Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1889 — THE CHIN ESE FAMINE. [ARTICLE]

THE CHIN ESE FAMINE.

Children Left to Be Eaten by Pig*— , Families Killing Themselves. A Newehwang correspondent of the North Chine Daily News gives the following graphic picture of hie observation as a lay diatributor in one of the Having made three tripe into the famine district, I will giwe a few details relating to one trip: I left Newehwang with Rev. J. Carson early on March 8 and proceeded toward Tienchwang Tal, and after being pent up in a small inn for two days (weather bound) we got •afely across the river, and early on the 11th we began in real earnest at a village about thirty li northeast of Tiencbwang Tal, and heie I will copy from my note book. Woman, with child 5 days old, living on husks of millet ground and made into broth. Family—of-three, actually lay down todie; could find not a scrap of anything in the shape es food; had been without three days. I was prepared for this in the shape of several hundreds of native cakes ready to put into their hungry mouths, and gave two to each person. Six in family, eating the bark of the elm tree, chopped np and mixed with the bran or miliet. This I aaw them eating. Six in family; old lady came andliegged me to give to her son and save his family, never mind her; this house nothing to eat. Another familv of seven; foxnd no food; woman of 48 dying ot hunger; the scanty covering was thrown back for me to see her wasted form; eight in family eating bark of the elm tree raw, fust as it had be m cut from the tree, family of eleven, old lady of 73 crying over her only grandson, who lay on the sang dying of hunger; others were down sick. Alas! my cakes were expended quickly and the cart waß a long way off: but the child was too far gone; his eyes and face were swollen and hia breath very short; his mother, a young woman and a widow, was blind, and on hearing that a foreigner was in the room asked if I could save her only son to work for her by and by; nothing would comfort the old lady, and I did not have words at command to tell the poor old soul that the boy had seen the worst of his suffering and soon would be beyond the reach of hunger. Upon inquiry next day I found the Child had died during the night. A family of six women and three children naked, the hut did not seem to be inhabited until I got close to it; there was no mat on the kang, and the gale had blown part of the north wall in, altogether it is about the worst house I have seen. This was about 25 yards from a house well-to-do with heaps of grain. In this village I noticed the people grinding the small twigs of both elm and willow trees for food. On the outskirts I saw the bodies of two children thrown out, having died quite recently. This might meet the eyes of those who are not aware that children under 10, unless it is the eldest or only Bon, are not buried, but simpiy placed in a field not 100 yards from the public road (I have seen them aot 25 yards) under cover of a small piece of matting and left for the dogs or pigs to devour. I am not in a position to say that the children in question died of hunger, although the wasted forms mated to suggest that tue young ones could not have had sufficient food to keep life in them. We were awsy nine days, snd during that time I went into 300 houses and gave relief te 270, the others not being in want; total number of persons relieved, 2000; and my companion relieved about the same. The Vicar Apostolic or Manchuria, Benda the following details in s letter to the french Consul General at Shanghai: Everywhere in the three provinces of Manchuria, in the midst of a population or about 15,000,1 have encountered the moßt horrible misaery. Everywhere the crops have failed, and especially here, in the extreme north, that which the floods have spared has been ruined by the premiture frosts. The unfortunate inhabitants are reduced to the last extremity; there are very few who can procure millet, the greater number are reduced to feeding on bran, roots and rubbish of all kinds. Many of the poor creatures at the end of their resources, kill themselves in thqir despair. Here it is the father of the family who throws his children into a well, and then follows them himself; there entire families, father, mother and children, hasg themselves to escape the tortaree of hunger. In a word, it is misery and suffering in the most hearttrending forms. Scattered everywhere throughout this vast territory, larger than France, my twenty-six missionaries, lean honestly say, are spending themselves in purse sad person, to come to the assistance of the unfortunates, be they Christians or pagans, who, in constantly increasing numbers, come to implore some aid just to keep them alive, as they say. It is impossible to remain unmoved in the face of such sufferings, snd so we are devoting everything to the relief or the starving. If the testimony of eminent chemists an t medical men is of any value. Dr, Price’s Cream Biking Powder is the most perfect made. These men of 'tending in theii professions not only commend its nse, but endorse its perf t purity, excellence and wholeeome.4 ss by using it in their own families.