The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-10-28
Missionary Describes Awful Suf-
ierings Of Natives.
a FAMINE NOW THREATENS.
Heroic Labors Of Roman Catholic
Priests ~ the Missien Of the Holy
Gross, where sixty Indians Have
Already Fallen Victims 70 Mys.
teRfous Ep1demto Resemb 1ing
Pneunonia, Measles and TyDhoid.

Special Correspondence Post -fntellIgencer
DAWSON. Oct. u.--Recitals of the suf-
fering OF the piague-stricken natives Of
the Siberian and the Alaskan coast and
the Lower Yukon by travellers just ar
irving up the river picture those mortals
a. enduring and living In awful misery
that may perhaps be compared with that
Of the disease and famine burdened peo-
pie OF India
A graphic picture OF the sufrerings of
= small share of the stricken on the Low
or Yukon. which may serve rs = sample
OF the awful misery IN which human
mcrtals drags out an existence OF afflic-
tion on the American continent and I'M
der the Stars and Stripes. ID given by
Rev. John II. Rene. in charge Of the
Catholic missions and churches Of Alas
ka, who has arrived here en- route from
the mouth of the Yukon to his head
quarters In Juneau He says:
Tho condition OF tho natives Is so mis-
cradle one might say death would be a
relief to them For sample instance,
on entering tent one sees a man and
his wife and three or four children and
q number of infants and other natives
lying on thin mat on a damp ground. all
prnstrhted and afflicted by the plague
All are coughing up blood and bile, and
vomiting. Matter runs from eruptions on
the ewes and nose. uneiean sores exsst
on the hesh. and 20 aggravate the mis..
night, The disease II kind Of Infectious
la ghfpps or complication of intiu-
enxn, measles and typhoid"
From Holy Cross a sample Of the SOL
emn work performed and OF the awful
Invasion Of tho death angel and the sor-
rowing path that he leaves is drawn by
Father Rene. when he describes the work
there by tho people OF his mission.
"Ry the end OF July there were sixty
nine Indians afflicted with the plague
at Holy Cross and vicinity Our Catholic
fathers and mothers did all they could 10
relieve the distress Father Parodi was
busy giving medicine. and another
father was employed all the day giving
spiritual comfort and prenarinx for the
worst. A third priest Father Creme,
was engaged burying the dead He hid
six funerals one day Sixty died at Holy
Cross alone.
There we're eighty children In the mis-.
more or iess affected by the disease. But
good caro- prevented all but ten IN the
school from dying, Sister Mary Joao-
phIns. OF the Sacred Heart who had
been suffering from heart disease, over
taxed herself IN the mercy work for the
natives. and died also,
"rhe government furnished some as
distance to the suffering natives hut X
was Inadequate. and now with the an-
proach OF winter the Frustrated Indians
find themselves without their customary
returns OF food from fahinN and the
chase and pstlfui closing chapter 10 tho
tragedy Is threatened in the coming Of
the keen Arctic winter.
'srhe Lower Yukon has lost fnanv ma
ttves at various places. but on the peslng
coast they went BY entire villages on
the Alaskan side, and an the Siberian side
Rev nr sheldon Jackson REPORTS hasf
the population succumhAd.