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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1907)
Pitiful Appeals Sent from China Incredible Scenes of Hardship -Disease Adds Its Horror to that of Hunger- Many Months of Suffering and Death Ahead -America Appealed to for Aid. The Kingdom of China—The Shaded Portion of the Map Indicates the Ter ritory Stricke n by Famine. Frightful famine has its clutches on two lands. Owing to the drought and the failure of the crops in South Central Russia, 30.C00.0C0 Russians, in 27 provinces have seen their means of subsistence swept away. Men, women and children, huddled in their miserable villages on the steppes of the Volga and the Caspian sea, are face to face with starvation. It is feared that ten per cent, may die before new crops can be gathered. The flooding of 40.000 square miles of lowlands in northeastern China has rendered 15,000,000 homeless. It is believed that fully 4,000,000 of these may perish. So pitiful are these calamities that the voices of the starving peasants have been heard around the world. America has been among the first and most generous in appreciating the dire need and in giving of her prosperity. But all that has been given as yet has scarcely touched the fringe of the famine-stricken districts. New York.—The climax of the great Chinese famine is at hand. In the seaboard provinces 4,000.000 men, women and children are starving— more than the population of Manhat tan. Brooklyn, the Bronx. Queens, and Richmond. According to the latest reports, the situation is much more serious than that described in these columns a few weeks ago by a cor respondent in Shanghai. Since early in the winter the 4,000.000 refugees have been homeless and destitute. Ac cording to the viceroy of Kiangsu, it is ten times worse than any famine known in China in the last 40 years. In point of mortality, it is the worst calamity that has befallen mankind since the beginning of the new cen tury. The end is not yet. As the Chinese winter reaches its height, more and more people must succumb to hunger and exposure. It is not a question of surviving, but of how many thousands must die. That the famine will .last for months to como is a certainty. With all the generosity of other civil ized nations, the relief is inadequate. 40,000 Square Miles Flooded. The messages received from China last December told of ihe beginnings of the famine. For 40 days and nights it rained constantly. The great canal, extending 700 mlies from Tien Tsin to Hang Chan, close to the sea ' coast in the provinces of Chekiang, Kiangsu, and Shan Tnng, burst its banks ond 40,000 square miles of low plains were flooded. Fifteen millions of people in five provinces were more or less affected. Of these. 8,000,000 lost their property, including their buildings and food supplies. Four mil lions were left absolutely destitute. To these beginnings, nearly three months of unspeakable misery have since been added. The intermediate • stages were, in some respects, pecu liar to China. The d wellings and farm buildings had mud walls and roofs of thatch. The walls melted like paper >as the water leaked through them. The peasants were forced to abandon them and wade through water up to their armpits to reach dry land. Stores of Grain Lost. These Chinese farmers were a fru gal people living on millet, rice, pea nuts, sweet potatoes, maize, and wheat. At the beginning of the win ter their store of grain was swept away. The horses, cattle, and even t the dogs (hat survived were sold. ! Hunger reduced thousands to a diet j of gruel made of beans, when they j could be found, and sweet potato j leaves. Then came reports of pitiful epi j aodes peculiarly oriental in their na j tttre. So intense did the suffering be i come that many sought death. Par I cuts killed their children by throwing them into the water, then took their ; own lives. Aged people are being ! drowned, or poisoned with opium, to 1 prevent their slow death by hunger. The viceroy in one or the flooded provinces tells of a family consisting of a father, mother, and two children, all of whom perished in a single day. . The mother left the house in search j of food. In her absence the father | drowned the children. When the mother returned, she asked where the i iittle ones were. Her husband re plied that he could not bear to see them starve to death, and as there was no chance of feeding them, he had thrown them into the water. The distracted woman followed her chil j dren. The father, in utter despair, : took his own life. Sell Their Children. In some parts of the provinces of Honan. Kiangsu, and Anhui parents are selling their offspring, the girls for three dollars and the boys for two dollars -.Mexican, which means about one-half those amounts in Amer ican money. A correspondent de clares that in the Sinchow and I’ai chow districts the starving people ; have been reduced to eating human ! flesh, and that it it; being sold secretly among the famine sufferers. Early in the new year, the famine situation changed. The starving peas ants flocked to the nearest cities in their quest for food. They are living in