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Show Having just returned from a whole week»s work in the west coun-try, inveatigating the famine conditions there & dispensing tickets for a monthly relief, I am so full ef the awfulness of the conditions there that I must give yeu as vivid a pistura of thera as I can, while it is fresh in raind. On this trip, I was accompanied by Rev. Mr. Mar*i tin of Tong Chow academy, who rodé in the cart with our clerk, while I used a horse borrowed froia the barracks he re. As befo re, we followe the plan of a y ridin¿ ahead to prepare the w&y, by getting out the village fathers h their lists of those *in extrerais',having them eopy out on our sheets such ñames as had been omitted frera other reliefs & so having everything ready for dividing up inte 2 surtías as sco|i as our cart carne up. This worked alright in most cases but occasionally they used the excuse of not fully understandi ng aje, to put down those who vare not the raost needy in the village, thus c&using ai to waste rauch time & to feel that we wara being piayed with. The di.strict we touched is controlled »g the city of Ghiu lisien v/hick lies **.•*. of he re about 35 miles & is jusl on ties borders of Chi -li provance. For ¿aany yeare it haci been the hunting ¿round of robber but in a year like this, things nave reached a pitch of missry, extrer avan far poor miserable China, tkmj aay that %/Z of tka peopieof the Oity are smoking opium <& this leaves tlie¿n soon without iooney but tfith a eraving that XA- «.o desperate that they tura roober to get the iaeans to aatlafy their craving. Then too the soldiers there are dafinitely in laague with the bandits -I as their wa^es are aiwa/f¿ far la arrears they praeticall;* depend on what the bandits t¿ive them to 'pasa the daya*. Oar paople there in Chiu Hsien actually sa-v bandits admitted t • te the quarters o.f eme of the officers to pues bita night & i t Sai f-, «nd that they gava him a tvr coat valuad at $200 as wnll as raoney. Se it is haruly st ranga that the soldiers do not ¡res* fcl*a aaadlta x«r v-ry hard. It is only when an order comes froia the governor Oda ring them to clear the raneara out in so ns.ny days on pain of dismissal h s-reeaely death that anytking is really done. Bat what about the famine itaelf? - we fauna* tfeat the paapln thee were in most dosperate condition & the common food oonsiated in misar -abte sort of weed «Mea they atill find in the fields aii dried up .* after aoakin&- in cold vater, they cut it up fe mixing it with what ¿rain-substitute they have, make a hideous kian of gmei aat of it. Their grain-substitutos comprise the chaff of wheat, of alllet or eve • granad up corn-cobs. In aany tyouses we found them using the empty amalla of bird-ssed, s^ich as our canarias discard froro their sages «5: yon can imagine how nourishing it iwst be. 7a found that nearly every faaiily had pallad ftenra some of the little buildings which raake up their home, in many cases they were living in the last one left *c in a farw they liad be¿un to pulí down that & burn it for fuel, finding s ahalter in the raanaant wniaa stiii kept out the r&in or anaw but whic.'i aaaild be useloss to protect tr»a the very severe cold which we have n had thia winter. while we were on this «ork, we were living in a chin- -ese henee, with the door open all the ti me but I had 2 bi|, thiak JUÜ padded quilts % a feather cor^forter over me, while the se poor wretche have only a little aúnale of most pitiably ragged coverings. No won-d^ r the hospital la lull of peoplle with frost bitas & gangrenous feet Altho» most of the falles we helped were pretty honest» we met several alta) tried to fool na * some of their devices were quite int-eresting. I was examining the poor empty house of a single man, >¿Just at iark & we had him llght hia little bean-oil dip-lamp to hsew us thé nakedness of his home. As *e went pokiag into a dark comer where thee |
