
most piteously, and after the meeting
was over, some little girls about hel
own age gathered around her, put
their arms around her neck, kissed
her, and did all they could to com
fort her. After a while one of them
came to us and said, ''Thc little girl
is hungry, and they have nothing tc
eat at home" We got up on a wag
on and stated the circumstance, and
offered to pay any price for half q
sack of flour to be taken to them i'm
mediately, but there was not a MAI
in all the crowd that had half sack
of -four in the house; and on further
inquiry we learned that there was moi
a sack in the county for sale!
There was vast concourse Of peo
pie, sixty miles from the railroad, and
if one of those storms Of several
days duration, which often visit the
plains at this season of the year, had
come on, hundreds of people would
have been found dead in their cabins
and there would have been such a
calamity to have written up as never
was read on the pages of an Ameri
can newspaper before.
For this horrible state of affairs
the State Aid Society and the State
press are to blame, and must bear the
direful responsibility. The Aid So
ciety promised help, and the people
relied upon it; and so far they have
not sent q pound of provisions or a
dollar in money, and tho State press
has refused to write it up for fear OF
injuring the State.
In the name of the people of these
counties we call upon the press out
side of the State to "spread the news
of this impending calamity, such as
was never known in the United States
before, and the generous people OF
the East will not lot their friends and
former neighbors die of starvation
and their bones bleach on these
plains. They cannot get out OF THU
valley now; many Of their teams arc
dead, and the remainder so weak thai
they cannot cross the high divide, Of
sixty miles, where there is not tree
and only one or two ranches without
any feed.
We have read of "tamines," but
we never knew what one was before
now we think we know. We never
want to see one again.