The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-27
FAMINE IS IN SPAIN
TERRIFYING CONDITIONS EXIST IN
 SEVERAL PROVINCES.
People Are Dying for Want of Food, Mortality Rate Being Especially High Among Children of
 the Districts.

Seville, Spain, Aug. 26.-Heartrend- 1 ing reports continue to reach the pro-
 vincial authorities from the outlying famine stricken districts. The latest
 reports received are from osuna and Almogia. the respective mayors of which
 notify the authorities that their re- sources are exhausted and that they are unable to further assist the fam
 ished laborers and the women and chill dren, as the distress is too acute. At
 Ecija the population has footed the
 bakers stores.
 The mortality among infants and aged persons is attaining terrifying proportions and in many localities the working people are living ~on roots The government has organized public works on a small scale, employing
 about 500 men but this is a mere drop in the ocean of misery. as a moderate calculation shows that 100000 are out of employment.
 Cardinal Sancha, having exhausted the available charitable funds, is go- ing from house to house begging for contributions, while the employees of several banks and commercial houses have decided to devote a portion of their wages toward the relief of the
 destitute Count Romanones, Minister
 of Agriculture, has just concluded personal inquiry in the depressed dis tricts, following on the relief fund of
 $500, 900 voted by the government His
 report creates the impression that he-
 roic measures for relief are essential.
 The count journeyed from end to end of AndaIusia and everywhere in the
 four provinces comprised therein he
 was confronted with pictures of deso- Iation.
 The territory most stricken forms circle embracing Seville. Jerez, Cadiz,
 Malaga and Cordova, where natural
 forces appear to have combined against
 the peoples welfare. The rivers for years past have been gradually filling with sand, hindering navigation and commerce. The district always has
 been dry, but this year two months drought, beginning in the spring. de- stroyed all hopes for the reaping of
 crops and rendered the. lanscape practi- cally a desert, resembling portions of
 Morocco. The population is almost en- tirely composed of day laborers who depend on agricultural employment
 and when that fails. practically every body Is thrown into O condition of in- digence.
 It Is calculated that third of the population emigrated in recent years to South America and these emigrants naturally included the most robust. The
 soli. owing to lack of irrigation. Is be- coming more and more unproductive, and the patience of the people is now nearly exhausted.
 The absence of the landlords and un- fulfilled electioneering promises, added to the fact that women and children are suffering the agonies of slow star | vation. have led the people to listen to agitators who melted them to violence, the result of which Is seen in attacks on farms, the seizure and killing of flocks of sheep and the threat of armed invasion of the towns. Murmurs of revolution have awakened apprehension and the farmers everywhere are taking refuge in the cities. while the police regard acts of pillage with indifference, refusing to arrest men who frequently | accuse themselves in order to obtain fnAd