great camps, where the pitiful con ditions are intensified a hundredfold. There are now fully 800,000 refugees at nine cities—Tsingkiangpu. Husian, Yanchow. Yaowan, Hsuchou, Suchi en. Ihsien. Chlnkiang. and Nanking. One of the largest gatherings is at Tsingkiangpu. on the edge of the fam ine district. Here there are five camps QUEER FOODS GLADLY MADE USE OF BY SHIPWRECKED . Shipwrecked persons have been kept alive on the most repugnant and unwholesome of foods. Probably the hardest fare that six strong men and a boy of 15 ever kept alive on was the daily menu of the Windover's sur vivors, who were cast up on the Irish coast near Kilsegg not long ago. They , lived 16 days on stewed rope yam. When they took the ship's small boat they had water enough for a month, but only a small amount of provisions. These lasted only four days. After having nothing at all to eat for the following two days they tried boiling lengths of tarred hemp rope into pulp and swallowing it. Ife, They had a keg of paraffin wax, which they boiled to add to the nour ishment. The sickness they experi enced as • result of the diet, says \\ hat-to-Eat, was only temporary and they landed in comparatively good health. Capt. Maboly of the foundered steamer Gwalior and his second offi cer created a record less than two years ago by living for 17 days on boot leather and a pint of water a day each. Of course no teeth can tear cow hide boots; they have to be cut up and shredded with a knife and the shreds chewed and swallowed. Boil ing, even when possible, it is said, does no good, but takes from vhe nourishment of the boots. A diet of boots and shoes is one of the commonest of last resource foods, and though it is hard for a well-*'ed person to imagine that anyone could masticate and digest the leather, a pair of long sea boots will keep a man alive for a fortnight if be has a little water. Two men who went to a small island off the Irish coast not long t.go kept themselves going for ten days , on > diet c» probably worse than this. I \ each with at least 10,000 refugees, or three times as many at one point aa there were Cuban reconcentrados in 1898. The flour and bean shops of the city have been closed. There are no foodstuffs available. All are depend-! ent on charity. in a large camp at Antung the desti tute peasants are also facing death. The Chinese officials acknowledge! their helplessness, and say that the only feasible course is to let one halt the people die and endeavor to obtain seed and scanty food for those who re-, main. In Suchien, JO per cent of the peo ple have been living on gruel for weeks. All the cattle have been sold and the donkeys, sheep, hogs, and even the dogs have been eaten. Pitiful Scenes in Refugees’ Camps. In these camps the starring people find shelter in flimsy huts' of matted grass and strip the bark from trees, devouring them ravenously to allay the pangs of their hunger. In the bet ter camps the people are fortunate if they receive a scanty tea cup of rice a day. This is usually supplied at the kitchens established by the relief com mittees. Some of the most pitiful scenes in the camps are enacted aa the crowds of refugees, emaciated, dis eased. and in rags, besiege the kitch ens for the dole of food which means their lives. J. L. Rogers, American consul of the district, who is acting as the spe cial Red Cross representative among the famine sufferers, visited refugee camps at Chinkiang and Nanking re cently. He was told that these were infinitely better than the other camps along the canal, yet he found the wretchedness, misery, and appalling horror of the sight almost indescrib able. There is no attempt at. sanitation, be says. The mat huts are crowded together, and each contains many men. women, and children, who are clothed in rags and are disheveled beyond description. To make matters worse, smallpox and other diseases have appeared among them. Widespread Measures for Relief. The famine will continue for five more months, or until the crop of spring wheat is harvested. Each suf ferer needs little yet in the aggregate the requirements for their relief are formidable. It is said that ten cents a day will save a family, and $100 will relieve a small community. Assum ing that the total number of destitute is 4,000,000, the relief fund must be $20,000 a day for five months, or at least $3,000,000. The relief thus far has been trifling in comparison with the need. In all parts of America purse strings have been loosened by men, women and even little children to save their kind from the pangs of hunger and death. The contributions range from five cents to $1,000 or more. Nearly every State is repre sented. Fund for Sufferers. A fund, started by contributions of $100 each from President Roosevelt and Secretary Root, is being raised by the Christian Herald of this city. From this fund $35,000 has been sen! to China through the state depart ment at Washington. The newapapei has promised to raise $50,000 a month additional for February, March, April and Mav. The Red Cross Society has raised about $60,000. Of this $45,000 has been sent to China. Several weeks ago 300 tons of foodstuffs were ship ped from America to the famine dis tricts. The California Red Cross so ciety was also instrumental in send ing 2,500 bushels of seed wheat from San Francisco two weeks ago on the Siberia, free transportation having been offered by the Pacific Mail Steamship company. Five thousand bushels of seed wheat have been given to the Red Cross at Portland, Ore., and it is being gathered at Seat tle for shipment:. There are two relief committees iff China. One :s composed of Chinese, Europeans and Americans, at Shang hai. The other comprises missionar ies exclusively. They are sending food into the districts where the greatest suffering prevails, but have b?