Fnost Oex Ows Contesrospexr wa yuan, Shensi, Feb. 13.
Extreme famine conditions pre-all here and the plight of the people palling. During the last month, much snow has fallen, the cold has eon bitter and as a result there! have been many deaths. In Sanyuan city alone 45 deaths wore reported one day. In one retreat of the very poor 24 corpses were found. Revently, T made vestigation in the countries, and the sights and which one saw and heard everywhere were heartrending. Tt made one weep see human mortals reduced to such awful conditions, Only about ten per cent. of the! villages have good food to eat, and the reminder, for four months have Boon subsisting on substitutes that] in ordinary times would hardly be given to pigs. The staple diet of these poor folk is made up of husks, straw, dried leaves, branches and bark of trees, cotton-seed cake, yam vinys, and dried thistles, and' even these' stocks are giving out. A nize percentage of the people have not even the above; they are death tute of everything but hunger. Nun erous homes contain nothing but an old dirty. te which serves as the family. bedding, and {saw several children who could not leave their brick beds because they had no clothes to wear.
furniture has been disposed of long since, and the roof under which they shelter has also been sold to buy' food. les those who have] sold their homes as such. another ten per cent. have with their own ands destroyed them in order that} they: may sell the rafters, doors and windows as firewood, and the tables! and chairs have also been sold at this rate of value, ing. for Death, found the peo-Vie sick oF So weak that they were unable yo rise, and even Late in the:
shutters were still unopened, re many of them Tie to-day!
dark hopelessness waiting messenger of death to re Hieve them from their hunger pains. Probably two per cent. have already died of starvation, Many have sold their wives and alle todo so if there were man T know well wile, axed n F to pro living soul in the streets, a very] marked contrast to the customary] crowds of children playing around.
In the city here the sights are ghastly, poor emaciated beings can be seen lying about in many corners, and huddled up like something inhuman, Beggars can be seen and heard at nearly every door and often several, in between. Two days ago, walking along a street, U heard a loud and regular moan, then later saw] little hoy lying by the roadside, a most forlorn snd starving sight.
asked him to follow me, as meant to get him meal at. the He was unable to rise T gone twenty yards when I realized! how impossible it was for me to help, for before T even spoke to a soul I was surrounded by a crowd of starving people. One in desperation hell on to my clothes as he sat at my fect. It was with dificulty that I got away, and 1 had, to commission 4 native to carry some bread to the little cripple designed to help.
It is indeed a most dificult thing! tw help these homeless wanderers As one moves along the streets the appeals are numerous and piteous, some try to obstruct one's way and others clasp me by the leg. Consequently, as a rule, I don't give help on the street, bit tell them to come to the preaching hall where for some time we have been dis-pansing millet soup for the most desperate. When we started thi kitchen, there were some othe: imilar' efforts being made by the merchants throughout the city an was a raeticable and happy. task, to provide three or four hundred hungry people with " hot and supe stantial owl. Unfortunately—the merchants turned weary in welling and. the et have been closed down. was my intention to continue and to provide for a larger num ber, hut the day after the others ately swampsible to should nipped to death. There were thousands round the preaching hall] doors snd hundreds congregated fore the house sind for some time we were afraid that the place would he looted. F At the tine} offer he had for her' was one peck of maize, Pro cent, of the children to visit the fi nest, and thes went ni entreated the}
Viding for the About 60 per yard or slaughtered of draft and been sold! people to disperse, explaining that! we were doing on utmost to. provide for their need. The here have since decided that no kitchen can be opened in Sans less neighbouring towns wise, as they fear the concentra tion of the people in this city may]
followed by bread riots, We sin-from the village, Kill it there and divide the spoil." Br ig a regular practice and in spite of the nots tha spread over th very the small merch pound of bread, an accomplice runs ith the stock and leaves the Poor merchant absolutely: bereft of capital. Many dogs have already Soon eaten by their owners. I seen one prepared for the pot; yethers Tic listlessly in a heap, too Inmgry to care about the stranger io invades their domain, and too weak to move. Wolves are fairly womerous, having left their haunts the hills, and already) one son our church has been devoured the fields. A leopard was eaprel near ty Gospel Village,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.