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

| rigid, who stood against wall with
her six children gathered about her
| tattered skirts, staring out uncaring on
a company of living refugees, who are
more melancholy sight than the
| thousands of ancient graves among
which they are encamped. They had
been fed-one portion of thin, watery
rice porridge for them all-and now
| they must wait in the cold for another
| "a hours to pass before they can be
fed again--and even then some
stronger ones may push them aside
and steal their turn at the meager re-
| lief.
| Strange incongruities flash into
| ones mind as he walks about among
these 10000 refugees. AS ! passed
! this morning an old, old woman, COW
| cred only by a few rags, who sat on
the cold bare ground, sharing her
small bowl of rice with babe of IL or
| Is months, evidently her grandchild,
who sat on her knees, l thought OF
some grandmothers whom l know in
| Neutrality-suspicious. and comfortable
and kindly, whose evening of life is
made pleasant by the love Of children
and grandchildren, and who know not
the word want. And l recalled some
baby friends-sweet, ruddy little dears,
wrapped in the finest linen, with ward
robes upon which love has lavished
it's generosity, and whose food is a
matter of careful consultation with
physicians and friends.
"Of course, / cannot imagine these
delicately nutured babes in dirty tat
tiers and exposed to the cold winter
night and day, week after week, yet
somehow one picture suggests the
other. Just so, when refugee mother
accosted us this morning and asked us
TO accept her child as a gift, magma
ton brought instantly to view the pre-
ciousncss of the American children /
know.
Suffering Unparalleled.
Incidents could be piled upon Incl
| dents: every one of these 10000 refu-
: yees incarnates story-a story of
home abandoned, OF toisome journeys
10 this southern district in the hope of
finding a pittance of food to allay that
awful gnawing OF hunger; OF the
eager hunt for sheltered nook in a
doorway; Of being driven from spot to
/ spot, until at last a few feet OF bare
Garth are secured out among the
graves with the other refugees-a
space no bigger than Chinese grave
sufIlces for an entire Chinese family;
OF the daily and nightly budding to-
gether in one mass for the sake of HUI
man warmth of the search for dry
gras with which to make a tiny fire;
of the morning struggle for a portion
of the government rice and of that in
descrbable, terrible primitive duel
| between life and starvation which the
Chinese so dauntlessly endure.
I'm all this, | write of the best, and
not of the worst. This is only the first
outpost OF the famine district.
Always Close to Starvation.
The Chinese live closer to actual
starvation than it is possible for q
westerner to comprehend they arc al
ways poor. SO the failure of the crops
not to mention the destruction OF
f.
them in a state of actual restitution,
which can only be relieved when the
wheat crop is harvested in July
Meanwhile, owing to lack of seed, only
half of the spring wheat crop has been
planted"
The cargo of food which the Chris
tian Herald sent over to the stricken
district in China cost 100000, and
this sum was raised by popular sub
scription.
It's arrival in China is expected to
do much for the sufferers, but more
food will have to follow at once. Con
ditions have grown steadily worse, and
plague has broken out in one or two
Of the provinces. The sufferers are
huddled together in thousands in the
camps,
Millions Face Death.
In Russia the conditions are little
less appalling. For the first time in
the history of such catastrophes in
Russia the government itself Is aroused
to the necessity for relieving the
stress. The famine affects no less
than 30,000,000 peasants inhabiting an
area half as large as the United
States, and while this area lies be
tween the steppes and white Rus
sia,' the famine Is affecting indirectly
the people within the pale" who de-
pend upon the peasants for trade and
commerce.
/ The peasantry represents 80 per
cent NJ the entire population. Their
one means of livelihood Is farming,
and when the rain lid not come to