-en unable to do more than relieve thfc starving peasants that are near at hand, owing to the lack of funds. As early as possible in the famine the American Missionary society load ed 3,509 bags of millet and rice on boats and sent them up to the great canal to the starving peasants. An other consignment of 20,000 bags fol lowed soon after. Thus far fully 16, 500 more bags of grain have been dis tributed, making 40,000 in all. The Chinese officials realize that the crisis is at hand, and have taken extraordinary measures to aid their starving fellows. Taxes in the affect ed provinces have been abated. Many officials have had their salaries reduc ed, the saving being devoted to re lief. The mints are running overtime to coin cash. The acute sufferers In some of the districts are receiving three cash (a sixth of a cent) a day for a month. It is also proposed to re open old canals and rebuild old roads, and thus afford the starving an oppor: tunity to earn a living. They landed in a boat which was smashed by a wave on their trying to relaunch her, and they were kept on the bare rocky island without food. Fortunately there was a spring on the island, but nothing in the way of sea gulls, which they could catch, and nothing with which to make a Are as a distress signal. There were not even any shell Ash, as there was no beach, and the pair had to subsist tor ten days on cold, raw seaweed washed up by the tide. The best known and most useful of starvation diets for wrecked castaway people, however, is that of barnacles. Three Englishmen and a crew of Las cars who had been forced to abandon the failing vessel North Star a few months ago kept themselves going for more than a week on barnacles, i The worst of this diet is that the barnacles give one internal cramps and cause an insufferable thirst, but they do nourish the frame. You have to reach under the vessel’s side and pull ehem oii, taking care not to leave the fcjpst half sf them sticking to the plai V HHMF VC TUC flT'Y country is the feeder of the city. • IVItIEi ¥ J« 1 IlL vl 1 I This is only partially true. That doc _ trine has been preached till the text is threadbare. It would be much THAT IS WHAT THE HOME-TRADE wiser for man to get a new text and PROBLEM AMOUNTS TO. talk and work the country up, then _ allow the city, including its mail or der Octopus, to work its own prob WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? lems awhile. This, instead of being _ | selfishness, would be the finest order j of common sense. A more marked If You Are Sending Your Dollars to , feeling of brotherhood interest is »he Mail-Order Houses You Are saidi.v needed in the country on this Battling Against the particular point. Home Town. The rural population complain oi - lack of facilities and conveniences; in (Copyrighted, by Alfred C. Clark.) order to obviate this, let $200,000,000 A far seeing, provident business j this coming year be disbursed among man will not pursue a policy which country merchants, among the hum is subversive of his best interests, bier storekeepers, then observe what He will not destroy his own house, will follow. The improvements would neither will he jeopardize his busi- j be marked. Social conditions would ness. He will observe the golden ; be greatly ameliorated. A new order rule, not only in theory, but in prac- j would maintain in the home and over tice, and its practical observation was ; the broad acres of the farm and best never more needed than at the pres- of all. the social spirit of brotherhood ent time. Men dream about the I would be felt as never before. "Golden Age” and yet, ofttimes pur- [ Listen to these thoughtful words sue a policy which renders the dawn 1 from Gov. Folk, of Missouri: “We of that age an impossibility. j are proud of our splendid cities, and Within the horizon of every coun- \ we want to increase in wealth and try resident there exists an evil which population, and we also want our is yearly assuming greater propor- i country towns to grow. We wish the tions. We refer to the mail order , city merchants to build up, but also business which last year amounted : desire the country merchants to pros in money sent to Chicago alone to per. i do NOT BELIEVE in the mail $200,000,000. Two hundred million order citizen. If a place is good dollars diverted from its legitimate : enough for a man to live in and to channel. Two hundred million dol- make his money in, it is good enough lars sent out to enrich those who for a