University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-09-19
WRITES OF BEGGING,
STARVING CHINESE
Carl Crow. Former Columbia
Newspaper Man. is Work
ing Among Refugees.
INTERVIEWING DIFFICULT
Fatal Cholera and Plague
Described by the Writer
Extent of the Flood.

News gathering il China Is des
c-ib=5 Il letter received here from
CAL Crow. formerly Columb!
newspaper man and Low OF the stat
q rhe China Press. al English paper
recently established a. Shanghai.
Mr.. Crow wrote from Hsnkow. in al
I1osr the exact center OF China,
where he had bee- sent TO cover"
the sto-y Of the Ysngtse foods.
You may believe nat have had
lo- ot experiences il trying 10 get
-he facts about the food" he SAYS
Il had 10 DO mosr o: NY work
through al Interpreter, and inter
viewing China refugees through
native Interpreter is not the most
satisfactory work il the world.
Many OF them thought / was an Of
fcer, and as they have been engaged
II cutting dikes and embankments
o--- tN--- ----- ----As -'C4. O---L - Inc
up 20 eating their ovu children. they
were rather rericent. Then / gave
them q few coppers each and they
wanted 70 90 nothing but tell NE Of
their own poverty in the hopes OF
securing more coppers.
Chinese Gave Him Tea.
Il started out yesterday lAugus,
} 10 find the refugees, who are
csupei il mat hurs outside the walls
ot the city. / found number OF To-
cal officials. who inquired about M
health and gave ne cups OF tea. but
told ne nothing. Finally the inter
prefer suggested that should go TO
SEE the head beggar Of the city. We
went 70 little tobacco shop in the
center Of the city, where | waited for
a few hours while one Of my rerinue
Of servants went to hunt him up.
The head beggar was a very in
telligent old fellow, who does no
begging OF his own now and devotes
all Of his time to looking after the
other beggars and taking a part of
their receipts. He has the power to
take away beggar's license and to
apportion them among the different
streets. He said the influx Of food
refugees was playing hob with his
business.
He sent one of his assistants with
Te to find the refugee camps and |
got quite little information out Of
them then. Being with the head beg
gar's assistant gave me a lot of
prestige. as they probably thought
was also representative Of that Of
hce. | tried later to see the head
thief Of the city, but he was out at
tending TO business.
Begging is Their Business.
Il know all this sounds very ab-
surd to you, but it is a part Of the I
life here. The beggars and the I
thieves have their guilds just as the
blacksmiths and the carpenters.
AT Ku Ling the other day the
only foreigners could find were in a
mission conducted by the French
Jesuits. You know my French was
all learned from menu cards and is
not very valuable for interviewing
purposes. After We had tried my
Spanish and English and the priests
German and French and made no
Roadway with them, the priest dug
Up an old English-French, French
English dictionary. | looked I'D the
English words and he the French
words in it, and in that way We man
aged to get through with the inter-
;iew.
"As for the food, it's a terrible
icod-the worst Central China has
Known for generation. Many
thousands have been drowned, and |
that the flooded area cov-
rs 100000 square miles. making
'everal million people homeless.
They are dying daily by the hun
ireds. from actual starvation. I'll
ound a l0-year-old boy in a door
way in Hankow, dying. / gave him
iome coppers, but | think he was
90 far gone for them to be of any
ise. In narrow street in Ku Ling
coolie slipped and spilled his bowl
;: rice in the mud. Before he could
'ick it up, half dozen hungry beg
Jars had scooped it up and eaten it.
lalf dirt. These are only a couple
I the many hundred examples of
.xtreme poverty one can see through
lere
Dying Of Plague and Cholera.
In addition to that. disease has
'roken out. and those that escape
tarving are dying of plague and
holera. Those diseases certainly