The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-03-02
NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS
FOR CHINESE RELIEF

A letter was received in Richmond
yesterday from DR. James B. Woods,
a medical missionary in China, who
has been active in relief work in the
famine district.
DR.. Woods is o son of the Rev. Ed
gar Woods. Of Charlottesville, grad
uate of the University OF Virginia,
and has been for the past twelve years
in China as a missionary of the South
crn Presby terrain Church.
DR.. Woods says in regard to the
famine situation:
THE district affected is about 10000
square miles in area, and has a popu-
lation of about 100000, and is about
400 miles northwest of Shanghai.
The continued and heavy rains of
the past summer flooded the low. fiat
country The wheat crop was ruined
before 1T could be threshed. The fall
crops. consisting OF corn, beans. pea
nuts and sweet potatoes, we're & com.
plcte failure.
Selling Children.
Small farms are the rule y man
who has five acres is fairly we'll OFF.
This whole end of the province is no.
a rice country, but raises such pro.
ducts as we have in Virginia. The
restitution is terrible. The live stock
has long been sold off, for, as Gen-
tleman told me the other day, men
must eat pigs food this year. Dried
potato leaves boiled with handful
of grain, leaves of trees and bark from
the willow trees, constitute tho only
food of thousands. Children are being
sold for few dollars. that the parents
may not see them die
"Outside this city there arc now
100000 people living in mat booths,
six feet long by three feet high. They
are crowded together sleeping on tho
bare ground, or. at best, with thin
mating beneath them. The hum and
roar is heard plainly in the evening
like the noise of a great city. These
people are waiting for government
help They are patient ard orderly.
but not for long, unless they are fed.
| The officials are bestirring themselves.
! but the government dole will be less
| than half rations. There ore tens OF
| thousands at home who could not
come, and must starve unless help
| comes.
give cents will feed a man well for
| one day. Two and half cents will feed
| child. a street-car ticket will feed
| two children for one day. not such food
| as the people of Old Virginia are used to.
| but such as will be wholesome satisfy
| hunger and prolong life. There are still
| six months till harvest. Nothing Is re-
/. fused for food by these poor people. Help
must come soon If they are to be kept
i from starving. Food will have to be
/ given till May 25th, and contributions
should reach China by May 10th. 1t is
hoped that the wheat harvest about June
4 LIST will relieve the distress.
81 wish you could see the sights
around us every day-wan. starved
women, the pinched faces of little chill
dren, men scarcely able to walk from
weakness, gaunt, thin. tottering.'
Children Contribute.
The Times Dispatch will receive an,
contributions for famine relief, and SCI
that they are promptly forwarded through
reliable sources and without expense
The mission boards and the Red Cros
Association are providing for all saln
RES, and all funds contributed go di
, recty to the relief Of the starving. Th
following letter, received in the ofiic
Of The Times-Dispatch yesterday, wa
exceedingly gratifying to those who ar
striving to aid the sufferers and
should be an obiert lesson to many VIII
arc proving slow 10 respond:
j, Dear Editor,-Wten we read what
you said about the famine In China
, we we're SO sorry for them we thought
we would take What money we had
In our mite-b boxes and send 1t to you
to send to China, We wish It was
$ more, but we send all we have. Pey-
toms mite-hox had fifty cents In It,
slas had fifty cents, Mary had one
. dollar, and had two dollars. So that
2 is four dollars from our boxes, and
. papa Is avinp us Sne dollar, and that
makes five dollars we send.
Your friend,
: JEAN SKlPWlTH,
a Jeffress, Va.