The Monroe journal. [volume] (Monroe, N.C.) 189?-1965, 1911-04-25
WITH CHINA's STARVING.
Rev. George p. Stevens of Mon
roe. Now Working in the Fam
Inc District. Tells of the Sit
uation Over There.

10 my lot 10 he right IN tn
midst of il! You can have N,
idea of what il means unless yol
could be here and see il will
your own eyes. A few days az,
this whole city was literally ful
of beggars. great many o.
whom had come in from the com
try in the hope of getting som,
relief. The Chinese officials wer,
giving ont relief. or claiming to
and then they heard we foreign
missionaries had funds from HON
to distribute, So they came in
multitudes. Thus writes Rev. q.
7. Stevens, a missionary of the
Presbyterian church, TO the Home
of Marshville.
You may know how easy il is
for a famine TO occur here If
the crops are good, the people
barely live, so when the crops
fail, as they did in all of this
section of China last year on ac-
count of excessive rains. il lust
means starvation for thousands.
unless help comes.
We are trying to help them.
You have no idea how difficult
it is to give out aid when it is
IN your hands. They besiege us
on the streets as soon as we step
out at the door. They lay hold
of our clothes and plead They
lie at our gates and cry, and re-
Gently there have been num-
Der who starved to death in a
stones throw of where we live.
But why do we allow them to do
so? Because in the first place
there are so many poor that
there is no way to relieve all I'M
less We had stacks of money.
Then, again, the very avarice of
the poor themselves binders us
when we try. For instance. we
were trying to give out relief or
the officials with us, working to
gether. A whole host of people
gathered at temple where tick
cts were to be distributed. When
the doors were opened for them
to enter and get tickets five Of
them We're killed in the scramble
to get IN, so that plan had to lie
abandoned. Then they went ont
into an open field to a big tenn
pie near the city hoping TO avoid
the rush by having the count and |
ticket giving on the outside. |
There must have been 10000 peo-
pie there, Only a few hundred |
tickets We're given out when they
made such a rush that it had to |
be abandoned. But finally theI
officials have given out over
two thousand tickets, so to-day
we missionaries gave out kind
of bean cake to over thousand
perhaps.
Now, don't think everybody is
poor and starving over here in
his district. There are many WE'LL
io-do people in Hsuchoufu. but
hey take advantage of situa-
ion like this 10 buy the land of
Door farmers, who have to sell or
'tarve, for pittance, and in adj
luton to this, raise the price of
he grain which they have saved.
folding it while people around
re starving. This is to me one
# the most awful phases of the
ituatlon. The rich are here but
hey Cypress the poor.
The next three months are
lonths OF awful struggle. | shall
e glad when it is over and
arrest time comes.
Had you ever thought how diff
lcult it would be to preach to
tarving people. Their hungry
aces look up into yours and you
eel that you are giving stone
hen they cry for bread. We are
elping many of them, however
laterially as well as giving the :
ospel.
Now this is just a famine let /
r. 1t has been my purpose all
.ong to write a real down
ght missionary epistle to all r
the readers of Our Home who Il
e members of the various chur- II
les at home andwho would like
know what is being done by u
reign missionaries. You may r
ke to get plain, unadulterat-
statement by one whom MANY
you know and who is on the
ED. There are many ques- Y
ons You would ask. Some of II
EN- shall endeavor to an