Famine, Disease, and Accident
The practically complete failure of the rice crop last year in Japan has caused widespread distress in that country, culminating in famine in the northeastern provinces. An official report states that the number of starving is 147,688, with the possibility of these figures being greatly added to. The foreign element is now seeking to raise funds to alleviate the distress. Members of the Finnish relief society in New York have received samples of the food on which their starving countrymen are trying to sustain life. It is composed of the bark of pine trees, is almost as hard as stone, and no one would ever suspect that it could be eaten. A report from Alaska states that disease and privation are rapidly thinning out the Esquimo population along the Behring Sea. The natives have become greatly enfeebled through lack of food, and are unable to withstand the ravages of disease. The epidemic of typhoid at Ithaca, N. Y., is still counting its victims both among the Cornell students and the inhabitants of the town. Its origin is traced to one infected stream which helped to supply the town with water. The great storms of the past weeks have caused extensive suffering and thousands of deaths among the cattle on the western ranges from Colorado to Texas. In some sections the loss of stock is placed as high as 25 per cent. Nineteen workmen were drowned at Glens Falls, N. Y., on March 7, as a result of the capsizing of a small ferry boat.