The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-06-15

much exceed $4,000, and from Great
Britain about $14, ZOO has gone.
The writer is T. Richards, an En-
glish Missionary, living in the capital,
Taiyuen, who made a journey about
Feb. l to see for himself what was
the state of the district south of
that city. l abridge his report, which
bears the marks of care, eXactness and
good sense in dealing with the misery
around him:
January 29.-There was a fall of
one inch of snow in the night. Saw
four dead on the road, and one moving
on his hands and knees. One of the
dead was boy ten years old, carried
by his mother; she laid him on the
snow.
january 30.-One of the two dead
bodies just passed was well-dressed,
and could not have been a poor man;
just beyond them l met one staggering
like a drunken man along the road,
and as | looked puff of wind blew
him over to rise no more.
january 31.-Passed fourteen dead,
some of them stripped for their clothes.
One corpse was so light that middle
sized dog dragged it about. Some
were lying face downward, and one
still had its winding-sheet of snow on,
showing that no wolves or foxes were
near. / talked with an old man while
climbing n hill together, after we had
just passed a youth lying dead, and he
said in the most touching manner:
Our mules and donkeys are all eaten
up, our laborers are all dead; how is it
that Heaven lets us poor people die
like thisp In one place a notice de-
clared that those who rob and steal
should be put to death without mercy.
February 1.-Besides four women
and two men seen unburied near the
road, | met two youths, apparently
brothers, fifteen and eighteen years old,
moving along like men of eighty, on
their slaves; then a young man, carry
ing his mother on his back, just ready
to breathe her last. Saw two heads
put up in cages. warning to those
who rob or steal, and many hats and
shoes along the II oadside, but no bodies.
February 2.-Saw group of three
lying together, who appeared to be ia
Their, son and grandson. On the snow
there were marks of struggle and
blood, but nobody near. Two more
heads hung from the trees in cages.
For miles many of the trees along the
roads were stripped of their bark five,
ten and twenty feet above the ground
for food. Several houses were passed
with doors and windows open, Jars and
other utensils inside; nobody was left,
and nothing had been touched, for they
could not be turned into money nor food.
beyond this l was gladdened by the
sight of wheat appearing from under
the snow for a distance of ten miles,
where the springs had furnished water
for irrigation. The people told me that
last season the crop was very promis-
ing up to the time of blowing, then a
sudden flood and mildew blasted their
hopes. and left them nothing but straw
February 5.-This afternoon at
Hungtung we saw the dead actually
heaped on each other. On the main
street was man lying dead with the
edge of big stone between his teeth
he expired biting stone. Saw two men
grinding something very dark, and on
going near learned it was the husks of
millet, mixed with old cotton wadding.
People are now pulling down their
houses for fuel, for coal is too dear for
them.
February II bought three stone
cakes, which | saw men eating. 1t was
the same stone as our soft stone pencils
(probably talcose slate), and is pound
ed to dust and mixed with millet husks
and baked. 1t does not look bad but
tastes like what it is-dust. This was
the worst day of the journey. There
were more dead bodies on the road side
than before when we went by; we count
ed Twenty-Five in a distance of eight
cen miles. Some of them seemed to
have been robbed and left to die; one
woman, robbed of all she had and left
to die, still moved, though unconscious
of any one passing by. Another head
less trunk proved that some murdered
as well as robbed. / was away from
my house fourteen days, and send an
account of only a few of the dreadful
sights have seen.
From others ] learn that along the
whole route from Fang-ih-Szchuen here
Ca distance of over 800 miles) dead men
lay by the roadside every now and then.
In Kansuh, far to the northwest, grain
was abundant, but grew scarcer each
step as one approached the northern
districts of Shansi. This year the cold
had been unusually severe in the region
of the Yellow River. Soft stone is sold
at from one-half to one-third of a cent
per pound and bark at less than one
cent pound-both for food. But the
people die of constipation. Grain is
three or four times the usual price, tur-
nips and cabbage five or six times.
cit is almost impossible to ascertain
how many have died from famine. At
Ping-yang the people said that two
large pits had been filed, and two carts
were daily employed in carting the
dead. The deaths in the hamlets among
the hills are far more than in towns
along the great thoroughfares or near
rivers. In one district it was reported
that one-third had died; in another,
three-fifths. Whoever | asked coming
from the southern departments of the
province-Puchan, Kiang, Ping-yang,-
declared that one-half of the people
were gone, and instanced villages num-
bering 300, 400 and 500 inhabitants, in
which only 100 survived. Still, even if
these estimates are eXaggerations, what
will it be at the end of the famineP
Grain hos hnnn Sant from pucbon oxror