St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-05-25

In the mail week later than the
above, we received the accompanying
circular from Miss Downing. which
pretty effectually explains itself
To his NetLcrIand Majastys Consuls and
Subjects IN China, Japan. the PA:I!;;j j5J-
! pines, HGHykkOHg, MGodO. Cochin Chi
ma, Siam. Straits Settlements aud
! India.
GENTLEMEN 1T was pretty gener-
ally known that during the summer and
autumn of last year various parts of
the Provinces of Shantung and Chilli
had suffered from a drought, which
would result in more OF less distress
from the scarcity of food that must
necessarily follow, and indeed symp-
toms-in themselves grave-began to
be manifest as winter approached,
though only trit1ing compared with
what has occurred.
Towards the middle of November
regular communication from reliable
sources in the interior of Shantung
ceased, and native report was the only
source of information as to the condi-
tlou VI tuC SuIlClluS plONlnCt. 1t dp-
pears that in the interim, matters were
becoming daily more and more aggra
waited, and that the aid given by the
Chinese Government towards the suffer-
ing districts proved not to be sufficient,
so that urgent appeal was made to the
people of other provinces and the for
eign communities in China.
| About the 25th of January commu-
nications were again opened with the
coast, but unfortunately the first letter,
coming through Chinese hands, only
reached its destination long after sub
sequent accounts, which confirmed the
worst fears and depicted a state of I'M
utterable distress. The word which
now reaches us says that thousands are
already dead of starvation, and thou
sands more are starving.
The principal scenes of these suffer
ings in Shantug are eight HENS, viz: Liu-
ku, l-tu, Chang-lo, Wei hien, Lo-ngan,
ShOw-kwant, Ling-tO and Polling. OF
these Liu-ku suffers most and gets TO-
600 taels in relief, from the 43, 900 taels
granted, for all, by the Government {;
but though the distribution of cruel has
doubled, yet the suffering has more
than doubled. The people have eaten
up the little crop they got in the au-
tumn and now are in the direst plight,
and their cry is no longer for rain, but
for life.
With reference to the extent and de-
gree of sufferings the following details
will give an idea. A moderate hien
contains about 1000 villages. Villages
of 500 families report 300 persons dead
i g. g
100 persons, and so on. One village in
Liu-ku had $50 inhabitants in it last
summer; now there remain 90, 40 are
dead and the rest gone away.
The course of the distress seems to be
that as soon as the corn is all eaten,
they resort to the husks then potato
stalks, elm bark, turnip leaves, acorns
and grass seeds gathered in the fields.
When these are all done, they pull
down their houses, sell their tim Der,
eat the rotten sorghum stalks from the
roof, and the dried leaves, which they
usually burn as fuel. Thousands eat
fuel leaves, and thousands more die be
cause they cannot get them. Then
they sell their clothes and children.
Having no more clothes many take
refuge in pits built under ground, to
keep themselves warm by the fetd
breath of the crOwd-a course which is
bought dearly. For the east suburb of
Chng-chOw city, there are four such
pits. One third of the number, 240,
originally put in them, died within six
weeks, and vet no sooner is corpse
carried out than crowd is struggling
for the place. All this has wrought a
great change IN the spirit of the people.
Late in the autumn they were strong
and daring, and although life and prop
erty were then at their mercy, no pOpu-
lar disturbance of any kind has taken
place. Now the fare they have had for
many months has broken their spirits,
and they are quiet and submissive to
their dreadful fate. Starvation by
inches faces these unfortunate people,
and Populations of old men, who come
to beg relief, weep like little children
before you, when they find there is none
to he had. Not day passes but one
must refuse to many who ask it, per-
haps the last bit they would have eaten.
The Chinese Government and the
people of the other provinces do what
they can, but the calamity is too great
to be met by ordinary means. There
| Is WV Cl vi SIutl
to the value of six or eight cash per per-
son per day. Many have lived on moth
ing else for two months, are getting SO
weak that young men of twenty years
cannot walk three miles for it. If it is
so with youth, how must it be with the
infant and the aged Even though the
gentry have in many places doubled
the Government aid by their cOntribu-
tons, yet it is estimated soberly that
there are districts in Liu-kU, where hall
the people will not live to see the wheat
crop ripe, if no support comes from out
side. To all this there is added the one
capital aggravating circumstance-the
depreciation of the land to about eighty
per cent. below its normal value. Next
comes the fixing of an upward limit fol
the price of grain, thus preventing the
influx of supplies from neighbOring
provinces. There has been no such
famine as this in these parts for sc
years, since the 5Ist year of Kien-lung
"a. ID. 1861 The number of lives
saved and orphans rescued will only be
limited by the amount of money placed
at the disposal of the distributors
Thousands may be tided over the fam
inc at $500 per head. Who would not
like to he the deiverer of fifty or a
hundred human beings from starvation
where nothing but money is to be
given These are the heart-rending
accounts which reach us here daily
This is not pleading for charity to the
poor, but for the ransom of their lives.
j. III. FERGUSON,
H. N. N. Minister Resident and Consul
General in China.