Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-17
SCENES IN FAMINE
STRICKEN CHINA DESCRIBED BY
AMERICAN EYEWITNESS.

hundreds of men, in the indescribable grip
Of the primitive passion of hunger; yet
not grain was stolen. At Tsn-kang- pu,
city of about 100000 inhabitants. 1 saw
tons of rice SO displayed. and all the res
taurants open to the street. while outside
the city wall were cncamped 800 900 famish-
ing refugees. driven from their homes by
want and many of them dying daily from
actual starvation. YangchoW has an en-
campment of $4,000 refugees. of whom the
Chinese governor said that 1000 died in
single night of cold and starvation.
Marking has three camps of these miser-
able mortals. with about. 100000 people
in Them and Chinkiang has 10000. These,
moreover. are the strong who are able to
pile their meager goods or the family
wheelbarrow and travel south from the
North river famine district: of the other
myriads who are perishing in their homes
written description of the deat!l-throes
of a rat in its hole.
If this were a properly symmetrical arti-
Gle it would have dealt at the outset with
the summer rains and floods which mum
dated this great plain of central China. de-
stroying the crops and. in thousands OF
cases. washing away the mud homes Of the
peasants. Ii would likewise have exploite
the culpable inefficiency of the Chinese GOV
eminent for not having inaugurated SyS-
tenn OF relief before the people began to
drop from starvation. Also 1t would have
pointed out The many public works right [
hand upon which the famine sufferers could
be employed. thus saving their self-respect
as well as their lives But for the life Of
me cannot write anything but the haunt
ing, narrowing. inescapabie facts before my
eyes. II | could for an hour shake of those
thin, trembling hands that clutch my coat
as l pass through the famine camps. or
could shut out the crying of the children
Irhn
bread, or the sight of the mothers and
widows wailing over their dead. 1 might
write a famine report that would satisfy
the reader with scientific bumps on his
head.
Once 1 thought China colorless coun-
try, with it's vast stretches of brown, tree
less plains. its low mud villages. and its
countless array of grave mounds on every
side. Now. close to barred human nature
1 see the people in the strong. crude colors
of a primitive art. famine death here Is
not like deathbed in Christendom. 1t is
a roadside matter with the curious specta-
tors, uncaring and unhelping, looking on
unmoved at the last commissions with which
spirit leaves body and hearing la;t, almost as
throat. family of ten came down from
the north country. three perishing from
hunger by the way. In the city where I
write the father succumbed and fell beside
his dying child in the gutter. He ex-
pired as my friend looked. The crowd
let him die and lie in the gutter; my friend.
being a missionary doctor. saved the life of
the child and cared for the remainder of
the family.
Yesterday l witnessed two tragedies
which seemed not to command more than a
passing glance from the highway along
which they were enacted. The first was at
one corner Of an encampment of straw
mats, tiny. temporary huts not big enough
to house a COW. and yet containing whole
families. A child had died. and its body
had been wrapped in piece Of straw mat
ting. since the death rate Is too high for
the authorities to supply even the cheapest
! collins for any but adults. The mat which
enshrouded the corpse had been its only
shelter while living, and now the gruesome
bundle leaned against the family's few pos
sessions. Beside 1t, mute, with face buried
In his knees. sat a big boy. Over 1t bent
the mother. her wailings assailing the ears
of everybody within furiong; but she
wept alone, UNDECIDED In a few hours the
soldiers would cart away the body and she
and her son would be driven back into the
country to face slow death for themselves
A few hundred yards farther on l came
to newly made grave, evidently of son
and husband. 1t was one of many recent
graves along the main highway to Picking.
On one side of 1t crouched a wrinkled, bent
and tattered old mother. with scarcely suf-
ficient vitality to make her mourning heard.
After a time she arose and with her bare
hands heaped ciods of earth upon the con-
ical grave mound. The widow. who could
afford no mourning garb except a small
square of white cloth the size of a hand
kerchief upon her head. wept and walled as
only an oriental woman can do. Her body
shook with shuddering sobs. All the grief
of the ages seemed embodied in her mourn
ing. This famine means more to those two
lonely women than 1t does to my scientific
friend.
Near the same spot a middle-aged man,
with some mourning rags of white upon
him, fell on his knees as We approached
and ciutched at our clothing. Plainly he
had gone to pieces. He was a nervous
wreck, as well as starving man. He had
Just been out burying his old mother, and
grief. combined with hunger, had been too
much for him. So, In an almost dehri0us