The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, March 07, 1879, Image 1
r - ~ -x v- .%v i ? - *- ir*/-' jJ.
- 'I-,, i?^ifflgfgygfBwpy ^wpwyf'- \f< / .v TMffffjffliBBBMlHBfMWrjifijBBBMIBBWBMI^MB
^IHi ( lfyjBMK?'Iff * ?>JB3BB^HMS^HMHHBIMBB^^^H^^^HH^^B^HH^^^H^^^BHBi^B^BBiBiaffraffi^^HI^B^^^Hfl
Sj^^^EiSBHBSflHR^HnL M\ .^?aBy63WHrHiBByM^ , M^WWIBL < !
8HreB^^8|^^^9SEXrSERIES. UNION C. II., SOUTH CAROLINA, MARCH 7, 1S79. "" TrwillHRHffiBH
' {f * the Brazilian famine.
r V\* * Th^ Harrowing Story of a Dreadful Calamity.
5L, n ' Half a Million People Carried Off by
Starvation and Pestilence.
' > . The famine of J877-78 is confined to
i that part of Brazil which is known as tho
.Sortao. This region is utterly unlike the
matted forest flats of the Amnion or tho
duois*. Mountains of Rio. It is a rolling
^ >v iplain, ascending gradually from the senr*.
'Coast and diversified cvorywherc with iso"
4 dated hills aud niouutains. There is forest
. growth, hut it is low and not thick, much
-more like our NoCthorn wood# than one is
;upt to Tuiagino for tropical growth. Iu
*he S*rtoa the sensone are very sharply
. divided. Tho rainy months proper cztcud
froirt January to Juno or July ; the reuiaiu-*
der of tho year is dry, so dry that the trocs
hflf] iKnir Innvna nnil till a rwrnaa ia oil m??K- '
ered. People can only obtain water by digging
for it iu the dry beds of streams, for
there are no percnuial rivers in tho Sertao.
It sometimes happens that the winter
months remain dry lik-J tho others?a terrible
calamity for tho poorer people, because
they depend for a Hying on the products of
their little plantations, and the crops can
ouly bo raised during the rains.
A POVERTY" STRICKEN POPULATION.
In this part of Brazil there are no manufactures
whatever, very few mines, no fisheries
bf importance, no forest industries.
Tho community is extcuiely agricultural and
pastoral. There are immense herds of cattle,
considerable plantations of sugar, cotton,
&o.t and tho poorer people plant mandioca
aud corn, using tho laud of their richer
ucighbors, for whom they do a little work
occasionally. Whether it be for the pasturage
of cattle or the growth of crops the
whole community depends on tho soil, and
hence on the fertilizing raiijs of winter.?
If the rains do not come the people starve.
Again, the population has to sutler terribly,
bcoausc it has no help iu itself. Of the
2,500,000 nominal inhabitants of the Ser*
toa not 100,000 nre rich men or even reasonably
well off. The vast majority are an
Arab-like raoe, produced by the intermix iX/
tUrc of the blacks, whites and Indians?
v'$dqplo who have no property aud never
try to rise above their normal condition.?
^ ill II It.Acf /InnmnJrtd /?!.?on
people live huts; the women
do most of the farm work ; the men
gain a few dollars as hcrdsincu or by hiring
themselves out for a day occasionally.
The upper classes, on the contrary, will compare
favorably with nuy in Brazil. Most
of llicui arc pure whites ; they are intelligent,
brave, domestic?far ahead, in fact,
of the llio or San Paulo Brazilians. This
mixed population was distributed through
the Sortao, much as the people are iu our
Western communities. There are numerous
villages and hamlets, joined together
by tolerable roads, hardly any railroads, and
as I have imtimated, no navigable rivers.
It is important to note this, as it explains
much of the suffering brought on by the
drought. The Sortao is a strip averaging
500 miles in widlli^iyextending from the
Para by ba Kiver southward along tho coast
or near to the St. Francisco ; tlicuce between
flic coast range of uiouutains it is
continued southwestward to Minns (Jeraes,
almost in the latitude of Bio. The drought
of 1877-78 was felt all over this tract, but
its black nucleus was in the Province ol
(Jeara. This Provinco, to which my observntions
were conliuod, is about as large a3
the Middle States, in 1870 it contained
000,000 inhabitants, ol" which at least 750,000
were non-proprietors?the poor people
of whom I have written. The Province
contained only one port of importance, its
capital. This is indifferently set down on
the maps as Fortnlcza, or Ceara. Its normal
population is 25,000. The streets are
well laid out, and in general the little city
is one of the prettiest and neatest in Brazil.
