News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1897-05-05

bearers. Though some help has been sent,
before full relief can reach them | suppose
there will he at least 100000 dead.
Starvation, even for one person, is an aw-
full process No food, the vitals guaw up
on themselves, and faintness and languor
and pangs from head TO foot, and horror
and despair and insanity take full posses
sion. One handful of wheat or corn or
rice per day would keep life going, but
they cannot get a handful. The crops
failed and the millions are dying. Oh, it
is hard TO be hungry in a world where
there are enough grain and fruit and meat
to fill all the hungry mouths on the
planet But, alas, that the sufferer and the
supply cannot be brought together. There
stands India today. Look at her. Her
face dusky from the hot suns of many CEN
tuires. Under her turban such achings OF
brow as only dying nation feels; her eyes
hollow with unutterable woe; the tears
rolling down her sunken cheek; her back
bent with more agonies than she knows
how to carry; her ovens containing moth.
ing but ashes. Gaunt, CHASTITY, wasted,
the dew Of death upon her forehead and a
pallor such as the last hour brings, she
stretches forth her trembling hand toward
us and with hOarse whisper she says: Il
am dying! Give me bread! That is what
l want! Bread Give it to me quick.
! Give it to me now. Bread, bread, bread"
America has heard the cry. Many thou.
sands of dollars have already been contrib.
uted One ship laden with breadstuffs
| has sailed from San Francisco for India.
| Our senate and house of representatives in
a bill signed by our sympathetic president
have authorized the secretary of the navy
to charter vessel to carry food to the
famine sufferers, and you may help fill
| that ship. We want to send at least 600,
900 bushels of corn. That will save the
lives of at least 600 900 people. Many will
respond in contributions of money, and the
| barns and corncribs of the entire United
States will pour forth their treasures OF
food. When that ship is laden till it can
carry no more, we will ask him who holds
the winds in his fist and plants his trium
! plant foot on stormy waves to let nothing
but good happen to the ship till it anchors
in Bengal or Arabian waters. They who
help by contributions of money or bread
stutfs toward filling that relief ship will
| flavor their own food for their lifetime
with appetizing qualities and insure theil
own welfare through the promise of him
who said, Blessed is he that consdereth
the poor; the Lord will deliver him in
| time of trouble
| Something to Eat.
Oh, what a relief ship that will bel II
shall not turn u screw nor hoist "a sail un
til we have had something to do with its
cargo. just II years ago from these Eas
| ter times a ship on similar errand went out
| from New York harbor-the old war frig
| ate Constellation. 1t had once carried
| guns of death, but there was famine in
| Ireland, and the Constellation was loaded
| with 500 tons of food. That ship once
covered with smoke Of battle, then cover
ed with Easter hosannas! That ship con.
structed TO battle England, going forth
| over the waters to carry relief to some OF
her starving subjects. Better than sword
| into plowshare, better than spear into
pruning hook was that old war frigate
turned into white winged angel of resur
rection to roll away the stone from the
mouth of Ireland's sepulcher
On like errand five years ago the ship
Leo put out with many tons of food for
famine struck Russia. One Saturday aft
ernoon, on the deck of that steamer as she
lay at Brooklyn wharf, wondrous scene
"A
Daughters had decorated the ship with
streamers and bunting, American and
Russian flags INTERVENING. Thousands of
people on the wharfs and on the decks
joined us in invoking Gods blessing on
the cargo, and the long meter Doxology in
"Old Hundred sounded grandly up amid
the masts and ratlines. Having had the
JOY of seeing that ship thus consecrated,
| hDI 4 ha oHJ
the docks of st. Petersburg when the
planks of the relief ship were thrown out
and the representatives of the MUNICIPAL
ties and Of royalty went aboard her, the
long freight train at the same time rolling
down to take the food to the starving, and
on alternate cars of that train American
and Russian flags floating. But now the
hunger in India is mightier than any that
Ireland or Russia ever suffered. Quicker
ought to be the response and on so vast q
scale that the one ship would become a
whole tlotilla-Ncw York sending one,
Boston another, Philadelphia another,
Charleston another, New Orleans another
Then let them all meet in some harbor of
India What peroration of mercy for the
nineteenth century Iwould like to stand
on the wharf at Calcutta or Bombay and
see such II fleet come in. With what JOY
it would be Welcomed The emaciated
would lift their heads on shriveled hands
and elbows and with thin lips ask, lis it
coming-something to eat?" And whole
villages and towns, too weak to walk,
would crawl out on hands and knees to
get the first grain of corn they could reach
and put it to their furnished lips. May |
cry out for you and for others to those suf-
ferers Wait little longer, bear up lit
tie more, dying men of India O starry
ing women! emaciated babes Relief
is on the way, and more relief will soon
be coming. We send it in the name of the
Asiatic Christ, who said, L was hungry
and ye fed me; inasmuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these, my breth-
rem, ye have done it unto me.
Christian people Of America! l call
your attention to the fact that we may
now as never before, by one magnificent
stroke open the widest door for the evangel-
ization of Asia. A stupendous obstacle in
the way of Outstanding Asia has been
the difference of language, but all those
people understand the gospel of bread. An
other obstacle has been the law of oqste.
but in what better way can we teach them
the brotherhood of man? Another huge
difficulty in the way of Outstanding Asia
has been that those people thought the re-
ligion we would have them take was no
better than their Hindooisn or Moham