Evening star., 1899-03-24
OTIS PLANS A BLOW NEW SEED CON TRACT STARvII
Will Put Brigade the Insurgents Secretary
Rear Done Here. Oh
10 CUT OFF LINE OF RETREAT AID 10 THE UNEMPLOYED APPEAL 10
Employment Of the Former Span Total Wages $500 Distress WI
sh Gunboats Week Viii Be Paid
STARVING MILLIONS
Terrible Condition of Affairs In the
Chinese Interior.
APPEAL TO CHARITABLE AMERICANS
Distress Was Never So Great as
Now.
SUFFERING FROM FLOODS

Several citizens of the United States re-
siding In Chefoo. China, have made an
earnest appeal, through Consul Fowler, at
Chefoo to the charitable in America and
elsewhere on behalf of the sufferers from
the appalling Yellow river floods of this
year. These foods have been described by
the natives as "China's SORROW, and the
petitioners state that never before was the
distress so great and heartrendng as now.
The most cCI servative estimates place the
number of starving at 2n0,oon, and in
time the Increasing cold weather will un-
doubtedIy greatly augment the distress.
The petitioners saysthat they are daily,
almost hourly, in receipt Of reports from
their countrymen in the interior depicting
the condition of the famine refugees; hun
dreds of villages are submerged; cities sur
rounded by water: homes. furniture, cloth
ing-in fact, everything is under water or
destroyed; the ratives themselves are ny
ing in straw huts: many nave absoluteiy
no shelter from the winters cold ana Snow
subsisting on bark. willow twigs, roots, &c.
The summers crops haze been failure,
the seed fer next springs sowing Is gone
ard there is nothing for these starving
millions to hope for in the future.
with our knowledge of the. .terribie want
prevailing says the American committee,
we venture to call upon the charitable IN
our homeland to assist us in trying to aile-
yiate at least portion of this misery.
Therefore We shall be glad to receive con-
tributions of money and corn. we earnest
ly beg the merchants and others on the Pa
cific coast to contribute steamer load OF
corn. The natives of Shantung. unlike
those down south. subsist upon corn and
we believe that if the grain men of the
west will ship to the United States consul
al Cheefoo direct from the Pacific slope
steamer loaded with corn it Will be the
means of not only saving thousands of
lives, but of opening up market of from
%, ,0o1,0oo to :g,0ua,0o0 consumers later on,
as, under normal conditions American corn
can easily compete with native; and IL TINS
corn be sent we guarantee that it will be
supervision of Americans now residing in
or near the submerged districts, We ask
for money to be sent to the United States
consul here with which food. clothing,
stock can be bought for the sufferers. and
We guarantee strict accounting for every
dollar thus received. Shantung is pecu-
larly interesting to American merchants,
as the best market for their products in all
China; to the missionaries, because there
prising us adults. scattered all over this
vast province, and to whom We look to
assist us in distributing such relief as we
may receive. Probably in no place in the
world. and probably not in this generation,
has there been much suffering as is now
being endured in Shantung. The natives
are doing all in their power. one firm in
thefOo has contributed the equivalent of
$4,000 in cash and 10000 bags of corn, and
all classes are contributing: but let us not
forget that there are 2,0h,0U0 starving
The petition is signed by John Fowler
l.. II. Smith, Hunter Corhett W. O. Elite
rich, George Cornwell and c. =. Downing.