Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-05-18
The Famine i'm China.
THE MORTALITY INCREASING IN AN APPALLING
DEGREE.

THE MORTALITY INCREASING IN AN APPALLING
DEGREES.
Inc accounts from the famine stricken dis
tricts in Northern China represent the mortal,
hy as increasing and extending. so that no
LUNA human ald can reach the sufferers in many OF
February 10, and not only had the inha BIT iuts
there TO suffer want, but the winter had been
unusually severe. This appalling calamity is
previously knowa in modern times. / send
you an abridged account of the state of things
Two Two monthS ago, taken from letter of the
Rev: T Richard, an English missionary, living
in Tai yuen, the provincial capital, in which
he reports what he saw in fortnight trim to
the southern districts.
clothes, who could not have been poor m IN.
just beyond saw one walking like drunken
man, and as was getting out some money To
give him puff OF wind blew him over into
Jan. S1.-To-day saw fourteen dead along
the ROADSIDE, one corpse was so light that a
was covered with snow. a proof that no dogs
or wolves had been near for three days. /
was much affected by what an Old man said
While Wf e. we we were nS climbing hillside togsther
and d0nkeys are all eaten up, and our labOrerS
are an dead how is it that heaven lets us poor
people ole Hell IKE this" In the twilight saw two
Feb. l.-Traveled half the day. Met two
brothers from Is to IS years old, each of them
waking wa slowly like man of 80, leaning on
mother, who Was at her last gasp Saw two
heads IN cages: their owners had been thus
punished for robbing, and these were hung up
Feb; Saw twelve dead, all stripped of
their clothes; in one spot three lay together
apparently father, son and grandson. For
miles on both sides OF the road the trees were
stripped of their bark to height of five, ten
or twenty feet; it is ground fine and mixed
with husks and baked into cakes. Passed
several houses with their doors and windows
open; the jars and other utensils were inside.
nothing had been touched for it could not be
turned into money or bread all the inmates
were gone away or dead.
FEBRUARY l0.-This day was the worst of all
l saw abundant proofs of men eating clay or
stone, and bought three stone cakes: The stone
duced to dust and mixed with milIet husks. in
different proportions, and then baked. 1t does
not look bad, but tastes like what it is-iust
dark and ascertained that they were makinga
flour out of milet husks and cotton wadding.
The people are pulling down their houses for
dead ss ene nise mo ohey TO 1ay coal The
previous day, for there We're twenty nine in
eighteen miles along the road, and the crcum-
stances stan were more frghtful; In one valley the
woman lying in a ditch after being robbed of
al! she had, and still moving, though uncon-
sei 10 OF any one passing by Further on we
cruel murderer'S deed. We saw also among
the dead some wounded heads, but not done
Wy VIC wolves, uOSS or DlruS. Inc dogs parked
and hOwled at us when we drove them OF from
the dead. Many of the cOrpses seen when we
were going had disappeared bat their places
were more than supplied by Others:
To these details of what saw give Won a
Drle1er account OF what L have heard. Some
men coming from Sz'chuen Province, on their
way to Peking, said that along the whole way
they saw dead bodies here and there. Snow
had fallen in HOnan Province foot deep, and
about eight inches in ShanSi. to the west and
northwest, and none further north in that
q hot rnfrin 81 L.;
cold had been unusual. The soft stone is sold
at from two to five mills pound, and bark
from hye to seven mills pound, for food The
the face to swell Grain is three or four times
the usual price, and turnips and cabbage five
or SIX times. Flour is seven, eight and nine
mills per ounce.
In every city 1 passed through the report
was that twenty, thirty, or forty were dying
aaally. AT Plng-yang two great pits had been
carting the dead. One inn-keeper told US that
one Of his customers reported having counted
20 dead on the road in three days journey.
Whole families old and young, die in their
houses, and lie there unburied. In one district
third OF the population are dead, and the
people maintain that in many towns fully one
nall have persisted; they know villages where
formerly dWelt 3UO or iOO. and even 500 people,
OF whom not more than a hundred now re
main.
Grain is sent to every district in Puchau,
department In the southwest OF this province
by carts or mules overland for distance of
over 200 miles, not to speak of what comes
from Manchuria, more than 1000 miles. l hear
that ten cents month for each person is the
lowest allowance given by the officials. and
the highest is 30 cents; when grain itself is
doled out, two or three ounces day is the
quantity.
In the suburbs of this city, Tai-yuen, there
are three large soup Kitchens, where 10000 are
helped. In remote districts men eat each
other; there is no doubt about it, No one
ventures to 60 alone to the pits for coal. for
they will be stripped and their beasts seized
for food. The people of one hamlet dare not
visit each other, such is their dread of being
robbed on the way; whole families lie unburi-
ed IN their own honest Neao Hduen Cores
pOndence.
SELECTING WIFE FOR A FRIEND-A gen.
tlemaR travelling between Pueblo and Kansas