The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1894-03-17
TALE or WOE.

mas naQ ltS uay anu IL wonld be well
that every Mississippian stay in their
native State and that new home seek
ers join them in their good future.
The following dispatch taken from
one of the daily papers is full of
meaning:
Carrizzo, Tex, March II Sub
slsting on the flesh of their own Off
spring. Such is the horrible story
which comes from a remote corner
Of Encinal county, on the lower Rio
Grande. Pen cannot describe the
awful conditions existing in this now
sterile waste of country, winch tor
four years has not had one drop of
rain. On q ranch lived q family Of
Mexicans. named Gomez. The IA
ther, Manuel Gomez, was ranch
owner. His family consisted of him
self, wife and five children. Year
by year they becamce more impover-
lshed. The seed which they planted
to raise bread rotted in the ground /;
their herds died by hundreds, until
they had not even meat to live upon.
Stricken with disease, brought on by
She yawning paugs Of hunger, the
weaker suceumbed. AT last the father
and two children alone remained.
In desperate agony the weaker child,
girl Of 8 years, was slain, that food
might be obtained to keep soul and
body together. Then the father was
stricken with disease and while son
of Ia watched for the end, he, too,
fell victim, and in this condition
they were found last week by u
neighboring rancher, who was NOV
ing out Of the stricken country. OF
his small means he attempted to al
leviate the suffertngs Of the father
and son, but to no avail. The gaunt
wolf Of famine had fastened its fangs
so deeply that both died.
Hundreds, on both the Texas and
Mexicsn sides Of the river, have al
ready died from starvation, and hun
dreds more can hold out but little
while longer. To add to the pesti-
lence of famine, a deprecated money
is causing untold want. Mexican
silver is worth but so cents on the
dollar, and it is in Mexican money
that most of the business In the
stricken sections Is transacted. The
price OF necessaries has advanced In
the same ratio that money has de-
preciated, thus increasing the pover-
| ty. For time the people subsisted
on prickly pears, roots Of plants,
and flesh stripped from the dead an
imals, selling the skins and pelts for
small sums, with which meal was
purchased. Now all the cattle and
sheep are dead and there is neither
meat to strip from their eepcasses
nor hides to sell. Citizens in sec
tions OF country where conditions
are slightly better have been assist
ing their more unfortunate ueighbors.
But they, too, are now verglng on
the brink of famine, and can no Ion
ger render aid. Help is needed, and
at once, or hundreds more will per-
ish from hunger and the diseases it
creates. The poor are virtually
naked, as well as hungry, and have
suffered terribly cold winter billiards
of the last month. The great bulk
of the population is Mexican, few of
them, ever having seen railroad,
and think that the whole world is in
the same condition as their section.
Very little money has been sent to
Starr county so far. That county,
in mass meeting, informed the world
of their sufferings and prevailing
destitution, but the drought en-
braces large area of country so faI
off the lines of railway that but little
of the true state Of affairs has been
brought to hight. In countries north
west from here there is no water ex.
cept that pumped by windmllls, and
stock are fed on roots, which arc
fed on roots, which are bug up and
shopped with spades. Droves Of
famlshing cattle come in from places
miles distant to the water holes
where they lay for days, until sheer
hunger drives them back to get food.
That great industry in the drought
stricken region is a thing of the past.
Defamation by hunger and billiards.
has been appalling, and the few head
surviving are unfit for market.
| .-wu--w..re.-sssss~~.m
The johnston Pa. steel works,
which have been shut down since
Ian. Ist FOR renairs. resumed IN.