Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1921-07-29
CRY FOR BREAD
Pathetic Appeal That Has Rung
Through All Ages.
Seemingly No Portion Of the Worlds
History Has Not at Some Time
Recorded Famine


Recorded Famine.
GIVE us bread. give Us rice is
the appeal heard from many lands
The cry of hunger is worId-old
story, declares communication TO
the National Geographic society con-
corning fearful famines of the past
from which the following Is quoted;
among the earliest authentic rec
ords of history is the famous STEELE
of famine, recently discovered carved
on a tomb of granite ON the island of
Sahal, in the first cataract OF the
Nile. Psychologists differ as to the
exact antiquity, but there Is evidence
to prove that it was chiseled in the
time of Tcheser Cor Tosorthus), who
held sway over Egypt nearly two thou
sand years before the time of Abra-
ham.
"A period greater than that which
stretches between the CrucltXion and
the present day elapsed after the fam
Inc of Tcheser's reign before Joseph
arrived to hold sway over this same
land of Egypt. As the chief admin
istrator for one of the Hyksos Pha-
raOhs, he prepared for seven lean years
which were to drive his brothers and
his aged father, Jacob. out of Canaan,
down into the valley of the Nile In
search of corn.
zone of the earliest chiefs of sys-
tematic famine relief work was Angus
tus Caesar, who was at war with the
Parthans when summoned back to
Rome by the disaster of % b. c.,
when the Tiber overnowed, causing
widespread suffering,
"The starving plebeians proclaimed
him dictator and urged him to assume
control of the corn supply which he
did with exceptional skill and indus
try. lie sent ships to many quarters
of the Mediterranean to collect corn,
and placed his stepson, Tiberius, in
charge of the work Of unloading the
grain at Ostia and transporting it
to the capital, all of which was done
with great dispatch
rum Tue blHS VI AuEuStiue,
throughout the days of the empire,
Rome seldom suffered from famine
striking contrast to the frequency
of this atfliction in the days of the
infant republic.
Probably in no other country of the
world has a people been brought to
such low ebb Of morality or become
so completely lost to all semblance of
rational humanity as in the series of
famines which swept over Egypt dur
ing the tenth, eleventh and twelfth
centuries, under M0hammedan rule A
low Nile in 967 A. -. resulted in
famine the following year, which
swept away 100000 people in the Vi
entity of the city of Fustat Gawhar,
Mohammedan Joseph, founded
new city (the Cairo of today a short
distance from the stricken town and
Immediately organized relief measures.
The story of famines in England
has been gloomy one from earliest
times.
While backward seasons were con.
''HN'i'S AbNN'lHr Nilt RESPONSIBILITY
for the two great famines of Henry
Ills reign is to be laid at the door
of the government itself. In the first
of these Q235) 10000 persons are said
TO have died in London alone. The
suffering in l257-l259 was even worse,
ireland has been land Of many
woes, and not the least of these have
been the famines which from time to
time have taken such heavy toll of the
Islands manhood, AS early as 963-
9o4 an intolerable famine visited the
country, and parents are said to have
SOLD their children in order to get
money with which to buy food. ON
at least three occasions the peasantry
has been driven to cannibalism."