Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1921-03-03
THR TRAGEDIES THAT PASS THE
TRAGEDY OF HUNGER

ton, but the human side in such 8
transaction does not reveal itself tC
us till our minds work with imagina'
tions to realize it. Here is letter
written by missionary woman in a
famine that afflicted small region
in China in 1907. 1t tells better
than anything else that has come to
notice, what suffering can come to
those who have the fullest capacity
for loving:
1.-THE children had been crying and
begging for food all day, but at last
they had crawled under the grass
mat and In a little moaning and kick
ing heap were struggling off to
sleep. By the hole that served for
door the mother sat lingering two
cracked bowls, while the father, his
hands tucked up his ragged sleeves
in vain attempted to keep warm, sui
kily watched her.
What shall we do?' he asked.
There's nothing more to sell, and the
last of the beancake went yesterday
morning. We haven't burnt a fire
for two days; would you have us all
starve?'
But our little boy she said. I
wanted a little boy so long, and at
last I prayed to the idol and offered
him ten years of my life in exchange;
and he sent him.
Well, we've got the older boys,
he returned. I'D sell the girl, but
she's so sickly she won't bring much.
The little chap would sell for five
or six dollars. He's still fat and pref
ty, and we could live on it all win
ter. Yes drearily, I'll sell the boy.
Then, with a sullen shake of his head
And you needn't make fuss. I'll
beat you if you do! We must live.
I'll take him out early tomorrow
morning.
"Out of the tangle of the sleeping
children under the mat, the mother
lifted one drowsy little form and,
him warm inside her coat,
sat cuddling him all night long. The
stars, pitiless and far away, looked
down on her vigil, but she saw only
the face of the sleeping child on her
breast. Once he stirred and shivered
a little with the cold and she drew
him closer and turned to shelter him
better from the wind. Once he open
ed his eyes and smiled to find her so
near, and she smiled back-a strange
smile.
"a woman from a straw shed ten
feet away came out at about mid
night and called and called for
soul. Soul of my child she called,
come back, come back!' She brought
a pair of little ragged green trousers
and put them on pole beside the
door, hoping to attract the fluttering
soul by the sight of this familiar
garb; and she called and called and
called.
"At last, toward morning, she gave
it up and brought the little sick
child and laid him on the stones be-
side the door to die. The other moth
or, listening and watching, held her
we'll child tightly to her, and when
at last she heard wild walls from
the mother, crying that the little
spirit had gone she wondered which
suffered most, that woman in her
frantic grief or she herself in this
lumb agony.
Neither would ever see her child
again after tonight, and where was
hat other little soul now? Would it,
90, be slave somewhere? No one
Knows she said to herself. No one
when the first red streaks show
ID in the east she wakened her
,aby boy, dipping the corner of her
.oat in the pool nearby to wash his
ace and smoothing his tangled hair
md braiding it neatly. The older
were reused and clamored |
o take the boy. The children quar-
eled, cold and shivering in the early |
morning, and pulled at their moth
RS coat. But she did not hear them.
Jor did she even turn her head until
he father, carrying the little figure,
round the wall by the
emple gate.
Late that afternoon she saw
i'm, far off beyond the stretch of
arren fields, and she knew with
n aching throb at her heart that
is arms were empty. He came slow
Y, dragging his feet as If they we're
90 heavy to lift, and threw down
n front of her the cake of dried
can pods that was to sustain their
ives for a few weary days more.
rhe boy brought only three dol.
irs,' he said. They're a mean lot,
hose rich people in the city
Where did you sell him?' the
oman asked drearily.