The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-04-09
Great Famines of the Past.
San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco Chronicle.
The statisticians record nearly 400 fam
ines in the history of the world that have
been of considerable Importance, but the
list is only relatively correct, those of minor
consequence not being mentioned.
In India, owing directly to drought, and
in China for variety of reasons, these
periods of scarcity have been epidemic from
time immemorial, and there is no means OF
knowing how many have occurred. In
China, local famines would be of annual
occurrence except for the forethought OF
the government in supplying rice, while
those that succeed the frequent foundations
of the Yellow River are appalling.
In Palestine, the Canaan Of the Israel
ties, the land flowing with milk and honey,
the population existed in state of con-
slant suffering for want of food. In pa
triarchal times all the Hebrews migrated
to Egypt to avoid perishing by pure star
vation.
The Phenicians, who had colonized the
south of France and Spain, drew their sup
plies from the graneries of Africa, but all
the tribes inhabiting the northern forests
of Europe, among which may be numbered
our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. subslstlng, as
they did in great measure by the chase,
were decimated by famine at least one year
in three.
The most notable famine in Roman an
nails was in the reign of Titus, seventy-nine
years after Christ, when the starving CO.
horts rebelled and pillaged the conveys of
provisions on the way to Rome to feed the
famished populace. Josephus gives fright
ful details of the famine at Jesusalem dur
ing the siege by this emperor.
During the Dark and the Middle Ages
the population of Northern Europe, and of
France especially, lived in an atmosphere
of war, famine and pestilence. In the year
541 not a drop of rain fell in Europe, and
scarcely more in Asia, and the natural re-
suit was three years famine, and during
it the wants of part of the people of Eu
rope we're supplied by the ships of the little
Italian republics, just beginning to have a
precarious existence, which brought grain
from Africa.
Not long afterward France was so desc
lated by failure of the crops that the
public treasure was exhausted to feed the
people, and King Clovis was obliged to
strip the silver from the royal tombs in the
cathedral of St. Denis. There were two
remarkable famines during the reign of
Charlemagne in the eighth century, and
several in the ensuing century so severe
that the famished peasants made bread of
earth. During the two or three succeed
ing centuries they recurred with distressing
regularity, having as their principal causes
wars among feudal lords and the crusades.
Whole regions were depopulated. the
misery being increased by the ravages of
the plague. Cannihalism was of daily oc-
currence Parents fed upon their children,
and children devoured their parents. Rats,
mice, reptiles and every imaginable abomi-
nation served to give variety to these foul
beasts. In the eleventh century there were
forty-eight years of famine out of sixty
three There we're thirty-three years of
famine in the twelfth century, caused by
wars among the nobility.
Paris often suffered from famine during
long sieges, in one of which one-third of
its population persisted. This was in 1438.
During the siege of the city by Henry w.
$50 persons were found dead every morn
ing in the streets Sieges of cities during
the Middle Ages, whether in the Neither
lands, France, ireland or Italy, offer the
same frightful peculiarities,
Famines followed necessarily in France
on the protracted wars of Louis XIV, with
a repetition of all the horrors already de-
tailed. The king ngendeavored, having caused
the miseries of his subjects, to alleviate
them TO the best of his ability by edicts to
prevent the boarding of food supplies, and
by importing grain at the public expense.
During the reign of Louis XIV, his sue
cessor, there was continual scarcity of
food, and the misery of the people was in
creased by what was called the Famine
League, an ASSOCIATION of courtiers and
other mobiles to buy up grain and sell it at
double rates. After this and q host of
other infamies it was only natural that the
deluge should come in the shape Of the
revolution to sweep away the feudal iniqui-
ties that had accumulated until they had
become absolutely insupportable to a long
suffering people.
Since Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, the
thirty years war furnishes the most peril
nent illustration of the horrors of that par
ticular scourge of mankind. In Lorraine
600 cities and villages were depopulated
and became mere piles of wood and stone
that only sheltered wolves and other wild
animals The armies took away the draught
animals. Dogs took their places. The
dogs were taken away and replaced by the
men. The men were levied into the armies
and the women took to wandering through
the forests like wild beasts.
The population gradually disappeared
through famine and exposure till of l ,2O0,-
000 Of human beings only 500. 900 re.