Recent Famine Scenes in China
So much attention has been given the revolution in China the past few months, that the suffering from famine caused by floods in north central China has been largely lost sight of. A Mr. Lobenstine tells the following:— “Here is an incident that is refreshing, coming along with all the stories of sale of girls of marriageable age and of wives, and the giving away or sale of children. A few li from here lived a family of eight,—father, mother, two married sons and their wives, and two grandchildren. Having nothing whereon to live, and unable to support themselves by begging, they were, along with ten thousands of others, reduced to the point of starving to death. Not many days ago, the oldest son's wife said to her husband and her parents-in-law: 'Take me and sell me. It is not right that we should all perish; if by selling me you can live, I am quite ready to be sold as a slave.' But the other daughter broke in, saying: 'Not so, my sister; you have children, while I have none; and you are the wife of the older son; it is your place to stay by your family. Let them take me rather and sell me. And then, if Heaven saves your lives and fortune changes for the better, my husband can take to him another wife better than myself, who will be an honor to the family and raise up children for him.' But they were a united family, and could not resign themselves to the parting. So the father spoke up and said: 'We have still a few stalks of corn left; let us take them to the city and sell them for a few cash. Perhaps that will keep us alive till the relief committee makes its distribution; but if die we must, let us die together.' The son accordingly carried the corn-stalks to the city and received in return 200 cash (8 cents gold), with which he bought a little food. But, as you know, the bank has been slow in getting the copper coins to us, and it has not yet been possible to make our first distribution of 100 cash per capita, which could have kept them alive for a few days longer, and yesterday the member of the gentry who told me the story reported the entire family dead.” Another case of self-denial is noted by T. F. Carter, writing from Mengcheng:— “I happened to come into a village this noon (January 17) just as people were eating their midday meal. Some had bowls of dandelion greens with a little wheat, some had flat cakes made of sweet potato leaves and stems. Suddenly the dogs barked, and some one said, 'There's a beggar.' A boy of twelve appeared, wrapped in a single rag, with blue face and sunken cheeks, apparently in the last stages of starvation. From their half-empty bowls every one started to fill his bowl, until in a moment his bowl was full. They were every one of them hungry, but he was more hungry.” Writing from Kai-feng, Honan, on May 10, Rev. C. Howard Bird says:— “I have just returned from a visit to Kweiteh, Yung-cheng, and Pochow. . . . One of the saddest scenes I saw was a man lying on a heap of straw, the thatch of his own roof. He was too weak to rise, and in the straw beside him, with just their heads showing, were his wife and two children. They had no clothing, and inside his roofless house was a little girl of seven or eight years heating the pot with some grass and leaves in it. This was a local landowner of seven or eight acres, with his family, all starving to death.”12