There is no harbor; vessels anchor in the
topen roadstead and passengers are taken to
tnuj fro in little sailing rafts?taugadas or
catamarans.
T11 K BEGINNING OF TKOUBLE.
I visited the place in March, 1877. The
drought was then n subject of general eon*
wer+ation, but nobody understood the extent
of the calamity. Suddenly, like a
thunder bolt, there came to the quiet town
u message of terror. Men's faces grew white;
men's heart* sank within them, for they
.know what the words prophesied. It was
diotn Tclhn, in the interior of the province,
a letter dated March 8, so that it must
have reached Kortaleza about March 20.?
The words were simple enough : "People
iire dyiug hero of hunger." Now this was
<jarly in March, when the drought had
lasted no more than two mouths, when it
was not vet certain that the vcar would ho
altogether a bad one. Hut the poor Sertanejo
is so evenly balanced with nature
that lie cannot stand a fresh strain. 11 is
mamlioea field is for a year only. In a
year and a month lie starve unless ho has
new crops. It was a sad month in the
Sertoa?this n ic of March. In some places
there had been light showers, hut (lie
young grass wrowth from those had dried
up on the black plains. There were no
loaves on the trees. The cattle were crying
for water as only muto nature can. Chil
drcu were crying for food in palui thatched
huta. All the earth cried for rain, and yet
not a tear of pity cauie from tho clouds.-?
The large cattle proprietors begau to kill
ithcir rtock in order to get the meat and
pflides while there was time. The peasants
gathered around theso slaughter houses to
beg a morsel of flesh, and, for the most part,
they found willing honrts and hands, for
the richer Cearences aro not ?he mco to refuse
an alms. But where there wcro no
cattlo the poor people suffered dreadfully.
Already they began to devour tho mucuman
seeds (like a red bean) and forest roots
?unwholesome, disenBe-prodwiwg food
but what could starving people do ? April
came with a blazing suu; no hope of rains.
The'people, indeed, were in despair. They
had formed long penitential processions,
cutting themselves with sharp knives or
carrying heavy stones on their heads.?
\Tnw thftV hntmn fn (Inn PrAm AAimfo..
?e-" " ?w i.vu. <. *> i?uui1;
to the larger villages. Some of them came
down to the City of Fortaleza, ragged,
dirty wretches, with famine marks on
their faces, with famine weakness in
their thin forms, and still the government
insisted that the drought wrs a political
scheme to bring their party into disrepute.
The people were eating eats and dogs by
this time, when they could get them.?
But for the most part they were begging of
lichcr neighbors. The strain was so great
that private charity began to fail. Cattle
stealing and petty thefts of provisions were
of every day occurrence. Letters writteu
at this time already contained sad pictures.
DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.
This universal abandonment of the open
country was a feature of the drought.?
The poor people from the first sought refuge
in the interior towns or at Fortaleza.
Some fled to neighboring provinces, where,
however, matters were hardly bettor. In
l'iauhy and ltio Grande the peasants were
already dying of hunger. And this, remember,
was only in the beginning of the
evil time. Think of the suffering all
through this weary year; think how people
who were starving iu April must have lived
in July, October, December, with the brazen
sun every hour drawiug away the little
moisture thut was left. It was no lougcr
the question of saving herds and crops,
ma" ^ves" The oatllo ljjfKL
iXot n tenth part survived of the immense
herds ; sheep aud goats had fallen a prey to
starving robber bauds. It was unsafe to
travel alone, even by day, so desperate
were tlic poor people. The inllux of refugees
to the villages and towns was enormous?fifteen
or twenty thousaud was no
unusual number in a place whose normal
population was no more than two or thrco
thousand, Py the end of the year there
were 70.000 wretches encamped around
Kortaleza, lying on the sands under huts
made of houghs or palm leaves, hardly
clothed, filthy, famished, begging, where
they could, and finally dying in the streets,
because private charity was exhausted.?
