The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-03-07
AWFUL STORY
The Plague and Famine Kills Thousands
in China Every Day.
DETAILS ARE FEARFUL

| DETAILS AXE FEARFUL
No Epidemic Like Plague Has Wis
tied China Since the Middle Ages
and It is Predicted That One Mill
lion Persons Will Die Before An
ether Crop.
Both famine and plague Is sweep
ing China, says dispatch from Pek-
ing, the capital of that stricken
country.
The known deaths from the plague
number 10000, and official statistics
show daily death rate averaging
200. But the officials have little
knowledge of conditions in the In
terror, or If they have they are not
permitting the facts to get out.
There are few or nc foreigners In the
interior, and therefore conditions
there are not attracting much public
attention.
It is impossible even to estimate
the number Of deaths from lack OF
food. People die by the thousand
every day. DR.. Samuel Cochran, all
American, engaged in the work OF
relief, writes:
Zone million people will die be-
fore the first crop is harvested. This
will be scanty, because the people
have not the strength to till the soil
and no animals remain for plough
Ing"
The Chinese are directing their ef-
forts to control the plague chiefly
along the railways and frontier for
political reasons. Since the recent
Russian request for permission TO
cross the border and quarantine Chi
nese towns along the Amur China
has been trying to check the plague
along that border, but the Russian
legation says the work has been done
llneffectively, because no doctors
, there are familiar with modern
methods of sanitation.
In former epidemics the local au-
thorities, including the police and
soldiers, left the people to die; now
they do not care or do not know how
to maintain adequate sanitary meas
( ures Although the central govern
ment has issued numerous explicit
(. orders. both supplies and funds are
lacking.
japanese and Russians have both
offered assistance, but only in a few
places have these offers been accept
ed, the Chinese not liking to receive
favors from foreigners whose polltl-
cal motives they distrust.
Physicians combating the disease
think warm weather will kill the
germs, although there may be only
a temporary respite. If the plague
were of the bubonic type, summer
heat would augment it, bubonic be-
ing conveyed by feas, rats and other
vermin which thrive in warm atmos'
pheric conditions. But the pneu'
! monic type is transmitted through
the respiratory apparatus, and wher
the Chinese emerge from their win
ter quarters into the open air they
will escape much contamination.
Medical authorities say that suct
an epidemic as the present one
which is entirely pneumonia, has moi
visited the world since the Middle
Ages.
Owing to the political questions
involved and the presence OF for
eigners along the railways the
plague in Manchuria is receiving
greater attention than the famine
but the death rate from the famine
is many times greater than tha
from the plague.
The famine is the result Of the oe
struction of the crops by fall o
sixteen inches of rain in two day:
last August in a district where thf
people ordinarily live from hand t.
mouth.
AS soon as the first pangs of hun
ger were felt the people left thell
homes, but many could not get be
yond the borders Of the devastation
They returned and took up the deatf
struggle beside their homesteads.
A relief committee composed o
foreigners at Shan zhai is collectin:
money. Japan and America are tho
only foreign countries that have con
tributed so far to aid the sufferers
But even the extensive assistance
from the Uu:ted States is entirely in
adequate.
It is estimated that 2,000,OOj peo
pie are without food and are exist
ing on roots, grasses or anything
that agords the slightest possibilit!
of nourishment. Those possessing
grain guard it night and day.
Wall Fell on Them.