The Cairo bulletin., 1912-04-16

ers to fall back on
A large family is often divided ;
part goes off as refugees. part stays
at home. Those remaining take
stock of what they have. They per-
haps find sufficient grain for the
five mouths" that are left for four
months if they eat but a small guam
tity, but the farmer knows that now
the four months supply must last
them seven months, and, therefore,
they Immediately begin 10 make
| their food thin, that is, they eat
cruel instead of dry bread, Thus
tens OF thousands live through the
famine who@otherwise must die.
This Cruel gets thinner and thinner
and contains more and more weeds
and leaves and greens. or even roots
where they can be found, and less
and less of grain. Every resource is
used to obtain edible herbs, and
everything not poisonous is put in
to the pot TO help fill up. There is,
however, little in these things to
sustain life. and the bodies of re
suffering family grow thinner and
thinner until finally their stomachs
and faces become bloated and dis
torted from the unhealthy elements
on which they yainly strive to re-
tain spark of life.
In the case of man of means. he
sells first his COW. the water buffalo
that plows his fields, then his farm
utensils, and finally his household
goods. One by one all are "eaten
up" as he would say Then the
doors and windows are taken from
the mud-brick hut and carried to
market, and at last the few timbers
that support the roof go to nourish
the family Left at last without a
roof, they join the endless process
|sion of refugees, some to drop and
Idle where they fall, and others to
struggle and stagger onward, in
the hope of reaching some more
prosperous region, often they gath
|er together into huge camps, hud-
died into tiny huts hardly larger
than half-harrel, cut endwise, and
made of cheap mating, and in these
camps pestiience soon finds it's way
often in the form of relapsing fever
frequently the deadly typhus, and
also in the dread smallpox which
soon ends the misery of hundreds in
these horrible groups.
These are the conditions existing
today over an immense area of China
1t is the result OF three lean years
followed by excessive rains and
floods, with terrific typhoons, dur
ing all last summer, which wiped
out whole towns and villages from
the map and turned the roads into
boys,
Mr. jameson, the Red Cross en-
gineer in the field, writes of process
sions of gaunt, starving people wan
dering aimlessly. hopelessly along
the roads, and falling and dying in
the mud when they can go no fur
Their. Day after day he passed dead
bodies Of men, women and children
lying where they had fallen. Famine
are indeed so desperate
and terrible, so beyond the power o.
to picture that tho
descriptions received from different
regions seem incredible. With ev-
cry day these conditions become
more acute and must so continue
until harvest. The bark has been
eaten from the trees, roots have
been dug and devoured, and even
cannibalism is resorted to in the
mad craze and unbearable cravings
of starvation.
The recent state of civil war great
ly increased the distress caused by
failure of crops and destruction
by foods, and the unset
tied political conditions, still per-
5isting, make it impossible for the
new government to do much in
aid Of the sufferers. For this rea-
son it becomes imperative that the
United States, always China's friend. |
should come generously to the front
With help, The remarkable pat
ence of the Chinese under suffering
makes relief comparatively easy, if |
)nly the means are supplied
So prompt and systematic were
he plans formed by the committee
n Shanghai that nearly all of the
100000 starving ones might be |
'aved, If but the tender impulse OF
'harity were to touch the, hearts of
sufficient number of people in
his prosperous land Each day |
he cable, with lightning-like rapid
ty conveys the dollars sent to the
in New York direct to
he Committee in Shanghai. Thous-
'nds of the helpless ones are by