The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1907-04-25

make their crops grow the past season
| their only hope nf sustenance was
gone.
square miles of Russian territory there
was sowing but no reaping. The peas
ants hopefully put their little store of
seed grain into the ground When the
| arid land failed to return a crop, not
only were they robbed of the fruits OF
| their toll, but their seed grain itself,
which might have served as food, was
gone. There was nowhere to turn for
work or succor. Hundreds Of miles
away there We're cities, but the few
daring ones who reached them sent
back the hopeless words: mo work."
Wholesale "Grafting."
In 1891, when the famine killed hun
| dreds, the Russian government hit
| upon the eXpedient of forbidding the
word hunger" but the famine Of the
| present is so much greater that the
government is fully alive to it. Be-
sides having appropriated $4,000, 900
| already, 1T is now negotiating loan
OF $3I 100000 more for famine relief
| But even this sum is totally made ,iate
| to the work in hand, especially as half
of the money will line the pockets of
| official grafters to whom the deaths OF
thousands of poor peasants Is merely
an unfortunate incident in their own
! short cut to wealth.
| At present the relief work in Russia
consists of doing out pound of bread
day to sufferers. The aged and
minors get nothing.
Some families of five or six have
perhaps two who draw bread. Other
| families have none. If two OF fam
4 lily of six draw bread and divide it
equally it means that each member
eats one-third of a pound day. The
regular diet cf q Russian peasant is
| five pounds of bread daily. Thus tho
most fortunate are now existing upon
one-fifteenth Of their regular fare, or,
ITO an American who has three square
| meals a day, two meals in three
4 weeks.
| The very seeds Of the weeds have
| been eaten and the ground has been
! stripped of every green thing. The lit
| tie horses have all been sold or eaten,
and the occasional cows, TOO. Nothing
! remains but the hope of relief from
| the outside. There is no wood for
| fires and many families have joined
together in one house for warmth.
tearing the other dwellings down for
| fuel.
4 II is estimated that in the province
| of Samara alone there will be 100000
! deaths in total population Of 3,000,-
900, and others of the 81 provinces af
fected will have Ike averages.
Seek Aid Of the World.
Determined efforts are now being
/ made to enlist the sympathy of the
world with the suffering, ignorant
peasants, and cmissaries have been
! sent 20 this and other countries. NJ
Shiskoff who is in America to enlist
aid, says that SIS will save the life of
an adult and that S. will keep child
| from dying.
The immigrants to Boston from Rus
STA arr mostly people from the pale
and they are taxed several times a
year to help their prosecuted friends
and relatives at home. 1t is estimated
! that delegates from Russia took not
less than $1,000 out of Boston last
year to help the victims of persecu-
ton; and probably $4,000 more was
either to relieve suffering or to help
them to emigratc.
To the Russian Jews in this city the
famine tragedy now enacting is the
climax of misery long drawn out. They
will do what they can, but as one of
the men at the civic service house on
Salem street said the other day:
Where our people can get more
money to send to Russia Is a puzzle;
they have drained their purses time
and time again and now 1t remains
for all the charitable in general over
here to do their share"
The famine means tremendous set
back to Russia. At present the prob
lem Is how to obtain food. Later will
come the question of the future Of
provinces whose people have lost
| farms, animals and savings and have
no money. Friends of Russia, how
ever, see promise of better times
ahead, although this necessarily in
wolves vast amount of work. The
hope of the peasant I'm the famine area
lies in his education In modern farm
ing methods to take the place of the
thousand-year-old customs which he
still follows and In the installation Of
great systems OF irrigation SO that
crops may be grown even when the
4 rain fails