Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-04
THE GREAT FAMINE,

| There is little that is new to report
about the famine in North China. ALI
the missionaries whose correspondence
is printed in the North China Daily
News declare that there is no decrease
in the suffering and death. The Rev. J.
S. Whitewright, who is near Chefoo,
says:
The distress in this region is terrible
and far greater than / expected. One
only come to realize it after going from
house to house throughout the villages
and seeing it with ones own eyes. The
sight of the starving little children and
their mothers and old people, tottering
and unable to stand through hunger and
weakness, makes ones heart ache. In
one house / visited there were two little
children lying on straw on the floor,
scantily covered, and as they turned
their little yellow, pinched faces
toward me it was easy to
see that they were dying Of
starvation. In another house we came
upon a woman sitting with a child on
one arm and an empty basket on the
other, sobbing bitterly. When asked
what she was crying for she replied:
Glow can | help crying when | have
nothing to give my children to eat? |
have been out begging and have got
nothing" The bystanders told her to
stop crying, as the foreigner had come
to save her and her children. She stared
at us in daZed sort of way, as if she
had heard something too good to be
true, while the rest of the family, young
and old, knelt down in supplication for
help. There was nothing put on about
all this. Their faces showed only too
plainly that if help had not come death
from starvation would not have been
far off.
'In one house little boy or years
Of age was crying and throwing himself
about on the bed. On being asked what
was the matter with the child It's mother
said: 4 have been trying to feed him
and he won't eat Here the child
added emphatically: Hungry! hun
gryr 1t was no wonder that
he refused to eat what was offered him
weeds and bran made up into dirty,
sticky mass that swine might we'll
have refused But it was all they had
to give the poor little fellow. The other
day respectable looking man insisted
on giving me his son. a boy OF 10. 1t
was with difficulty that | got him to IN
derstand that could not take him."
Dr. Hunter, in a letter from Shang
CHA Tao-Kon, says: "At the best this
is but a miserable country A vast salt
plain, with strips of good land here and
there. Nothing except the burden of
the overcrowded population could ever
have driven people to inhabit such
God-forsaken land. II they fail of an
other crop the only result can see is
either colonization or extinction.
But let US hope for better things.
In most parts of the country the
water of last year has subsidized
and the wheat crop looks well. 1t is
only near the sea that the outlook is so
bad Here, as if to blast the only re-
naming hope, the fearful storm of last
Saturday and Sunday drove the sea far
inland and the salt water has ruined
their wheat. A delegation from ten or
fifteen villages came and threw them
selves at my feet, begging for help.
They said: 1T is our only hope. If you
do not help us we must die. To their
touching plea l could only answer: L
can promise nothing now; but if more
silver is sent me you shall have help
May the Lord touch the hearts of those
who have wealth and send US an abund-
ant supply of money!"