The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-11-19
GRIM REAPER IS BUSY
FAMINE CLAIMS TERRIBLE
TOLL IN CHINA
Babes Are Sold While Elders
Commit Suicide To Relieve
Suffering

Picking, October 15.-[Correspond-
ence Of The Associated Pressl-Chol-
era Is adding to the general distress
In the famine stricken district where
nom 25,0V0.o00 to 30.00O.00O people
are facing death by starvation.
The Associated PreEs correspond.
emit, who recently travelled through the
heart of the territory most seriously
denuded OF food, found conditions
even more desperate than had been
indicated by information previously
received here.
In the town of Hawi-an where
there were one hundred families. thir-
ty persons had died OF cholera ard
similar reports are common from var
ious other districts.
The picture presented to- the eye
Of the correspondent was dismal
one: The soil barren as In mid win.
ter. prices soaring. migration of those
having more money or enterprise. the
people living on diet of weeds,
chan, thistles and leaves; children,
especially little girls, offered for sale
ct the average price Of the small
Chinese mule; cholera from under
feeding, suicides OF In iividuals In OK
treme despair, old women and child
rem cleaning patches of weeds, men
with no work to do and clusters of
refugees living In the shelter or tenn
pies In market towns.
Misery Is General.
Information obtained by the cores
pendent indicated that the present
suffering only a forecast OF that to
come In the course Of eight or ten
weeks, when the real crisis will ar
rive. Conditions in the belt he ira
u, h.y a-f hot
two railway lines near Techow are
Believed to be typical of those gener-
ally existing throughout large areas
in the provinces Of Chilli, Shantung,
Honan, and Shansi. He found hides
crfbable misery and stoical facing of
starvation by millions Of people who
already had disposed Of everything
salable and saw In the future nothing
but death.
When the frost will have killed the
unconsumed leaves and weeds there
will be literally nothing to eat for at
least half the population. One out of
ten has already migrated without
money and without destination. In
the worst spots half the people are
already substituting on the proceeds
of the sale OF furniture and clothing
which means that those temporarily
die from cold and exposure.
In the town OF Chi Chow, which is
typical, the magistrate informed the
correspondent that out of every three
families two are sure to starve before
the end Of the year, barring effective
relief from outside. There are 10000
people In the administrative district
In question
Raise Relief Funds.
In Ming Ching two bankers who
we're engaged In raising relief funds
said that the crop had been an abb
solute failure following two or three
previous and serious shortages. OF
10000 families, they estimated that
eight out OF zen were practically
without means. One of the inform
ants said that he was the owner OF
the largest pawnshop in the vicinity.
There are constant streams of far
mers coming with clothing, furniture,
implements. anything upon which to
realize a few coppers. They are sell
ling their children where possible, or
leaving them where there is hope that
they will be fed, he said. e..
CHAR and the residue from cotton
seed after the Oil has been extracted
have become valuable beyond the
reach Of the average person, who ex-
lists on q watery connection chiefly
Of leaves and weeds, with perhaps a
few kernels OF grain, and sort of
cake, IL he Is afYluent enough, made
out or cottonseed waste.