The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1878-07-17
THE CHINESE FAMINE.
Five Million Persons Pail Victims TO 1t.
The frigatTai CAnnibaIism Resulting
From Sc.

The friGatrai CAunibsIism Resulting
From SC.
New YORK. July S-The London
Spe ciator, Of June 22d, which has
Just been received, says: The Off
cial uews received from Shanghai
this week, and dated the end Of
April, records the details Of . famine
such as our horrible famines in India
have never yet approached. II Is
something to know that rain has fall
en- since this information was sent
Of, aud that in four or five months
time-if anything al be done TO
abate the horrors in the interval-thc
agony Of the suffering may be over.
But the rain itself can produce no
result till the crops which it renders
possible are reaped, and in the mean
time all the frigh.ful incidents which
we hear of in these coldly accurate
Chinese Blue Books must go on, ex-
cept so far as they are prevented by
Chinese or foreigners exertions.
What these incidents are it would
be almost needlessly startling to ex-
plain, were it not for the fact that, if
We are rightly informed, every 81
which this country can send may
prevent a murder of the most hideous
kinda murder of relatives by rela-
tives, to be followed by p~rotracted
cannibalism. Every & received
from England. say the missionaries
on the spot. may save a life. But to
save a life is nothing in comparison
with saving q parent from killing his
children or a child from killing his
parents for the same purposes for
which they would kill sheep or oxen
namely. in order to use them for
meat. The mere suggestion is one
which revolts the very body almost
as much es il revolts the soul. Yet
the dry official report says: "In the
earlier period of distress, the living
fed upon the bodies of the dead; next,
the strong devoured the weak, and
now the general d~estitution has ar
rived at such a climax mat men de-
your those Of their flesh and blood
History contains no record of so ter
rible and distressing a state of things,
and if prompt measures of relief be
not instituted the whole region must
become depopulated." The Chinese
authorities themselves assert that
5000, 900 of the people had died
either of the famine or Of the violence
of those who wanted to avoid starv-
alton for themselves. The Roman
Catholic Bishop Of Shansi, Mgr. Mon
ogatta, completely confirms this
frightful Intelligence. And the ghast-
illness of this diabolic feast will not
end with itself. What sort of memo
ries will the population which has
committed such horrors have in the
time to come, when they are no long
er necessary
And money can do so much JUST
now, not merely in preventing death,
or crime that is worse than death,
but in opening up the new communi-
cations, the absence of which is re-
spcnsible for a great deal of the
worst horror. The worst famine is
in Shansi, to which the nearest point
available for steamers is Tientsin, the
point on the Peisho occupied by our
troops when we were under the ne
cessity of overawing the Government
in the neighboring capital of Pekin.
From Tientsin to Tai Yueu, the cen
ire of the worst of the famine dis
tricts, The distance ls about only two
hundred miles-not further probably
than from London to Leeds, but tie
roads are so bad and go over noun
tains 80 high, that the relief party
sen to help the famine struck district
took fifteen days TO traverse them.
OF course nothing but beasts Of bur-
den can be used at present over these
rough roads, across mountains of
from 1000 to 5000 feet in height,
and yet this is the best avenue ap
parently, by which food can reach
the ~depopulated district. For a long
time the Chinese Government have
been spending all their spare money
on Krupp gurs, instead of on making
these most necessary roads: but if a
little European help could be obtain
ed, the Government might now per-
haps be shamed into making the
roads necessary for taking the for
eigners' relief from the ports OF the
empire to the wretches who so terri
bly, need it. There are distinct ira
ces Of shame in the manifesto of the
Emperor on this awful famine. Ia
an edict of the 22d of March be says:
1--WE, whose duty it is to watch over
tie millions of our people with fos-
tering care, feel that the loss Of one
of our subjects is the result of our
misdoiDg )" and yet not only one, but
900, 600, are said to have persisted