My collection of letters, written during this
time, is only a repetition of sad scenes?
huuj'cr, pestilence, as-assignation, ruin of
the rich, dying of the poo?\
IIAWN OF THE YEAR 1878.
Picture to yourself the condition ofCeara
in January, 1S78. A proviuce dried up,
blasted. Pastures without grass, forests
without leaves, rivers without water, fields
without crops. The cattle industry destroyed
utterly; only a lew beeves survived
about the larger towus of the thousands
that had roamed over these plains. The
cotton aud sugar industries almost annihilated
; no niandioca even, except in about
three or four mountain villages. People
obliged to go five or six miles from their
houses to dig for water in the bed of some
torrent. At least two hundred thousand
rcl'ugees encamped about the larger towns
?70,000 of these added to the 25,000 of
Fortulcza. A famine mortality which in
many places has reached twenty per day.
a i:.~ iv i- '
iv aiurciiity iroiu disease very uiucn groutcr.
No money in the provincial treasury;
no hope of outside aid, except the drop of
private charity, and all men looked for
rain.
So I might go on endlessly. Alas ! T
know how real it was. The tears come to
my eyes even now when I read these piteous
cries for help. Hunger, pestilence,
want?these were what Ceara had to light
when the second great famine year broke
upon her. In January there was fear, in
February terror, in March despair; no
rains at all in some places, little, useless
showers at best. And now comes the most
terrible scene of all. There was no more
hope in the Sertao. No food and no possibility
of obtaining it, except along the
seashore. Then tho whole bewildered,
f;imiiii>-sl rifkon r?niiwi-uMl.l "? " l ------
- - ... |...uivmiiu viwnu Liiiiiu
sushing down to Fortalcza aud the coast
cities. Without food for the road, naked,
8ick, dying even as they fled from death?
every man for himself. Children striving
vainly to kcop up with their parents, crying
as they roll over the stones, with bleeding
ftct and skeleton bodies, walking, crawling
along, begging where no one could
gtve?for how could a man support thousands
'{ They were famished when they
started. Three, four, five days they held
their way. Then they fell by the roadside
I and groaned and died. .Some pitying hand,
perhaps, threw a handful of earth orer
them, but for the moat part each w as too
busy with his own safety to oarc for other*.
So our human brothers died.
ONE HUNDRED AND Fl ?Tt THOUSAND VICTIMS.
The grcntcst mortality from hunger was
probably in March ; Horn February l^to
May 1, when the exodus wa9 talciug place.
I can hardly calculate the number of famine
deaths at less than ono hundred thousand,
and during tho whole drought probably
one hundred and fifty thousand died of
hlinger. 1 *!?<>*? W ndd tjnfctuytalculatlons
arc much lower than those of other persous ;
some place the entire number as nigh as
three hundred thousand. In Aracaty the
death rate fluctuated between ninety and
one hundred aud ten a day; in Fortalcza it
was icss ai mis nine, urn cignty per day |
was bad enough. I havo notices of ten,
twenty or uiorc daily deaths in small villages,
and everywhere along the roadsides
uauicless crosses still tell the story of uncataldgued
victims. Dark talcs of caunibalisin
begin to appear, l'roui a letter written
at Quicxcrauiobiui I translate as follows
:
"I write in haste. Have no. tiu*e to
transcribe thesccuc of horror about me.?
It is enough to give you as a spceimcu oue
nameless crime. A father, whoso injure
was so ovcreouio by hunger that he killed
and cooked in a pot his little child, two
years old. This took place in California, ;i
settlement near Qnixada. The father died
soor. after his horrible least. I have three
or four similar stories, very well authenticated.
I believe that thcic and other
eases of cannibalism were caused by insanity?a
common result of hunger."
