The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-02-19
AWFUL STORY
Of THE FAMINE.

"For | was an hungcrcd, and ye gave
me meat. -
The great duty and privilege of the
church of Christ in the world is to
minister to the needs of mankind, both
spiritual and physical. 1t is to visit
the fatherless, care for the needy, feed
the hungry, as well as to preach the
gospel of salvation. For indeed the
gospel is without power, unless it leads
to life Of love, a love that goes out
to all in distress and suffering.
"I was an hungered. How few
of us really know what it is to be hun.
cry. And when the story Of famine
comes, how little can we realize the
awful suffering it unfolds. Last week
another steamer came from China,
bringing the latest news of the famine,
and telling the story of thousands there
who are feeling this fearful suffering
of starvation and DEATH How little
we can know of the horror of it all!
The story can never be told in it's awful
details. Letters so far received give
but small part, and are far from
being exaggerated. The half will new
er be known.
Special correspondent Mr.. Ellis, of
the Christian Herald, telegraphs from
Using Kiang Pu: "The famine is big
ger than reported; at least three mil
lions have to be fed" In the great
flooded plain west of the city, DR..
Woods of Husain reports that over ten
thousand families are in a state of ex-
treme destitution. They are in most
desperate condition, with no grain or
food whatever. This about the middle
Of January. If these people are to
live, it is only by affording relief at
once. He writes: "One is haunted
by the awful cry for bread! bread!
bread! all round us, going up from
thousands. We earnestly hope the
committee will send help to these peo-
pie whose need is SO great"
Another account written in January
from Using Kiang, tells the pitiful sto-
ry: "We are living in the midst of
very pitiful scenes just now. We see
children left to die on the road; others
stripped of their clothing and deserted;
women weeping; others sold for food;
families committing suicide wholesale,
or dying in patches of starvation. Oh,
it is awful! The figures run into the
millions. The roads are full of hun
cry men getting desperate. The Of
ficials are trying to break up this great
camp and send the people home again,
promising relief in their native villages.
Some are now returning, but it is a
question whether the officials will make
their promises good. Many families
will 60 back to starvation and death.
Hundreds will die on the road. There
is not enough food for these destitute
Walter Kirton writes, about the mid
die of January, from the great camp
at Using Kiang city: "The narrow
street was thronged and it was with
greatest difficulty that we made our
way through the surging masses. At
the bridge head we saw what was to
us the first fruit of famine, dead Chi
-
nese. Pulling his jacket aside with
my stick, saw that his ribs were lit
orally through his skin, this being
cracked and the body being absolutely
fieshless. Never before have I seen
such beings as 1 saw here. have
seen life and death in its crudest forms,
battle, murder, sudden death and
worse-but never before have seen
such concentrated misery, such inde-
scribable horrors, as were to be witness
ed in the streets and camps of this city.
have never seen famine before, but
l have had some inkling of what real
hunger means, but starvation is an
other thing. There is not a scrap of
animal or vegetable matter left in the
dirttor dust, or among the cobble stones
in the pavement on the streets of this
city. But if the sights in the city
were bad, the scenes in the camps out
side the walls were worse. Close pack
ing was the rule. In squares (about
l25 yards square) each surrounded by
a kind of wall, counted, finding from
1000 to 1900 huts in each. Inside
these walls and bitches was congrega-
ted a sum of human misery which would
require a pen of Zola to adequately
Hunger and abomination,
the abomination of desolation = and
worse. They were eating leaves and
grass and something that might be rice
the truth is that 1 can u |
say anything more about them, except |
hat they were human beings in or ap.
preaching an extremity of the direst
Another eyewitness at this camp
writes (Jan. 16) after careful number.
ng: ~ saw enough to convince me
hat my estimate of 100000 people was