The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-04-07
FAMINE INCIDENTS IN CHINA
Death from Starvation a Roadside
Incident Causing No Remark.
stOIcaI DemeaHor of the People as
They wait the End-Re-
lief work.

I cannot write anything says William
T. Ellis ia the Missionary Herald. but the
haunting narrowing, inescapable facts
before my eyes. II / could for an hour
shake of those thin. trembling hands that
clutch my coat as I pass through the
famine camps, or could shut out the cry
ing OF the children. whose bitterest wall
ing brings them no bread. or the sight Of
the mothers and widows wailing over their
dead might write famine report that
would satisfy the reader with scientific
bumps on his head.
Once / thought China a coIorloss coun-
try. with its vast stretches Of brown,
trccIess plains. its low mud villages. and
Its countless array Of grave mounds on
every side. Now, close 10 barred human
nature, / see the people in the strong,
crude coiors Of q primitive art. A famine
death here is not like a deathbed in Chris
tendon. IL is a roadside matter. with
the curious spectators, uncaring and un-
helping, looking on uniIoved az the last
commissions with which spirit moves body,
and hearing, almost as an amusement.
the death rattle in the throat. \ family
OF ten came down from the north eeUH-
try. three perishins from hunger BY the
way. In the city where ! write the father
succumbed and fell beside his dying child
in the gutter. lie expired as my friend
looked. The crowd let him die and lie in
the gutter; my friend, being missionary
doctor. saved the life Of the child and
cared for the remainder Of the family.
IN an elemental struggle such as this
between man and hunger. with existence
itself as the stake al issue, it is scarcely
surprising 10 md reversions to beast sell
fishness. So when ] saw woman with
two little children, one of them suffering
from smallpox, living in a mat hut three
feet high. three feet wide, and four feet
long, / was not astonished TO learn that
her husband had deserted her, that has
been the way OF some husbands in every
such disaster. The astonishing fact Is
that so many parents and husbands are
loyal: il is royalty common among these
uncountcd famine victims 10 ind the par
ents wan and emaciated and the little
children comparatively rudy. True,
many parents arc selling or giving away
their children. and even drowning them,
but this is usually an expression of solicit
LUlB TOT the EUllQ EtAlGlt- l2NtA TIE
sale OF little daughters into slavery mus
not be judged by Occiden&l standards.
Several mothers have bes0ught me TO buy
their children or to accept them as a
gift This morning / had pressed on me
by a forlorn mother as healthy q speci-
men Of Chinese babyhoOd as one would
care 20 possess. Having been driven from
the refugee camp. with her family and
possessions on a wheelbarrow. she was on
her way back 10 the country to starve,
she said, and feared she spoke truly.
The stoicism with which, having ex-
hausted all possibilities Of lettering his
lot. a Chinese viii sit down to await the
end IN an interesting and admirable trait,
There is nothing of a pose about this, it is
his way. learned in a long. long school OF
endurance and suffering When farmer
said to a missionary whom he knew, Il
have been ten days in the camp, but
could not get a m0rsel Of food. Now
am going back home to eat my dog and
then starve." he meant literally that.
This dole Of thirty daily cash-equiva-
lent to ~ cents American currency-ths
Chinese government pledges to give every
sufferer in the famine district north Of the
Yangtze River It really seems as if the
higher officials are in earnest, and ex-
traordinary efforts are being made 10 pre-
vent Squeezing" by the other officials
through whose hands the money must
pass.