Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-25
CHINESE FLOOD SUFFERERS.

A Son of Rev. Mr.. ChaIfant Helps to Dis.
tribute Relief in the Devastated Dis.
tricts-A Graphic Account.
Letters received a few days ago by Rev.
G. W. Chalfant. of the Park Presbyterian
Church. from his son, Rev. W. B. Chalfant,
a missionary at Chinaufu, China, give inter
esting accounts Of the great foods along the
Yellow River or Hoang Ho, which occurred
last spring, and the measures of relief. In
the shadow OF the recent terrible disaster in
the .Conemaugh Valley, the accounts are in
teresting.
The first letter is dated March 4, and
says: II returned from distributing famine
relief silver in the Chi Yang district on last
Tuesday. made my headquarters at the
An Chi Mas, where our Oldest Christians
live, stopping with Mr.. Ii Ts'ang Hal (''Li
of the Dark Green Sea"). A listhad been pre-
pared, embracing the more needy persons in 81
villages, Our first step was to deposit the
silver, $500. in a bank in the market town
of Chu-ti. mile from Au CHA Mao. The
bank gave US notes payable on demand in
copper cash, and these we distributed Our
mode of procedure was to enter a village
and identify the names upon the list, in
many cases entering the houses to see for
ourselves. Then, when ali was satisfactory,
we gave that village its bill upon the bank
and proceeded to the next village The
every one lives on bran, and the poorer ones
mix it with willow leaves Of last years
growth.
1.-The work is not easy, for the people are
desperate, and $50 taels is only drop in
the bucket. As we came away from the
town of Chu-ti, after disposing of some
20, 900 cash, 30 mix-dollars, number of
women threw themselves in front of the
barrow and would not let us 60 on until we
promised to give them some help. BY Satur-
day night the word had gotten abroad that
we had come, and about 800 people, most of
them women, crowded Ii Ts'ang Hai's gate
begging vociferously. Some of the women
mate their way into our very room
and flung themselves upon their
knets upon the earth, knocking their
heads and imploring us to give them money.
We bad to be very cautious though, for it
will pot do to begin recklessly to distribute
cash, The only way was to reason with
them or, better still, pay no attention to
themuntil the pressure became too great,
whenwe would distribute few thousands
of cash among them and they would give
place 10 another crowd. Thus for two days
we wete almost prisoners in our room.
"Eatly Monday morning we prepared to
go, OUT money being exhausted. When we
were all ready to start we found the gate of
the court blocked with dense throng. We
held hasty council of war which resulted
in our sending out one of the Christians
with Drne cash to distribute. While this
absorbing process was going on Chang and
I, by skillful flank movement, managed
to get started.
"We helped 846 adults and 367 children,
at the rate of ], 900 cash, 80 cents per man
for the former and 500 cash per child.
This does not include the loose cash distrib-
uted.
ION account of the snow we were COM
PEELED to keep to the inner bank of the river.
We passed many groups of soldiers at work
strengthening the embankment. The
stream is back again the same as ever.
doubt if they can hold it there, however"
The second letter is written April II from
Chi Tung, another town on the Yellow
river. The writer and a companion named
Bergen had left Chinaufu with about
ZOO in silver. As they passed along they
found the river rising rapidly, while
svarms of workmen were busy trying to
prevent the breaking of the levees.
Near Chi Tung the country was gen.
orally flooded and the people in great
distress. Rev. Chalfant writes that he and
his companion distributed cent day to
eacI individual in a needy family. The
money was paid through the headman of
each village once week. He writes: 1--WE
can increase the number to upwards of 20,-
900, and propose to carry on the work until
the wheat harvest, that is, over six months"
In the last letter from Kwo CHA Chuang,
on April 21, Rev. Chalfant writes: 1--WE
have now 16 villages on the roll, and expect
to put them on at the rate of about four or
five per day from this on.
Besides these references to the food relief,
tie letters contain much interesting matter
oncerning Chinese customs.