Page 67 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
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GFA – A Different Drumbeat 67
see the families moving listlessly along the highroads, wandering anywhere
where there might be the smallest possible chance of obtaining food, and to
see the parents, when the strength of the children gave out, urging
themselves forward in order to get out of earshot of the moans of the little
ones who were thus abandoned to their fate. Right throughout this region the
trees had been stripped of their bark which was powdered and mixed with the
sweepings of coarse flour of various kinds in order to eke out the food supply.
Those who were able to find edible roots on the hillsides, or some of the
coarse clover, counted themselves fortunate beyond measure.
It was a strange experience to find oneself where money had largely lost its
value and where monetary alms would be refused, or returned, with the once-
heard-never-to-be-forgotten moan for bread. Just one little picture.
Right in the heart of the drought area I saw her. A gaunt emaciated form,
evidently in the last stages of weakness through starvation and yet with a
something about her which bespoke the fact that she had not long since
known a comfortable home. Two little girls were clinging to her, and the three
of them were creeping - so very slowly - along the weary road winding down
the hill to the little market town which had once been a centre of prosperity but
upon which the blight of famine now rested heavily. One look at her face
assured me that, unless Providence intervened very very soon, her body
would be added to the large number I had already seen strewn along that
Trail of Death. The supply of food I had been carrying was exhausted and yet
I felt I must do something to relieve the distress, so going up to her I proffered
a bright silver dollar. She gazed at me for a moment but made no move to
accept my gift. Thereupon, to the first dollar I added a second, and offered
them both but still she made no effort to take the money. At last she
spoke, ”Money has no use here, give me some bread, give me some food for
the children”. Unable to stand gazing helplessly on such suffering, I turned
and hastened on my way. ‘At some distance I turned and looked back up the
hill. There she was, the little ones still clinging to her clothes and all three
staggering and stumbling. The rays of the setting sun shone upon them and
brought out the three figures in strong relief, but Fancy shadowed behind
them the tall gaunt spectre of Death with his hand already upon the mother’s
shoulder. Corpses were lying along the main roads and on the streets in the
cities. Toward the end of my time in the province, the living were too
engrossed in conserving their remaining strength, to worry themselves much
about those who had already died. Thus bodies would lie for many days in
places. During the month or so that I was in Lanchow, the provincial capital,
three large pits (known in Chinese as ‘Graves for Ten Thousand”) were dug
outside the city and two of them were filled, before I left, with the bodies of
those carried out from the city. When the typhus came, the people died in
see the families moving listlessly along the highroads, wandering anywhere
where there might be the smallest possible chance of obtaining food, and to
see the parents, when the strength of the children gave out, urging
themselves forward in order to get out of earshot of the moans of the little
ones who were thus abandoned to their fate. Right throughout this region the
trees had been stripped of their bark which was powdered and mixed with the
sweepings of coarse flour of various kinds in order to eke out the food supply.
Those who were able to find edible roots on the hillsides, or some of the
coarse clover, counted themselves fortunate beyond measure.
It was a strange experience to find oneself where money had largely lost its
value and where monetary alms would be refused, or returned, with the once-
heard-never-to-be-forgotten moan for bread. Just one little picture.
Right in the heart of the drought area I saw her. A gaunt emaciated form,
evidently in the last stages of weakness through starvation and yet with a
something about her which bespoke the fact that she had not long since
known a comfortable home. Two little girls were clinging to her, and the three
of them were creeping - so very slowly - along the weary road winding down
the hill to the little market town which had once been a centre of prosperity but
upon which the blight of famine now rested heavily. One look at her face
assured me that, unless Providence intervened very very soon, her body
would be added to the large number I had already seen strewn along that
Trail of Death. The supply of food I had been carrying was exhausted and yet
I felt I must do something to relieve the distress, so going up to her I proffered
a bright silver dollar. She gazed at me for a moment but made no move to
accept my gift. Thereupon, to the first dollar I added a second, and offered
them both but still she made no effort to take the money. At last she
spoke, ”Money has no use here, give me some bread, give me some food for
the children”. Unable to stand gazing helplessly on such suffering, I turned
and hastened on my way. ‘At some distance I turned and looked back up the
hill. There she was, the little ones still clinging to her clothes and all three
staggering and stumbling. The rays of the setting sun shone upon them and
brought out the three figures in strong relief, but Fancy shadowed behind
them the tall gaunt spectre of Death with his hand already upon the mother’s
shoulder. Corpses were lying along the main roads and on the streets in the
cities. Toward the end of my time in the province, the living were too
engrossed in conserving their remaining strength, to worry themselves much
about those who had already died. Thus bodies would lie for many days in
places. During the month or so that I was in Lanchow, the provincial capital,
three large pits (known in Chinese as ‘Graves for Ten Thousand”) were dug
outside the city and two of them were filled, before I left, with the bodies of
those carried out from the city. When the typhus came, the people died in