I quote also, a letter from JaguariboMirim,
one of many that tell the same story :
"This villgeo is full ol abandoned chidreu ;
the despairing fathers would no longer see
them torn by the moster hunger. This vciy
day, while I was eating dinner, my house
was invaded by a erowd of these wretched
children, very skclctous, who could hurdly
| speak. Some of them were so weak that
: they would take ouly soup, obstinately refusing
more soli t food. The road lVoui
here to Aracaty is full of bodies. You can
count the crosses by hundreds. The oilier
and one old woman, lly the b'>uii& there
were three strips of leather in the kettle
over the ashes cf an extinguished fire.?
A dog, the faithful friend of tho family,
was still watching them. Near Lcttrado
three young girls and an old man were
found eating tho flesh of a dead horse
which lay by the roadside. This was a
family from Loams. Even in the villages
these poor wretches no longer ask for maudioca
meal ; they ask for cats and dogs to
eat. (This is no exaggeration. Ooo
; shopkeeper told tr.e of a refugee who asked
j permission to kill the rats about It is place.)
| Three days ago I made a journey of six
leagues by the road from leo, and what I
[ saw was indescribable* 1 found eleven
j dead bodies by the roadside and at least
forty who were dying. Happily there is no
pestilence here; the deaths are from hunger."
. . '
From the first, both public and private
charity made the terrible mistake of giving
food without returns, leaving the people in
idleness. The result was inevitable. After
a few weeks the peasants settled into
condition of easy mendicancy and idleness
?would not work when they could. They
lay all day in their filthy huts, drew their
rations and cooked them, grew fat hut not
healthy, for their laziness made them lit
food for disease.
TIIK FILTHY RKFUQEK3 F.MIHKATE.
For those that wished to emigrate tho |
I government paid a deck passage, in the I
! early part oi' 1878 especially the number
, of these emigrants was very great?as
many as 1,000 on one steamer. They took
passago generally to Para, sometimes to
Maranham, Pornambuco or llio. Packed
in dirty crowds on the vessel, offensive,
even to the sailorB, by tbeir filthincss, aud
often poorly supplied with food, they fared
badly enough. In more than one instance
the smallpox appeared among them on the
voyage, and then they died like vermin and
were thrown into the sen. Probably fifty
thousand emigrants left Coara. They were
received kindly enough in the other provinces,
though their needs were not always
promptly met. lint for the most part they
would not work; their mcndicaut habits
were now so confirmed that they would
only beg or starve. So they nursed their
misery long after people had ceased to pity
them. The neat Para peasants despised
thorn. At best they were unfitted for n
forest life; so they bagged and starved and
sickened and died, just as as they had iu
their own province.
CKAHA IN JUNK, LAST YEAR.
And now we come to the last sad scene,
the scene that is yet unrolling itself, and no
one can tell the end. Unhappy province!
Pitiless indeed would lie be who could view
thy tortures unmoved. Consider tho province
as it was iu June, 1878. The interior
region, once well populatcd,-was now almost
deserted. Only a few starving families remained
to mark thriving towns and villages.
I state literal truth when I say that in the
, fall of thi-< year it was almost impossible to
. 'I1 " 1111 i<
travel far from the coast, because food and
water were as utterly unattainable as they
would be in the Sahara. 1 havo couversod
with a man who made the journey to Crato
iu November; he described a howling wilderness,
whore oue sees only deserted houses
and leafloss trees and crosses by the roadside.
With our genial climate we cannot
understand a real drought. Iu Ceara birds
and insects died during the first blazing
summer. Imagine what tho plains must
have been with a second dry year. The
wholo population was gathered in a strip
not more than scventy-fivo miles iu its
greatest width running along the coast.?
Tho peoplo were crowded about the cities
aud villages, living in wretched huts and
drawing jroveruuieut rations. At one time
there were 150,000 of them nt Fortalcza,
80,000 ut Aracuty, nml so oil for other place#.
BREAKING OUT OF SMALLPOX.
The people had food enough, but still the
death rate increased steadily. In Fortalcza
it had reached 200 per day, even as early
as Muy or June. In Aracuty it was hardly
less. There were pernicious fevers, boriberi,
a little cholera. Yellow fever disappeared
with the spying months. Hut above
all othcrdiscasc the smallpox began to assume
a terrible pre-eminence. It was
worse at Fortalcza. Very few of the people
were vaccinated. Isolation of the sick
was never enforced. The pestilence, conGued
at Grst to the rofugecs, soon spread
to tho richer classes. By October the 150,000
adventitious population had dwiudlcd
to 70,000 or 1)0,000, including the townspeople
; many had died, many had emigrated.
