The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1915-08-05
SOME Of AEyII1's DEgl.vl'lEs
BY Rev. j. p. sHAuser in
the Christian Advocate.

! the christian advocate.
Many reports nave gone out Of
famine and plague conditions ex.
listing in Mexico City. Such state-
ments are not wholly true. There
are thousands suffering daily from
lack Of food. Corn, the great staple
of this people, is almost impossible
to OBTAIN. But We have not yet
reached the widespread famine
conditions that at times sweep over
China and India. As to plaques
or epidemics, so far as we can dis
cover, the general health condition
of she capital is about as usual.
Our water supply was greatly re-
duced during the Obregon occupa-
tion when the enemy obtained pos.
session Of the waterworks, but
since that time We have had abun-
dant water. Soon the rainy season
will begin and that always checks
epidemics.
| Prices of foodstuffs are from
three to ten times what they would
be under normal conditions. 1t is
hard to translate into United States
currency the present prices here,
due to the abnormal rate of ex-
change and the different weights
and measures used in this country,
but the following prices in Mexican
currency will give some idea of
what the poor people must pay for
the necessities of life: corn, which
in ordinary times sells at from
eight to ten cents cuartillo (about
two quarts), is now selling at sixty
oreighty cents here, and is as high
as l,50 at Puebla and other places.
Beans, which formerly cost twelve
or fourteen cen s a kilogram (22
pounds), are now worth seventy or
eighty cents Sugar, normally at
about twenty cents kilogram,
now costs one peso (ifty Gently U.
s. currency. Flour has gone up
from twenty-five cents tc ST. SO the
j Z
kilogram. Lard, which sells at soc.
per kilogram in normal times, now
costs from $2.5 to $500.
Our Methodist Mission has done
much to secure necessary foodstuffs
and to sell them at cost or less to
the members of our congregations.
Recently we obtained fifty large
sacks of corn which have all been
sold, and for short time will help
over a hundred families.
The International relief commit
tee, representing seventeen of the
foreign colonies s resident in Mexico
City has cole cted half million
pesos (9250, ,000) for relieving the
destitute. It has done great deal
of good already, and would do a
great deal more if supplies could
be introduced into the city. Fo,
days we have seen thousands OF
women standing in double lines
several blocks long at public Offices
where a peck of corn was sold to
those fortunate enough to reach
the gate to receive it. Often oul
hearts have ached as we knew tha,
many of them standing in line
since the previous midnight would
stand in the blazing sun or drench
ing rain all day, and then be turned
away because there was no more
corn.
With the exception OF one time
when 1apatista general revoltet
and left the city with his troops, i
has been quiet here sine,
March 10, when the present force
came into the capital. Now we az
marooned in the center of thi
great country with Carranzistas :,
the east, north and west of us an,
contending with the Villista force
still farther north.
Since the middle Of last Januar,
we have had no direct mail servic,
with the outside world. Twice W,
have received large quantities Q
mail, but each time it was seyera