The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-20
FAMINEs OF HISTORY.
Those on Now Suggest Some That
Have Caused Suffering.

With fsmines In Russia, in India, IN
Burmah and here aud there in Cbina, the
world is for the moment sufficiently afflicted.
1t appears to be in the tchene Of divine
providence that the human race shall al
ways have its full quota OF misery. and if
it is not war some other plague is unclaimed
that the weak creature, man maynot be LITE
up by pride and vanity. With the prlmsval
man the food supply was always intermit-
te1t. With this unhappy Individual it was
always either feast or famine. Living
by the chase alone, be gorged himself with his
prey when he caught it, like the anaconda and
after a dormant period starved till chance
supplied him WITH the next meal. When
the nomadic life gradually merged into a
more stable existence. when the fields began
to be cultivated, and the pastoral life led to
the collection of large focks aud herds, the
food supply became more regular, but ow-
ing the wars, peStilence, drought, floods or
other causes, fanines reappeared from time
to time, causing widespread deSolation. It
IS probable they Will never entirely disap-
pear, though, owing to the greater variety
OF crops cultivated and the speedier means
or communication; 1t is gratifying 20 OBJ
serve that they are becoming much less fire.
quent in the civilized parts of the globe and
far less disastrous.
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 a variety Of reasons. these peril
DDS of scarcity have been endemic from
time immemorial, and there is no means of
knowing how many have occurred.
of annual occurrence except for
the forethought Of the gov
eminent in supplying rice, while those that
succeeded the frequent foundations OF the
Yellow river are appalling. And there
was famine in the laud" is the scriptural
manner of denoting one Of these scourges.
In Palestine, the Canaan Of the Israelites,
population existed in q state Of constant
suffering for want Of food. In patriarchal
times all the Hebrews migrated to Egypt to
avoid perishing by pure starvation.
Food appears to have been abundant In
the valley of the Nile at this epoch, though
before the people had learned how to divert
the water OF the river into their field, and
to use 1t in the most economical manner,
famiues had been as common in this region
as elsewhere. We are not aware that the
ancient Greeks suffered severely for want
Of food, for il their own seas, forests and
fields did not produce enough they
could draw supplies of grain from the
countries about the Mediterranean. The
Ph9nicians, who had colonized the south of
France and Spain, drew their supplies from
the granaries of Africa, but all the tribes
inhabitng the northern forests of Europe,
among which may be numbered our Anglo
Saxon ancestors, subsistlng, as they did
in a great measure, by the chase, were
declimated by famine at least one year in
three.
Famine was unknown among the ancient
Romans IN the early period Of their history,
that is as long as their manners continued
simple and pure. Luxury came among
them with foreign conquest. The rich be-
came very rich, the poor very poor. The
former brought great estates in the country
and great part Of the arabic land was
turned into parks and gardens, driving the
peasants to Rome, where they augmented
the destitute classes and had to be
fed by the government. 1t was
curious state of things in the imperial
city caused by the necessity Of feeding at
least half the population to prevent re bell
lion. 1t required whole fleet of grain
ships to bring supplies from Africa or
Syria, and If they were accidentally delayed
by storm the emperor fairly trembled on
his throne from fear of the people. The
most notable famine in Rome annals was in
the reign of Titus. seventy-nine years after
Christ, when the starving cohorts Tebelled
and pillaged the conveys of provisions on
the way to Rome to feed the famished popu-
lace.
During the dark and 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 drop of rain fell in Europe and
scacely more in Asia. and the natural result
was three years. famine, and during it
the wants of part OF the people of Europe
were supplied by the ships Of the little
precarious existence, which brought grain
from Africa. Not long efterward
France was so desolated by q fail
ure 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 cathe-
dral of st. Denis. There were two remark
able famines during the reign of Charlie
imagine in the eight century, and several in
the ensuing century so severe that the
furnished peasantry made bread of earth.
During the two or three succeeding centur-
les they occurred with distressing regularity,
having as their principal causes. wars
among the feudal lords and the crusades.
Whole regions were depopulated, the
fHls6lf OSAuB HUI edSS0 ny Ju6 TdVdR6S Oh
the plague. CaDnibalism was Of daily oc-
currence. Parents fed upon their children,
and children deYoured their parents. Rats,
m ce, reptiles, and every imaginable
abomination served to give variety to these
foul feasts. 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 suf-
fered from famine during long seiges.
in one of which one-third of
1t population persisted. This was
in 1888 During the eeige of the city by
Henry ". $50 persons were found dead
every morning in the streets. Sieges OF cities
during the middle ages. whether in the
Netherlands, France Ireland, or Italy, offer
the same frightful peculiarities.
Famnies followed necessarily in France
on the protracted wars of Louis XIV. with
a repetition of all the horrors already de-
tailed. The king endeavored. having
caused the miseries of his subjects,
to alleviate them to the best of his
ability by edcts to prevent the boarding of
food supplies, and by importing grain at the
public expence During the reign of Louis
XIV, his successor, there was continued
scarcity of food, and the misery of the peo-
pie was increased by what was called the
MEDICAL.
~ Well, in
cfa Of Oh