Year: 1874




KANSAS STARVATION.


AN APPEAL FOR AID-TwENTY COUNTIES


WITH LARGE POPULATION DESTITUTE OF


FOOD.


The following appeal has been issued by
the aid cozsmirtee, of Jewell county, Kan
sas: Your readers have doubtless heard
that the western portion of Kansas has been
overrun and she corn crop entirely destroyed
by the grasshoppers. Our legislature has
devised means perhaps the best they can do
under the circumstances, but worse than
useless to us. They had much better have
remained at home, saved the cost of their
useless session and left US to the sure charity
and sympathy Of the American people, re-
sources that the sanitary supplies OF the
war and the immense contributions OF the
Chicago, Boston and Wisconsin fires have
proven to be boHndless. After spending
precious time waiting for the enactments
OF the legislative farce, We are thrown
upon our own resources, crippled as they
are by the half measures of the legislature.
and the narrow pride Of the governor, who
persists in asserting, in the face of the
plainest evidence to the contrary, that Kan
sas is able and willing to take care of its
own poor. We must have assistance ten
fold greater than the bond scheme can DOS
sibly afford, and greater than the State of
Kansas can supply. Twenty counties, with
a population ranging from 1000 to 6,OOO are
almost destitute of food. he case of Smith
county is not unusual. Our population at
the time the plague fell upon us, was about
5000, made up in a greater part of soldiers.
| who, with each q team and scant supplies to
endure till one crop could be raised, had
pushed adventurously out with their
scarce forsaken hunting grounds
| of the Indian, hoping through
the munihcence of the government to build
up for themselves homes, while they re-
claimed to civilization region which but
few years ago was supposed to be sterile
| waste, given over to the red man for at least
a century. We were poor, but we were
healthy and hopeful and happy. have
lived in the States of New York, Ohio, Iowa,
and Missouri, so that my experience has
been varied, but never did / meet with
people so buoyant and confident in their
own future, so enthusiastic in their love for
| their own homes, as ours were previous TO
the 18th of July, when, in a time of special
texultation, at the very moment when we
were rejoicing in b0untful rain that had
revived our parched flelds, and would bring
plenty to our doors, a north wind cast upon
us the devastating horde that reduced US at
once 70 the most destitute condition, where
1--WE


MUST HAVE AID OF PERISH.


! 1t is estimated that the county contains
5000 people, at least 1000 of which are in
manner destitute now, and will be forced TO
depend upon charity within the next two
months. OF the remaining 5000 not fifty
families have surplus of provisions TOR
| themselves without expending a pound in
keeping up the strength of the team, with
| out the efficient aid of which farmer loses
more than half his strength. To help our
selves Is impossible; an absolute community
of food would not supply our families until
| the lst of April. The money we brought to
the country is gone; the clothing we then
wore hangs in rags that in some cases hardly
serve the ends of decency, much less those
of comfort; our settlements have been
ipushed forward so rapidly, and the dis
asters of drouth, chintzbugs and grass
hoppers have been so severe in the eastern
portion of the State that we are more than
200 miles away from any succor that indi-
didual effort can reach. Unless the SYM
pathy and love of our richer brethren and


sisters of the older States is extended us in
the practical shape of money and supplies, a


great part of our population will be forced
TO leave the homes now so dear, upon the


acquisition of which they have staked not
only their last penny, but the last morsel of
food, and will be forced to scatter east, west,
north or south, anywhere that hope allures


or necessity compels, a hopeless, squalid
horde of vagabonds, who, in nine cases out


of ten, if we manage to drag our attenuated


frames into places of safety, will remain
poverty stricken all our lives. Tt is very


hard to realize that any person can


DIE OF HUNGER,


yet in this homestead region, without help


from without, hundreds will surely die of


want. Il requires but small capacity of


logic to reach the conclusion that if the food


is not in the country, and is not supplied,


death must ensue, and a failure of the i'm


agination to conceive the result does not


help out the argument. Dear friends. we


appeal to you, knowing that we shall not


appeal in vain. a little from your abun-


dance will enable US to retain the precious


foothold, precious to the nation at large, but


doubly precious to us, that we have gained.


We will have saved for ourselves those
homes for which we have toiled and en-


uured more than you can conceive; and we


will have saved for you a country that has


almost no equal, certainly no superior, in


richness and beauty. With your help and


the blessings OF God we will yet realize OF


this country the truition of our high hopes.


We will make the desert to blossom as the


rose. Smith county has appointed an agent


to solicit aid, and the other destitute coun-
ties will no doubt do the same. Our agent,


Mr.. r. K. Smith, will visit Chicago, New


York, and intermediate points.


/