The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-06-09
A Terrible Famine in China.

is disaster of woful magnitude. 1t ex-
tends over very wide region of the En-
pire, it is carrying off the population
daily by thousands, and there is no near
hope that its ravages will soon be over.
Through the north and east of the coun-
try, from the near neighborhood of the
Imperial City and from the shores of the
Yellow Sea, beyond the line of the Great
Wall which shuts off China from the
western world outside, the terrible visi-
tation extends. The suffering, we are
told, is beyond description. In addition
to the multitudes who have already per-
ished under it, there is a larger number
of those who are just managing to keep
alive, and from whose exhausted ranks
fresh victims are continually added to
the dismal roll. Anything that will allay
hunger is eagerly sought for, no matter
how uninviting or unfit to be used as
food. The rotten thatCh of the houses
and dried leaves that serve generally for
fuel are not now neglected as nauseous
or unsatisfying, and lucky indeed is the
man who can get full supply even of
these. The Government is making the
semblance of an effort to relieve the
widespread misery; but the means it EN-.
ploys are wholly inadequate An ex-
preston of verbal sympathy, grant of
money which allows about farthing a
day for the relief of each case of dis
tress, and some well-meant but mistaken
edicts, which have had the effect simply
of making matters worse than before, are
40 nf I,tn ,nl, = ho
Chinese rulers can bestow. The famine
proceeds in spite of them, and matters
are rendered worse by the intense cold
which was prevailing at the date of our
correspondents letter, and by the snow,
which lay so deep as to prevent the peo-
pie from picking up any of the wild prod
uce of the soil. AS summer advances,
and as the weeds begin to grow and the
trees to be covered with foliage, there
may be change expected for the better.
Meanwhile, there is no remedy to be
found, except in the readiness of the
people to do anything and submit to any
thing that will furnish them with the
bare means of preserving life, and in the
willing but insufficient relief fund which
is subscribed among the foreigners resi-
dent in China and distributed by the Prot
estant missionaries in the North.
The cause of the famine is the same as
of that from which India is now suffer
ing. The crops of last summer were,
we are told, almost entirely destroyed by
drought, and the peasantry have now
come to their slender reserves of grain
and have nothing left on which they can
fall back for support. China is ooun-
try in which at the best of times the
population presses very closely upon the
means of subsistence. There are no
waste stores anywhere. Everything is
already turned to account, and when the
necessity comes there is little room for
any further saving or reduction. Land
and water are alike taxed to the utter
most to furnish food and dwelling-space
for the teeming multitudes which cover
them. The Chinese are hard workers,
contented with slender fare, and able to
put up comfortably with a general scale
of living which would be simply intoler-
able to Englishmen. These qualities and
habits, which turn to their advantage
abroad when they are brought into COM
petition with other races, are a source of
danger to them at home. The Chinese
can undersell the Irish immigrant and
the native "white trash" in the distant
labor market OF California. They can
not be equally sure that they will obtain
the poor pittance with which they will
be satisfied in China. In ordinary sea-
sons they can pull through well enough,
ap6 pap thr;va oDd tbinly tbor,oal ,,oo uroI II
off on the slender material supplies with
which they have learned to be content.
But when the pinch comes, as come it
must sometimes; when the parched earth
will no longer yield its accustomed in
crease, or when the store of food for any
reason begins to fail, the suffering is
Speedy and severe 1t is question then,
not OF the surrender of luXuries which
can at any rate be spared, but of the
want of bare necessities which it is i'm
possible to forego and to live To the
great Eastern hive, thickly swarming
with its uncounted millions of inhabit-
ants, the chance of famine is never far
distant, and the worst reality of famine
arrives very easily. 1t is present among
them now, and it is fearful to think of
the intense and widespread misery which
it will bring with it before it has run its
course. There is a hope, our CORE
spondent writes, of good crops in the
coming season for those who survive.
The snow, which does much to aggravate
the present distress, is at least security
against the recurrence of another drous hit.
But he holds out no early hope of relief.
When summer comes all will be well for
those who are alive to witness it and to
enjoy the plenty which is in prospect for
them. Meanwhile, in the dreary weeks
which still remain the suffering is grow
ing worse daily. The people have been
driven already to their last resources,
and these have proved to be insufficient.
The total loss is not easy to estimate.
We hear of villages of 500 families with
800 reported as dead from starvation.
This, or something like it, appears to be
the actual condition of some 5000 vii.
lagos, and there are others besides in
which the pressure is less extreme, but
still terribly severe. The numbers of
the dead, it is clear, must be already
reckoned by millions, but we can hazard
no conjecture as to the total which will
have been reached before the return of
summer. London Times.
|'. A Strange Recovery.