The Taney County republican., 1907-09-26

crouched a wrlnkled. bent and tattered
old mother, with scarcely sufficient
vitality to make her mourning heard
After time she arose and with her
bare hands heaped clods of earth upon
the conical grave mound The widow,
who could afford no mourning garb ex-
cept small square OF white cloth the
size of q handkerchief upon her head,
wept and walled as only an oriental
woman can do. Her body shook with
shudderlng sohs All the grief OF the
ages seemed embodied in her mourn.
Ing. This famine means more To those
two lonely women than Il does to my
scientific friend
Near the same spot mlddlc-aged
man, with some mourning rags Of
white upon him. fell on his knees as
we approached, and cmtchcd at our
clothing. Plainly. he had gone to
pieces. Tie was nervous wreck, as
well as starving man. lie had just
been out burying his old mother. and
grief, combined with hunger, had been
too much for him, SO, in an almost
delirious frenzy, he besought the hon,
orable foreigners with noble hearts to
help him. Our only possible course
was 10 shake him off and pass on.
In an elemental struggle such as
this, between man and hunger, with
existence itself rs the stake at issue,
1t Is scarcely surprising to find rever.
sionS to beast.selilshness 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 or FIVE feet
long | was not astonished to learn
that her husband had deserted her:
that has been the way of some hus.
bands in every such disaster. The as,
tonishing fact is that so many parents
and husbands are loyal; ii is royalty
common among these uncOuntcd fam
Inc victims to find the parents wan
and emaciated and the little children
comparatively ruddy. True, many pa
rents are selling or giving away their
children, and even drowning them, but
this is usually an expression of solicl
tudc for the child's welfare. Even the
sale of little daughters into slavery
must not be judged by occidental
standards. Several mothers have be,
sought me to buy their children, or to
accept them as gift This morning
| mad pressed on me by a forlurn
mother as healthy specimen of Chi.
ncso babyhood as one would care to
possess, Having been driven from the
refugee camp, with her family and pos.
sessions on wheelbarrow, she was on
her way back to the country to starve,
she said and fear she spoke truly.
Practically the entire famine dis
trict has been almost wholly cleared
Of live stock. I'VE have no beasts, and
men are eating beasts food" is the
way one farmer suCcinctly put it, He
meant that the people are living on
grass, bark, roots, leaves and such
like This morning | inspected the
houses of almost an entire village
| looking for f0od--and such bare
crude, filthy and cnmfortlcss homes
they are-and nowhere did | see q
grain OF rice. The whole village is
subsisting upon dried sweet potato
leaves, which found cooking oyel
many stoves. out here it Is custom
ary 10 extract the oil from peanuts
and then to press peanuts. shells and
all, into a hard cake as cattle fodder
| Beans are treated In the same manner
| Now these dried cakes are sold a.
food for human beings. | watched on,
man, on whose features grim hunge,
had written large her signature, bu,
a portion Of this. He was given :
wedge about four inches long. thre,
inches deep, and possibly two inches
wide at the outer edge, for 20 cash
which is two.thirds of the government
allowance per day for an adult. Th
avidity with which he seized and de
voured dry few additional crumbs
the little more" that goes with ever,
bargain in China--~as eloquent of th,
cravings of his body.
This dole Of so daily cash-euuIva
lent to one and half cents, American
currency-the Chinese governmen
pledges to give every sufferer In III,
famine district north of the Yang,z,
river. II really seems as If the highe
officials are in earnest, and extraor
dlnary efforts are being made to pre-
vent squeezing by the other official
through whose hands the money mus
pass. This is one of the manifesto
tiCns of a new" China which aboun,
these days. OF course, the attempt 4
not wholly successful. and myriads O
starving people have not received
single cash. Most of those who hay,
encamped. omnously, outside of th
walls Of several cities have been helr
ed; for the officials fear them. Now
with force and fair promises. III
larger part Of these refugees are bein
driven back into the country, All @
them distrust the official promises O
help. The assistance that is at prc,
ent extended is not expected to hoI
out for a month, since a cent and
half day given to 100000 person