The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-04-07
oversprcads the features. This Is the
signature of starvation.
The Grim Reaper's Harvest.

Inc Irlfn lSeaper s Harvest.
At the end of January tho famine
deaths are only beginning. although
from the corpses ] have seen, and tho
poor, hasty grave mounds and the lit
tie rag of white on Womtn's heads, In
lieu of fun mourning, should imagine
that the grim reaper had been having
q rare harvest.
With q calm certainty that Is hor-
riblc, the missionaries assure you that
nothing now can prevent tho people
from dying by tens Of thousands dur
ing the next few months. They expect
this and plan for it. Already. like
rats In their holes. the peasants ara
dying in their homes.
The horror of il comes over one in
the concentration camps, where u host
of more than half million refugees,
fleeing from pursuing famine, have
gathered outside the walls of several
cities The world may have seen
worse spectacles OF misery than these,
but, IL so, have never heard OF them.
The people have built themselves
straw huts. In no instance largo
enough to hold Il man standing erect,
and In most cases scarcely more than
waist high. In these, on the bare
ground, Whole families huddle togcth-
er. The flimsy shelters they have
erected serve to keep out the flcrccst
OF the wintry blasts, and the direct
deluge of the rains. But at the best
there Is misery beyond words, cspe-
clally when 1t is remembered that they
are only spots upon which to sit and
wait for food or DEATH
Mrs. Sydenstricker. a missionary at
Chin-Kiang, was going through refu-
gee camp few days ago when she
came across the dead body OF wo-
man In one Of the shacks. Three chill
dren. too small to know that they
were motherlcss. had been sitting be-
side the cold, unanswering corpse for
twcnty-four hours, wondering why
| their only friend did not heed them.
| Worse. TO the point Of nerve slIatter-
ing, have been some Of the scenes I
have had to witness Of women wailing
| beside their uncotilncd dead. I fear
can never forget the picture OF ono
woman, standing dcspairingly beside
| her husbands body. which lay in tho
| street, from which she was too weak
| to lift 1t. The restitution here is really
unto dcath--and a penny a day would
| keep man alive.
! Children for Sale.
| One of tho missionary problems pre-
| cipItated by the famine Is what to do
| about the children that are constantly
! being offered for sale, or as gifts to
| the missionaries, by parents eager to
| prolong the lives OF their little ones.
! Up until the present no mission has
i
| any waits or OF starting n home for
| them. Tho pleas Of the parents are
| pitiful to the last degree. The lengths
! to which mother love Will so We're IL
| Illustrated by the answer of one Chi
| nese woman when her child complain-
ed that no was dying of hunger: II
know 1t, my child. and l would give
| you my arm to eat If 1t had any meat
| on it" One woman succeeded in sill-4
ing her baby to missonary's next
/, door neiBhbor for ten cash (half a
| cent? and she was so grateful that
she got down and knocked her head
on the ground: I have had several
| fine specimens of Chinese childhood
! offered to me.
S. The sale Of children provides pros
s.perous families with slave girls, adopt
/ cd sons and prospective dauShters-in-
| law. 1t also, alas! recruits the BROTH
ers OF the Orient. Shanghai's trafiick-s
I crs In human flesh are said already to
have gone to the famine field. Mis-
sicnarieSiin the same city are like
wise taxing steps to establish an or
phanage or home for such children as
tho parents are dsposing Of Many
Infants and invalids as we'll, are be-
ing cast on the roadside to die. or
else being thrown into the canal. Tho
homeless refugees are frantic with.
i distress, for countless homes Cas- we'll
4 as several native Christian churches)
II were washed away by tho flood which,
caused tho famine
A stream OF relief is now on ito
way to tho famine district, and 1t must
be maintained for five months. Tho
missionaries are buster far with cn-,
5 listing helpers from others parts of
a Northern China, with handling freight
boats, wheelbarrow trains, carrying
coolies, distributing stations and other
methods Of getting food to the hungry
than they are with preaching. But
their work is nlcmentaly Christian.
even II it bears no UNCONVENTIONAL or
missionary label. China and tho
4 world Will remember the missionaries
part In this famine.
Copyright, 1907. by Joseph 3. Bowles0
Where Slaves Were Traded In.
n ~ GRIM I'm o. nniutleSS. scanned