Among those that were left the pestileucc
was stalking and marking its victims.
Ou November 1, 99 pergous died of
smallpox iu Fortalcza; ou November 2,121.
utfd this out of a population of only 80,000.
Your yellow fever deaths never reached
sttch a proportion. But tho disease went
ou increasing rapidly. Two hundred,
three hundred, four hundred deaths a day
?toward the end of November the Ggures
ran above five hundred. On tho 30th
there were 57-1 registered, but this iucludes
tup.u ^iwi! peasants who wore luid iu tne
thick forest or curried out to sea ou catamarans
and sunk there.
AI'l'ALLINO 1?EAT1I LISTS.
The whole number of registered deaths
in November for the two cemeteries in
San Joao Baptista ami Logoa-funda was
11,075. Of these 9,270 were smallpox eases.
But I think we must add to this at
least one thousand buried in tho woods or
sunk at sea. At this time there were 30,000
sick?more thau a third of the population.
Still the death rate increased. On
December 10, 808 smallpox dead were buried
ir tho cemetery of Lugoa-fundu, at least
75 in San Joao and probably 150 in the
woods and tho sea?-a total death record of
over 1,000 in a single day?and this out of
a population (now reduced) of ouly 75,000.
The great plaguo at Boudou reached this
death rate, but tfrat was from a population
of 300,000. Alter this the mortuary rato
decreased, but only because the disease had
nothing more to feed on. A certain percentage
of a community arc exempt from
smallpox. A few, no doubt, were saved by
vaccination. By the end of the year tho
death rate had gone down to 200 per day.
The entire number of deaths for the month
was not far from 21,000. In all great epi
demies, it is said, the people become indifferent
to their danger. Tn Bortnleza this
indifference was sufficiently astonishing.?
When I reached the place on the 20th of
December the death rate was -100 per day,
but business was going ou much as usual
1 1 1 -1-: "
Itnu Iiuiuijf cmj uuu | IIUU uvcu urivcn out 01
tho city by the danger.
APPEIt ANCE OF THE BLACK PLAGUE.
I could write tnuoh more of Ccara und
the good and evil I saw there; the evil,
alas, too sadly predominant! Only one
thing more 1 will note, for it may bo the
sign of another scourge in tho future.?
When I left Fortaleza people were talking
of a disease which they called black smallpox.
It was utterly unlike the ordinary
smallpox. Tho patient was seized with a
sudden giddiness, fever and burning of the
tongue ; then dark spots liko bruises appeared
on the body, and in twenty-four
hours all was over. I surmised from tho first,
and I believe there is now no doubt, that
this is the terrible black plague, tho scourge
that has so often swept through Europe and
Asia, but which, so far as I know, has never
appeared before on this side of the Atlantic.
The oases were already numerous
at the beginning of this year. One of the
first victims was the wife of the provincial
president. Senhor Jose .Julio. She died in
a few hours after the disease attacked her.
She was buried at night, without attendance.
What will bo the result of the new pestilence
? I only know what has been?-a
province utterly ruined, n population of
1)00,000 reduced to 400,000 and these dying
at an enormous ruto. Probably there
have been 300,000 deaths in the other
drought-stricken provinces, of which I have
few notices. There is 'nothing in history
that will compare with it. (iod grant that
there never may be again !?Letter from
ltrazil to Xrw York Herald.
Waste In Uole * Am a ficans
are indubtrious, inooay-making people, but "
they are not rcnuomical. Our housek?ep?
iog is proverbially wasteful, allowing loaklgo
at every poiul, suffioient in the aggregate,
iu tnnuy households, to eupport a European
family. Some writer (we kw# wet to whom
to givo the credit,) has made the fbllowihg * v
extensive, but by uo menus complete enumeration
:
Much waste is allowed in cooking meats.
Unless watched, the cook will th,ow but " *
water in whioh tnc?Vhai been boiled, witb-r
out letting it cool to tako off tbc fat; orsbe
will empty the dripping-pun into the swill?
pail. The grease is useful in uiauy ways.