man to SPEND HIS MONEY were not needy, while those at home j >n- Patronize your own town papers, sorely in need of support were passed I build them up, and they will build by coldly; the local trade was im- i your town up in increased trade and poverished just to that extent. This | greater opportunities." golden trade reviving stream should ; These are the words of wisdom and have remained within its own chan- j foresight from a prudent, patriotic nei, thus enriching its own soil, and | man. As it is to-day, these words are causing desert piffcs to bloom and : expressive c.f the opposite of what blossom. ^ should be in many a country district. Many unemployed would have been The mail order citizen may think he engaged at living wages, households is gaining; the truth is he is sawing I The batteries of the catalogue houses are carrying destruction to the smaller cities and towns. Are you helping in this work of hurling destruc tion at the local schools, churches and industries? Are you assisting in the distribution of mail-order literature and sending ammunition in the way cf home dollars with which they will continue the campaign? would have been cheered and hearts warmed; but no, it went to swell the dividends of surfeited, boastful city concerns. The live and let live doctrines was overlooked; its old-fashioned whole someness was utterly disregarded. The country merchant would have been engaged in his daily struggle, instead of battling at long odds against ostracism, adversity, big bills and meager receipts. Think of $200,000,000, ye who cause the catalogue houses to flourish as the cedars of Lebanon, and the green bay tree; remember that their prosperity is at the expense of your brother, the local merchant, and local progress. Then ask this pertinent question; Can we afford to play the game longer; can we longer stultify local interests? This great evil affects every farm er, teacher and work hand, every home, every school, every church in every country community. It also touches the interests of the physician, preacher and pedagogue. It really robs the country merchant before his eyes, in a heartless way. He sees the freight yard crowded with consign ments to individuals from great cata logue houses, and sadly does he look at his country store with its stock accumulating, for want of trade, and thus decreasing in value every day. Sadly too does he look at the refuge of bankruptcy hourly being hastened because his townsmen prefer the cata logue house with its ubiquitous cir culars. Those train loads of goods were bought with money that should have found its way into the honest hand of your local merchant, who has the good of your locality at heart, and who is expected to contribute liberally and continuously to very moral and benevolent institution in your midst. Then likewise remember this, that of all the millions thus sent to swell the coffers of houses in great cities, not one cent will ever return to bless your community; to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry or to educate the ignorant! This is certainly a misguided, ill advised policy; if self preservation is the first law of nature, the fact just statetl should cause lovers of this country to think. Continue this policy and what follows? The value of real estate decreases, local improvements cease, material progress stops, the whole country suffers. The money of a community repre sents in a business sense just so much possibility, and every honest occupa tion is injured in proportion as that is withheld or sent elsewhere. In a certain rural community, this official order and warning was issued: “Unless bad roads are fixed there will be no rural delivery at all.” It is impossible to put roads in repair with out money. This lack of means can not be traced to poor crops, for the harvest just gathered in has been superabundant. Men cannot support and build up business concerns in dis tant cities without sacrificing the local good. Is it fair to establish the city by depriving the country of its just support? Many hold forth the idea that the j off the limb upon which he sits. Dis aster only can follow. The mail or der citizen makes his money locally and scatters it abroad in a field where it is not needed; this is unfair to both the town and to its merchants. This shortsighted citizen complains of the size and character of his town paper, at the same time he pursues a policy which tends to destroy both. Then, publishers ought to be careful how they exploit and give publicity to the mail order houses; even if they are paid well for the space, it reacts dis astrously on the town's best pros pects. Let men stand by the local mer chant, let them protect his interests, for they thus further their own. The town that made the man should be made by the man. This is fair to all. Let men ponder well this truth, that we are all interdependent; that the vein of brotherhood underlies the en tire social and commercial fabric. That together we stand or fall; that tjie good of the country demands loy alty and practical cooperation. ARTHUR M. FROWDEN. Father’s Fond Hopes Dashed. “Times are changed,” said Mark Twain, speaking of Washington. “I doubt if nowadays a man of Washing ton’s unswerving integrity would be able to get on. “A rich lawyer after dinner the other night went into his den for a smoke. He took down from his piperack a superb meerschaum, a Christmas pres ent from his wife, but, alas, as he started to fill the pipe it came apart in his hands. The bowl had been broken in two and then carelessly stuck together. “With loud growls of rage the law yer rushed from his den and demand ed to know who had broken his new meerschaum. His only son, a boy of 11, spoke up bravely. “ Father,’ he said, ‘I can not tell a lie. I did it.’ “The lawyer praised the lad's Wash ingtonian veracity, but that night on his pillow he' groaned and went on terribly about the incident. “ ’Heaven neip me,’ he said, ‘it had been my life’s dearest wish to rear up my son to my own profession, but now—alas—alas—’ ” Fortunate Men of Prominence. Admirers of great, rich or famous people often bestow their wealth upon the objects of their regard. The Ger man emperor heads the list of lucky ones so favored. His receipts in money and real estate during the last ten years would, it is said, make a millionaire envious. Following prece dent. a Hamburg merchant prince left more than $1,000,000 to the emperor’s chancellor, whom Kaiser William im mediately created “Prince” Buelow. William Jennings Bryan recently came by wealth in the same way. In England Lord Allerton has received $100,000 from an admirer of his public career and Dr. Jameson inherits a sum one-fifth larger under the will of Mr. Beit. Queen Victoria was very for tunate in her admirers, of whom ihe wealthiest was Nield, who bequeathed to her the sum of $1,250,000. I B SHORT SESSION SETS NEW APPROPRIATION MARK OT ASHINGTON.—More money was ™ appropriated during the short ses*ion of the fifty-ninth congress, which recently passed into history, than during any previous session. The amount approximates about $1,000, 000,000. Two big battleships were au thorized for the navy. The artillery corps of the army was reorganized and enlarged. A general service pen sion was granted to veterans of the Mexican and civil wars, and like pro visions were made for army nurses. For river and harbor improvements the appropriation aggregated $83,000, 000. Increased salaries were given cab inet ministers, the vice president, sen ators, the speaker of the house of rep resentatives and its members, ambas sadors, ministers, and consuls, post office clerks and letter carriers. The public made more inquiries for information from the document rooms of congress regarding the ship sub sidy bill, the currency measure, and the bill regelating the hours of serv k SERIES of misfortunes involving dismissals, resignations and deaths in the great executive depart ments in Washington often develops what is known as the “hoodoo desk." A desk comes under suspicion after a dismissal or two from the service or after several transfers or resigna tions, and if there should occur sever al deaths among the occupants of the desk in the course of a year or two it is designated as the hoodooed desk and no one iu that room cares to do clerical work at it. In a room filled with clerks, the hoodoo desk is easi ly recognized, for it is most generally occupied with the surplus I>ooks and general litter of the daily routine work. Tlie desk may remain unoccupied sometimes for months, until some new clerk comes into the room and is as signed to it, provided there is no other vacant desk in the room. Bu reau officials generally avoid assign ing a new clerk to the hoodoo desk, if it can be done. In fact the desk is apt to remain without an occupant ART STRICTLY BARRED IN GOVERNMENT PRINTSHOP IF there are those in the government printing office who are vain, or those who have been leaning toward the artistic, they must confine their admiration of what their mirrors por tray to the sacred confines of their homes—or the corner bar. Also no more will they be permitted to cover up patches of somberness on the walls of the government printing office with decorative pictures or calendars. Even the pictures of President Roosevelt are not exempt from the attacks of the art censor, although a likeness of the executive stayed lone somely on the walls of the bindery for three days while the censor consid ered the propriety of including it with in the category of “pictures” or “dec orations.” Maj. Sylvester recently asked a i« lice regulation permitting him to pro hibit the display of all pictures on the billboards in the district. Close in vestigation developed the fact that it was not because of any aversion to art on the part of the head of the po lice department, but because he wished to rid himself of the onerous responsibility of saying what should and what should not go on the bill boards. Under the present regulations he is the court of last appeal for those who / 50-00^-1 ' MRS. MARSHALL FIELD of Chica go and George W. Vanderbilt of New York are the two latest of the multimillionaires of the country who plan to add private residences to the architecture of Washington, thereby assisting to make the city the