The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-01-27
The People of the United States Will Be Asked
to Contribute Relief-Previous Famines
and the Cupidity of the Wealthy.
O'Brien Made the Recipient of a Chastity
Reminder of the Balfour Tyranny.
The Arrest of Father McFadden Rouses In
tense Feeling, and Troops are Ordered Ont
to Preserve Peace-0ther Cable News.
FAMINE IN PERSIA.

An Appeal to tho Charitable of the United
Stares-Previous Famines in the East
Special to the Indianapolis Journal
TERRE HAUTE, Jan. 26.-Mr. A. A. Hargrave,
recently returned from Ooroomiah, Persia,
whore he spent several years at the missionary
station. and now connected with the Express OF
this city, has just received q letter in which it 10
said another great femme is prevailing in that
countrJ. The letter is dated at Ooroomiah,
which is in Northwest Persia near the Turkish
border, and was mailed Dec. IT. The letter says
that in the villages, especially among the Mus
sulmans it is now question of life and death.
The Presbyterian missionaries have decided to
make an appeal to the the chariaoy inclined of
this country for help for the HISTORIANS, or
Syrians-nominal Christians-under their care.
and for much more as be raised for
the Mussulmans. The great mass of
the people of all religions are miserably poor,
but generally they have enough to eat. As,
however, in ordinary years they raise but little
more than enough for home consumption, If for
one or two years the crops are short q famine is
sure to follow. It has been so for the past two
years. Wheat there is quoted at sixty FIVE
cents per bushel. Usually the price is thirty
cents.
In 1872 there was famine in Persia which
was most severe In w eSEerQ orSlAs tnOu&u III
extended to the capital, Teheran, where 300 per-
sons died. For the most part. those who died
were refugees who fed to the capital, hoping
for bounty from the Shah. He did not respond
literally enough, or else his courtiers kept the
real facts from him, which is more often done
than not In Hamadan. it was said that %, 900
died. The American missionaries in Ooroomiah
alone paid out $25. 900 sent from America and
England for the relief of the starving.
Men were employed and given bread for
their work, and in this way many pub
lie improvements were made. Night and
day the cry for bread went up. foreigner
scarcely dared to venture outside the gate, he
was so beset by gaunt, hollowed-eyed. famine
stricken wretches who were ready to lay hold of
him and compel him to give bread money.
They stripped their houses of all they possessed.
They hunted up old bones and broke them open,
hoping TO find little marrow in them, and
when nothing more could be found they laid
down in the streets and died Tho famine then
was more severe on the Mussulmans. The jews
had rich countrymen in England to whom they
successfully appealed for aid. TIE few rich
Persians, like cormorants. fattened on the mis-
fortunes of their countrymen. and having i'm
mense quantities of wheat stored in great under
ground reservoirs, held it for fabulous prices
Seven hundred pounds of wheat sold for $50 in
some places. MANS IMMUNITY to man" prevails
it's greatest growth is attained in Oriental
countries.