Again, bits of moat are thrown out, which
a French cook would convert into an excellent
hash.
Flour is sided in a wasteful mnnncrr or
the bread-pan is loft with the dough sticking
to it.
Fie-crust is left over, and laid by ta
sour, instead of making a few tarts for tea*
Vegetables arc thrown away which would
be nice if warmed over for breakfast.
Cream is allowed to monld and spoil,
mustnrd to dry in tbc pot, and viuogar tocorrode
the castor.
Good knives ar j used for cookins? in the
kitchen, silver spoous arc used to scrupo
kettles, and forks for toasting broad.
Tea, roasted coffee, pepper and spices, are
allowed to stan*! opcu and thus lose their
streugth.
l)riod fruits not cared for in season become
wormy, uud sweet-meats ure opened
and forgottcu.
Viuegar is drawn in n basin, and permitted
to stand until both vinegar and busiu
are spoiled.
Soap is left in the water to dissolve, or
more used than is necessary, and thcscrnbbrush
is left in the water.
liurrels and tubs aro left in the sun to .. ,
dry nud full apart; tins put away without - ?
beiug properly dried aro rusted. ? *
Molasses stands opcu and flics take pos? .
sess m IK ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 1
rubbed on tho wash-board; and laces aro
torti in starchiiig.
Table-linen is thrown carelessly down>
and nibbled by mice ; is put away dump and
mildews; or the fruit-stains nr? foprrnt-.
?o~w
ten and the status washed in, or "set."
Table napkins aro used to wipe dishes,
aud tea-pots are melted ou the stove.
Lard is not well tried out, and becomesI
tainted, and rats destroy tho "soap grease."
Italics arc burned that might bo brokcu
I up and thrown into the compost heap,
j Old shoes, woollen rags, aud such accumulations
arc permitted to lie round loose
instead of being composted for your favorite
grape vines.
Sugar is spilled around tho barrel, eoffee
from tho sack, and tea from the chest.
Wooden boxes are used to take up ashes,
then the box is ptshed aside and forgotten.
Many a family has been made houseless aud
homeless iu a night by such an inadvertence.
Each of the abovo items is a trifle in it?
self?and yet in a houso whero all these
trifles were "happeuiDg"?just imagine*
what a place it would bo! iu these and
many other ways a careless and iuexpcricnced
housekeeper will waste withonl heeding,.
?nay, even without knowing that sho
wastes. On tho contrary, because sho entertains
but littlo company, buys no fine
clothes, makes her own dresses, and eooks
plainly, she may imagine that she is an exceedingly
economical woman and a very
superior housekeeper.
Save Til* Manure.?Even by farmers,
I who should be the ones who would rcalizo
| tbo value there is 'id it, there seems to be
I but an indifferent effort made to save tho
I tw.r. - -L
Hiu uuiiiuitj, iui uiucn 01 1(8 value 18 wasted
by not taking care of it properly or iu tiuie,
while it is often used on such crops as are
not capable of utilising it to tho greatest
ndvantago or profit. Good hon manure
from fowls wliioh havo been liberally fed is
worth as much as guano, for all kind
of crops for which guano is used, ^u<l if'
farmers and those who have small garden
patches would only realise this fact, thev
would pay more attention to collecting and.
saving the droppings from their hens than,
they do. Wo do not think there is much
necessity for cloaning the fowl house out
crcry day, as some do, but clean it out
every wcck, giv.ng it a good landing every
tiuie it is cleaned, so as to keep the floor
clean from droppings and make it easier to
clean out when neocssary. Sonio sprinklo
ashes, sawdust, chips, etc., on the floors, but
we consider sand preferable, for it seems
to separate, to disintegrate, the droppings
better, soou making it by a little caro in.
working over almost as fine and as easily
applied as guano or any of our superphosphates.
We always put it into barrels as
soon as it is taken up from tho chicken
house floor, and convey it to some dry, airy
place whero vo let it remain until wanted,
for use, when wo empty it out on a heap,
and work it over well beforo applying it to
the crops.?Poultry Bulletin.
I Pay the printer what you owe, and renew..
?*?' I