Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-02-06
have missed connection somewhere.
The weather is sufficiently ~groundhog-
gish as it stands without any blizzard
attachment.
INDIA FAMINE HORRORS
REPEATED IN CHINA.

S
during the year past, are being repeat
ed in two provinces of China at the
present time, and the details at hand
show that at least fifteen millions of
people are involved, The deaths are
past enumeration, the suffering is
known only to Omnipotence. The peo-
pie in certain localities have been
driven to cannibalism; the domestic
animals have Deen eaten; the wood
work of the dwellings has been con-
sumed for fuel; ONE sell their chill
dren for a few scanty meals; men give
away their wives for the sake of life;
the babies are killed, that their walls
for food may be stilled.
The cause rests partially upon the
war following the international com
plications caused by the Boxer move
ment-and partially upon three sea-
sons of bad crops. The scenes of deep
est distress are the provinces of Shansi
and Shensi, west and south of Picking.
Shensi is the province in which the
Court has taken refuge, and contains
a population of IL, 1000, 900. Shansi has
a population of 5000, 900. The Court is
at ~Singan-fu, with an estimated 5000
of retainers and officials and %, 900
soldiers. Their presence only adds to
the popular distress, because their
mouths are filled three times a day,
while the millions go hungry. Much
food is sent in from adjoining pro-
vinces, but it goes to the Imperial
forces and attaches, and does not re-
lieve the popular distress in the slight
est degree.
The details, as in India, are sad
enough to arouse the commiseration of
a world. Men are selling their wives
and children to whoever will buy. to
procure food. Parents, driven insane
by the ~pleadings of their little ones
for the sustenance which cannot be
supplied, kill the children to stop their
cries. In the cities and towns, swarm
ing with helpless people, men and
m descend like a swarm of To-
Gusts upon any n in possession Of
anything to eat, and there is murder
and bloOdshed in the resulting fight
for the food. The oxen, horses, dogs,
and goats have long since been sacri-
feed for food; and without shelter, be-
cause the houses have been burned for
warmth against the severe winter,
without cables, because all provis-
ions have been eaten, and without
hope, because hope is gone, the miser-
able inhabitants are dying by thou5-
ands, and those remaining alive have
turned dark in color from the lack of
blood, and are reduced to such skele-
tons that the wonder is that breath
still remains in their emaciated bodies.
An English writer on the ground de-
picts the scene in all its awfulness. He
says:
81 have seen such skeletons that l
wondered how breath still fingers in
them. Their feet dangle and turn in
any direction, so loose have become
the tendons and muscles. With the
best of care it would only be possible
to fan for a time the spark of life, to
see it finally extinguished. Women
and children are being sold or given
away. Infanticide is increasing on a
terrible scale. The ordinary food Of
the wolves will be living babies, which,
as in the last famine, will turn them
into fierce m~an-eaters."
The same writer says that the pagans
at the present moment are developing
their worst traits. 1t is a common
thing to hear such appeals as Buy my
land or l will kill myself" Give me a
morsel of bread or | will destroy myself
at your door" "Appease my hunger"
says a feminine voice, and I will fol-
low YOU" A mother says: Take my
ohf11 nOr ~o1tr,- o1no- >, 80 I,clzrl
will say: 'fMy wife is yours forever for
a few strings of copper"
These statements are c~orrobOrated by
other writers. Men and women hunt
for food in savage bands. Nothing that
might appease their hunger escapes
them. Fierce fights among themselves
frequently follow when they overtake
prey.
1t is now the dead of winter in Man
churia. and it is a cold climate. No
relief is possible, except by way of gifts
OF food. until next summers crops are
planted, grown and are harvested. and
with the domestic animals killed for
food. these crops, even if conditions
are propitious, will be grown under
exceptional and most difficult. condi-
lions. The international forces can do
nothing in the way of relief. for the
locality is remote from the sphere Of
action and control about Picking. The
few missionaries formerly in these
northwestern provinces are dead or
have fled. The Chinese government.
itself a fugitive, is powerless to pro-
vide ave for the immediate wants of
the Imperial household and the troops
about the Court. Apparently the mil
lions Of helpless people must suffer
and die, a they died in India despite
the powerful and intelligent aid of the
British government.
The year just past saw millions of
deaths from sheer starvation on this
planet of plenty. The present year
holds forth the grim and awful prom
Use Of a like calamity. And the world
must. or does. stand by and see such
tragedies enacted. Verify, the dawn of
the twentieth century brings with it
the need for a limitless charity, as did
the close of the nineteenth. B.