capi tal of society as well as the political capital of the nation. A real estate dealer has sold to a local lawyer two half squares of ground fronting on New Hampshire avenue, Seventeenth and S streets in the northwest section, where the pa latial homes of multimillionaires are springing up like mushrooms. The lawyer is said to be the agent for Mrs. Field and Mr. Vanderbilt. The property consists of 17 lots, with an aggregate area of nearly 50, 000 square feet, and the consideration is understood to have been morAhan $115,000. Mrs. Field has been in Washington a great part of the present season, and it has been known she was desir ous of obtaining property upon which to build a home here. Several brok ers have offered her various pieces of property, and the announcement that she had about decided on the New *'000.000.000 (^PP^OPRiAt' ice of railroad employes than any oth er pending legislation. Ship subsidy died hard in the last hours. The other two measures became laws as the ses sion closed. The immigration bill, one of the measures brought over from the long session, was completed under the spur of President Roosevelt that he might meet the California-Japanese situation by giving the administration control of coolie importation through pass ports. The bill further restricts the admission of aliens to the country. A bill was passed for the establish ment of an agricultural bank in the Philippine islands. The free alco hol law of last session was modified that farmers may distill the waste products of the farm to be denatured ; and used in the arts and sciences. The right of appeal in criminal i eases was granted the government, | a measure intended to strengthen the ! anti-trust legislation by affording a i means whereby the supreme court | may pass on the constitutionality and i construction of such laws. GOVERNMENT EMPLOYES SHUN “HOODOO DESKS” until radical changes in the person nel of the office cause its reputation to be forgotten. Perhaps the most conspicuous case of a hoodoo desk in any one of the Washington executive departments I was that in which a succession of misfortunes came to private secretar ies of one of tlie assistant secretaries. Several deaths and other misfortunes made the place dreaded. But there are other hoodoos in Washington. Some years ago a door keeper's post in the war department building came under the ban and was ' a source of considerable annoyance ! to officials. At this particular door the first mis fortune was death, the second dis I missal; the third holder of the post , lost his wife by death and finally fell ! and broke a limb, and the fourth ap | pointee in succession lost a child and j then resigned. This resignation kept ; the place vacant for a lime, as no one i could he induced to take it. The place | had to he filled by calling on the civil l service commission for some one from the outside. object and those who do not to the pictures that get on display. Maj Sylvester found it so hard to steer j clear of trouble between the multi ; plicitv of opinions that he would lose the whole responsibility. What motive may have actuated the move in the government printing of fice is unknown, but the fact remains that recently the order was promul gated, and a man went through the de partment removing pictures, mirrors and all other attempts at decorations from the walls. In the course of his work came a large picture of the president, and the men in the room, who had watched his iconoclastic progress with dis pleasure, waited eagerly to see what he would do. The man paused, and some one asked if he intended to re move the picture. He replied that he didn't think he would at that particu lar time, and passed on, gathering up a truck load of other articles. The picture of the president rested in solitary glory for three days, while in some place about the building there were held councils of war to decide if it should come down. The ayes won the conference, and the destroyer of amateur attempts at decorative art came and took it down, carrying it away to oblivion. NEW PALACES OF RICH IN FASHIONABLE CIRCLE Hampshire avenue site occasioned lit tle surprise in this city. Both she and Mr. Vanderbilt are reported to have consulted architects on their prospective residences. It is expected Mrs. Field will build a mansion that will rival, if not eclipse, the Leiter, Walsh, Townsend, Lars Anderson and other fine homes that have been erected in recent years, the Leiter house on Dupont circle being the first of the big resi dential show places to go up. Mr. Vanderbilt-is spending his first winter in Washington, but is residing in a rented house. It has been known for some time that he intended build ing a fine residence in this city. Perry Belmont of New York is building his half-million-dollar resi dence just a square to the south of the ground sold the agent for Mrs. Field and Mr. Vanderbilt. Mr. Bel mont paid nearly $100,000 for the site. Other handsome residences in this section are those of Representatives Dalzell and John Moore and the Hul dekoper and McKim houses. The wear and tear of rust is faster than the wear and tear of work.—S. Smiles.