Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1908-11-19
CROP IN CHINA
Failure Means Starvation For
Vast Numbers. Unfed Make
Sad Spectacle.

OoOcnOW, emma, March, 3l-Spec-
ial correspondence, Steele Ozone
Probably nowhere else in the world
does crop failure bring more dis
tress than in China. 1t is well that
these people have no nerves, and
stand suffering with stoicism that
would put to blush the fakirs of In
dia, for If they were not so consti-
tuted I believe there would be an
epidemic of suicide that would sweep
the race from the face of the earth
I have seen such suffering as would
drive a Caucasian insane, borne with
no apparent feeling by Chinese.
Misery so deep as to be impossible of
description, has no effect upon them.
l have passed through such scenes as
not even Dante in his Inferno could
conceive of. nor could Dore with all
his wonderful powers of imagination
depicit.
There has been crop failure over
a great part of China, and millions
of people are on the verge of actual
starvation. They have abandoned
their homes and congregate. near the
large cities in vast camps, where pes
thence stalks daily, and thousands
die every night. In one such camp
near Soochow there are nearly half a
million people, of all ages, sexes and
conditions. In such miserable rags
that they cannot be called clothing,
they sit at the entrance of little
huts. shelters that cannot be called
anything but burrows, and there they
wait for the government to send
them food. and there they die like
flies because the food does not come.
Such awful destitution, combined
with such terrible filth, cannot be
told in languages that would bring
to the readers full realization of
conditions here. saw a carrier 60
ing along with horse. He had a
bag of oats on his saddle, and amid
the filth and dirt of the roadway,
some of these oats fell to the ground.
Immediately there was rush and
scramble, and dozen of the starving
men, women and children were in
mad fight for the few oats which
mingled with the filth. For half an
hour after every possible grain was
found these wretched people dug
about in the filth to see if there
might possibly be another grain.
We speak of persons being skin
and bones, but really we need to see
some of the starving Chinese to
know what the expression means.
Some of them are so near skin and
bones that the bones actually make
their way through the skin. Ii there
ever were a feeling of fear in my
mind that some day the hundreds of
millions of Chinese might take it
into their heads to become world
power and overrun the rest of the
world, that idea was completely
knocked out by sight of the condi-
tions of the people. 1t would be an
utter impossibility for such people as
those ever to attain to anything like
world power in the sense of a war
like power.
Hundreds of these people are so far
gone that they lie in the road with
staring eyes and powerless limbs.
The others pay absolutely no atten-
tion to them but pass them by, or
even step over. them, careless of the
feelings of the dying ones or whether
they step on the body or not. and
they lie there and die, and then lie
there until some one in authority
comes along to order the body buried.
I asked why it was that some of the
better class people did not take pity
on some of the wretches lying almost
at their door, and was told that If
anyone assisted one of these wretches
he would become liable for all his
debts and would be compelled to care
for him and feed him and get medi-
cal attendance for him too. One CAN
not do indiscriminate samaritanlsm
in this country unless he is ready to
take on q heavy burden.
As one looks over these people he
can scarcely realize that they belong
to the human family. They are as
low as any grade Of human beings
can get without becoming brutes. In
fact their actions and their custosm
tend to convince one that the Chi
nese race as q whole is but little re-
moved from the brute creation. They
have tortures for their enemies that
would put an Apache Indian to
shame. They submit to suffering and
torture with evidence of lack Of feel
ing that Is incomprehensible, and
they look upon the suffering OF hu-