Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-01-08
Dr.. Edwards 8 Letter


crop failure bring more distress
1han u In China. It is well that
taese people have no nerves, an
stand St suffering with stoicism
!hat would put to blush the fax
IFS oflndia, for if they were NOT
so constituted 1 believe there
would be an epidemic of suicide
tl t1at would sweep the race from
Ine face of earth. 1 have seen
such suffering as would drive :
caucasian insane, borne with nC
apparent feeling by Chinese. Mis-.
cry 50 deep as to be impossible
Of description, has no effect uno
Them. | have passed through
such scenes as not even Dante
IN MS Inferno could conceive Of
nor could Dore with all his won.
oerful powers of Imagination
could depict.
depict.
There has been a crop failure
E over el. a great part of China. and
millions Of people are on the
Vergeof actual starvation. Thew
nave abandoned their homes and
congregate near the large cities
IN ;, vast camps, where pestilence
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
oe called clothing, they sit at the
entrance Of little huts, or shell
ters that cannot be called any
'nlng Dut burrows, and there they
wait for the government to send
tn them :: food, and there they die
like flies because the food does
not come.
Such awful destitution, combin.
ed with such terrible, filth. can
not be told in language that
would bring to the readers a full
realization of conditions here. I
saw a carrier going along with a
horse. He had a bag of oats on
his saddle,and amid the filth and
DIRT OF the roadway, some of the
oats fell to the ground. Immedi-
ately there was rush and scran
; BILE, and a dozen of the starving
men, women and children were il
a mad fight for the few oats
which mingled with the filth. Fol
half an hour after every possible
grain was found these wretched
people dug about in the filth to
see if there might possibly be an
other grain.
We speak of persons being skin
and bones but really we need see
some of the starving Chinese to
know what the expression means
Some of them are so near skin
and bones that the bones actual
ly make their way through the
skin. If there were ever a feel
ing in my mind that some
day the hundreds ofmilliOns of
Chinese might take it into their
heads to become a world power
and overrun the rest of the
world; that idea was complete
ly knocked out by a sight of the
conditions of the people. 1t woul,
be an utter impossibility for
such people as these ever to at
tain to anythinglike a world pow
er in the sense of a warlike pow.
,er.
HundredsOf these people are
SO far gone that they lie in the
road with staring eyes and pov
erless limbs. The others pay ab-
solutely no attention to them,
but pass them by, or even step
over them, careless of the feel
ings of the dying ones or wheth.
er they step on the body or not,
and they liethere and die, and
then lie there until some one in
authority comes along to order
the body buried. l asked why j
was that some of the better elias
people did not take pity on som
of the wretches lying almost al
their, door, and was told that il
anyone assisted one of these
wretche> he would become liable
for. all his debts and would b
compelled to care for and feec
. him and get medical attendance
for him too. One cannot do in
discriminate samaritanism in thi
country unless he is ready tt
take on a heavy burden.
As one looks over these people
.o1.,. kloA Al n