Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1903-03-06
SWEDEN'S DIRE famine
Description Of Suffering In the
Stricken District.
RELIEF Is BARELY ADEQUATE.
Mothers Unable TO Properly Nosr-
fsh Their Babes-No Fodder to
Feed Cattle Families of Eight
often Found Living In wretched
Huts.

Huts.
A correspondent Of the London Mail,
writing from Pajala. Sweden, under
the date of Feb, u. says:
have now reached point forty-five
miles within the arctic circle, and TO
send this message necessitated a drive
OF forty miles TO the nearest telephone
office. from which IL would be telephon-
ed to Haparanda.
crossed the arctic circle In a blind
Ing snowstorm on the way from Mata-
.engi to KorpIlombolo. During a sledge
tour of the district noted on all sides
evidences of starving population.
The temperature was o degrees below
zero. which was considered mild day
in this locality.
The population consists Of about 1900
persons scattered over a wide area.
Practically nine out Of every ten are in
want and are barely existing ON the
starvation allowance Of the relief sta
tions. The majority OF the people have
have had but little OF the sour skinned
milk which constitutes, with a hard
black Swedish barley meal bread, their
main sustenance. Many cattle have
had to be killed on account of the lack
of fodder. The relief food in this dis
trict will give out shortly and II more
is not then forthcoming the people
must inevitably starve.
The local sheriff and the pastor told
me that they estimated II would re-
quire about 81 (S35j to supply an aver
age family of six with just sufficient
food to keep them alive until June,
which Is the sowing time. During the
same period fodder for each COW would
cost 60 (S45l. Both the sheriff and pas
tor regard the immediate future with
the gravest apprehension. All relief
food has TO be carried about seventy
miles after leaving the railway.
During my journey on Saturday
saw some most depressing sights. In
many cases a family Of eight are living
in small hut, such as would not be
used for sheltering cattle In England.
They have scarcely any furniture, and
their beds are but heap OF rags. De-
spite the terrible cold these poor people
are too impoverished to be able to af-
ford proper windows, and the chinks
between the logs are often very made
quately stuffed with moss and paper.
One may imagine the horrible condi-
ton of the single roomed dwellings,
In one hut In Korpilombolo | saw two
teacups wound round with string.
They were the only crockery in the
place. The huts are picturesque to
look at but they hide woeful amount
Of destitution and hopeless misery.
In many cases babies are so enact
ated on account of their mothers being
too weak to afford them sustenanee
that in all probability scores of them
will die before the summer. The near
est doctor to Korpilombolo lives at
distance of forty-nine miles.
visited two villages ten miles apart
in the forest. In one hut found sew
en- motherless children. Their father
walked TO Gellivare, over 100 miles
away, to find work some months ago,
but has not returned, and in the mean-
time the children have been kept alive
by the aid of the neighbors as poor as
themselves. The little ones are in
charge of Anna, the eldest girl, who Is
only thirteen. and the youngest is four.
The older children are stinting them
selves for the sake Of the younger. The
same poverty prevails in all the huts
around
In the other village found woman
melting snow for drinking water, Of
which the supply is very short. The
bread had nearly given out, and the
villagers were overwhelmed with Joy
when supplied with some more. Sew
eral starving folk begged for food from
me at Korpilombolo. gave them bread
and meat, and an old woman, nearly
blind and barely able to walk, wept
tears of joy when given meat, Of which
she had not eaten since the summer.
Another woman became almost hys-
terical with joy when given preserved
meat and expressed her thanks in the
form of blessings In Finnish.