The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1878-10-19
HORRID SCENES IN CHINA.

Shanghai Correspondence Of the Y. World.
Again Shantung has been heard from,
and if the province ever needed help it
would seem to be now. On April 4th we
read "that famine increased daily; no
rain has fallen, and the ground is as dry
as a bone. The distracted mothers. un-
able to still the hopeless. unanswered
cries OF their children, expend their last
efforts in burying them alive to stop
their moaning and end their miseries.
many villages present the same appear
ancs, as if a rebel horde had devastated
them. As Chinaman remarked, "Where
only a short time ago one heard in pass
ing along the barking of dogs and the
singing OF children at play, now all is
hushed and still the dogs eaten, and
the people too weak to laugh and sing, or
to do aught but pray for food or speedy
death. Here is what one of the dis
tributors writes OF the condition: Up to
the present time the people contented
themselves with eating those who had
died. but now they kill the living in
order to have them for food. Husbands
eat their wives. parents eat their sons,
and daughters and children eat their
parents" Women and girls are sold at
less than two dollars piece, and human
flesh is offered for sale in the markets.
Writes another: A mother, after having
with her husband eaten their little boy,
six years old, whom they had themselves
killed, prepared also to cut the throat of
their little daughter. eight years old.
The little girl began to weep at the sight
of the fatal knife, and the neighbors who
heard arrived just in time to save her."
(Note by Pere Aymer-"Sometimes par
ents, so that they may not be themselves
horrible executioners of their children,
agree with other parents-I will kill his
child for him and he shall kill mine" "
1t is the same story of all the provinces.
and bodies of men combine to attack the
smaller hamlets, not to rob them of
treasure or seek revenge for wrongs in
ficted. Literally and truly they go
about as wolves "seeking whom they
may devour." It would be possible,
were it requisite, to continue the chapter
of horrors existing in these five provinces
almost indefinitely, for only half is
told, and that half is weak and tame as
compared to the actual facts, but the
particulars of the latest reports are so
revolving that it is inexpedient to further
their publicity. The widest imagina-
tion never pictured atrocities or suffering
equal to the scenes 80 common now
throughout the famine region, and what
the future has in store for them, who can
say? These are not "reminiscences of the
past, but faithful statements of what is
and what must be the condition of China
for months to come, for brighter i'm
mediate future ia not to be looked for.
full year must elapse before the nat
ural fruits of the earth or government
and private supplies with the best OF
management will be able to cope with
the requirements, and in the interval
China will be deoimated. To expect
the foreign community to continue to
any great extent their liberal contribu.
tions OF the past is. in the face of the
universal stagnation of trade, unreason-
able, and for the future it must devolve
on the benevolsntly disposed of all ma.
lions to alleviate. so far as may be, the
sorrows and suffering of Cathay. TIC
leave the victims to the mercy of enter.
prise OF their rulers, is to leave them to
perish, for tbe central government is toe
utterly effete and bankrupt and it's sub.
ordinate officials too given to peculutiou
and self-aggrandizement to give us hope
that necessity may stimulate them tc
efficient action. So far the aid from this
source has been shamefully inadequate
and intermittent, consisting very largely
in the remission or postponement o
taxes they would have found impossible
to collect. Even such material aid af
was extended was unavailable through
lack of means to transport it, and know
OF no saddsr satire on the exclusive pol
icy of China than her government stores
OF mouldering grain, starving millions
scarce two hundred miles away, and th'
rustling rails and moss-grown road-bst
of Woosung railroad. as q monumen
against her. In closing may state tina
the total foreign aid so far amounts tt
100, 1870 teals, of which America ha
contributed a paltry 200 teals. hav
done. and if my story diverts sIngl
dollar from the thousand channels o
sporadic charity; if I can convince pee
pie that just now pound of rice il wort
ton of tracts, or that the prayer c
gratitude from poor wretch saved froI
death is sweeter than fulsome eulogie
from wealthy corporations. then shall
be what now I am mt