The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1907-04-26

Boston.-On the .treeless steppes of
Russia, beyond the pale" and in the
arid districts OF northeastern Chna
thousands of human beings are dying
Tor want of food. Lack of rain in the
hrst instance, excess of it in the sec
ond is the cause.
Five provinces in China and 81 in
Russia are affected, and, while from
the former country come awful tales
of the bartering of human flesh for
food. of the sale of little children, and
OF the breaking out of the plague
among the close-packed sufferers, from
Russia comes a wall of despair, where
men, women and children are trying
TO cling to life, with almost nothing to
eat and with no fuel in a temperature
OF 25 degrees below zero.
Conditions are such in both coun-
tries that it is estimated that what in
this country would be the price of a
single visit to the theater would save
human life until returning crops
bring self-support.
The Christian Herald of New York.
which has taken charge of the Ameri-
can end OF the Chinese famine relief,
pledged itself to supply 10000 900
pounds OF flour. corn. cornmeal, medi-
cal supplies, etc, in addition TO what
had already been sent. The govern
ment gave the army transport Gen.
Buford To carry this consignment from
San Francisco In SHANGHAI
Government Aid Inadequate.
In Russia the famine is being re-
lieved to some extent by government
aid, but the restrictions this aid car
ries with it make it very inadequate.
1t involves the delivery of one pound
of bread a day only to sufferers less
than II and more than 50 years of
age. Infants under one year and all
the vast majority between II and SO
get nothing except what the unselfish
among the more fortunate are willing
10 share. And, above and beyond this.
there is the fact that the black hand
of Russian official graft appropriates
for private ends at least one.half of
the money the government voted for
relief
Bishop Potter, of New York. is pres
ident and Dr. Samuel j. Barrows. for
merly Of Boston. is secretary of the
American relief for Russia.
It is hard to Judge between the two,
but perhaps the situation in China is
the more pitiable al present. Stats
tics gathered early in February in one
of the dve stricken Chinese provinces
showed a total of $4,000 deaths. This
is but a small section of the awful
aggregate
A foreign correspondent writing in
description of the affected districts
says: Every semblance of grass
plants and roots has disappeared, and
starving parents are eating their chill
dren. know this TO be true, and
have myself found human flesh on
sale"
Three Months in Famine's Grip.
The district involved in the famine
is known as "Kianpeh," meaning
north OF the river" the stream being
the Yangtse. For more than three
InOnLub tAiN ltElOu III fOIAntlD AsUlud
has been in the remorseless grasp OF
famine and famine-hred disease. Forty
days of rain and consequent floods
heaped calamity upon the 10000
square miles of territory and its 49,.
100000 OF people Before new crops
can be raised IL Is estimated that.
despite the best efforts for relief, the
death list will exceed that of Naples,
San Francisco and Jamaica rolled into
one.
wrlting after a tour through one of
the famine camps of $4,000 starving
refugees, correspondent said recent
ly: Little more than an hour ago
saw two women. presumably mother
and grandmother, wailing over the
tiny coffin of a child that had been
part of grim famine's daily toll.
1T is all so horrible so overpower-
ing, SO haunting, so heartrending. that
one cannot write OF IL in orderly fash
ion. II seems as If only the repeated
cry of Help Help Helpn can be
fashioned for the ears of the prosper
Gus American people. to whom God
has given a year OF plenty. while the
poor of China perish from want.
out of the awful mass Of suffering
a succession of individual pictures
comes trooping before my vision.
There was the man. too weak to stand
erect. who bore on his back. as older
brothers carry babies in China. his
blind old mother, the mere skln-an-
bone framework of a woman. They
wanted help. and pleaded for 1T in the
thin whine OF the utterly miserable
and dared not give them so much as
copper.
The Mothers Suffering.
"or that mother. hard-eyed and