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skiiikr. UNION C. II., SOUTH CAROLINA, MARCH 7, 1879. I^PIflPHMBHi '4 ~ the Brazilian famine. jflT *,Wi% Sorrowing Story of a Dreadful Calamity. r1vV> *' Half a Million People Carried Off by *., .r . Starvation 'and Pestilence. J. The famine of 1877-78 is confined to i?k<? :?\$4h?t part of Brazil which is known as th?f^' . ,'Scrtao. This region is utterly unlike the iriatted forest flats of the Aalnzon or the <>*? : .? Cnoisa Mountains of llio. It is a rolling 3fla> > '4 ipUin, ascending gradually from the sea^ -Coast and diversified cvorywhere with isoffir' - 4 dated hills aud mouutuins. There is forest . . growth, hut it is low and not thick, uiuch \$F, ,-tnoro like our Northern wood# than one is *pt to tuiagine for tropical growth. In the S-rtoa the seasons ore very sharply -divided. The rainy months proper exteud . " froth January to Juno or July ; the remain-' der of tho year is dry, so dry that the trees shed their loaves and tho grass is all with* ered. People can only obtain water by dig ging for it in the dry beds of streams, for . ** . thero ore no perennial rivers in tho Sertao. It sometimes happens that the winter months remain dry lik-j tho others?a terriblo calamity for tho poorer people, because they depend for a liying on the products of their little plantations, and the crops can only bo raised during the rains. A POVERTY STRICKEN POPULATION. In this part of Brazil there arc no manufactures whatever, very few miucs, no fishcries of importance, no forest industries. Tho community is extcmcly agricultural and pastoral. Thero are immense herds of cattle, considcrablo plantations of sugar, cotton, &o., and tho poorer people plant uinndiocu nud corn, using tho laud of their richer neighbors, for whom they do a little work occasionally. Whether it bo for the pasturage of cattle or tho growth of crops the whole community depends on tho soil, and hcnco on the fertilizing ruiqs of winter.? if the rains do not come the people starve. Again, the population has to suffer terribly, beoauso it has no help in itself. Of the 2,500,000 nominal inhabitants of the Ser>. . - * toa not 100,000 are rich men or even rea sonably well off." Tho vast majority are an Arab-like raoe, produced by the intermix. v- .tUro tho blacks, whites and Indians? ^^adgkr^fcrnple who have no property and uover poopfe live in palui-thatchcd huts; the women do most of the farui work ; tho uieu gain a few dollars ns herdsmen or by hiring themselves out for a day occasionally. The upper classes, on the contrary, will compare favorably with auy in Brazil. Most of them are pure whites ; they are intelligent, brave, domestic?far ahead, iu fact, of the llio or San Paulo Brazilians. This mixca population was aistriDutcu tnrougn the Sortuo, much as the people are in 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 (o note this, as it explains much of the sufferiug brought on by the drought. The Sertao is a strip averaging f)00 miles in widllfcti/extoudiug from the l'arabyba Kiver southward along tho coast or near to the St. Francisco; thcnco between the coast range of mountains it is continued southwestwnrd to Minas Geraes, almost in the latitude of Rio. The drought oi ioi t-io was ion an over tins tract, but its black nucleus was in the Province of Ceara. Tbis Province, to which my observations wore confined, is about as large aj the Middle States. In 1870 it contained 000,000 inhabitants, of which at least 750,000 were non-proprietors?tho poor people of whom I havo written. The Province contained only one port of importance, its capital. This is indifferently set down on tbo maps as Fortaleza, or Cenra. Its normal population is 25,000. The streets arc well laid nut, and in general tho little city is one of the prettiest and neatest in Brazil. "There is no hurbor; vessels anchor in the open roadstead and passengers are taken to wml fro in little sailing rafts?tangadas or catamarans. THE BEGIN NINO OF THOU II I.E. I visited the place in March, 1877. The ^IfZHiirlit was then n suhieet nf crane ml enn. o7~ "7" ~?rf"* ? o war* at ion, but nobody understood the cxtout of the calamity. Suddeolj, like a thunder bolt, there canio to the quiet town a message of terror. Men's faces grew white; men's heart* sank within them, for liicy jknew what the words prophesied. It was from Tulhn, is the interior of the provinoe, a letter dated March 8, so that it must hare reached Fortelesa about March 20.? The words were scuiplo enough : "People aro dying here of hanger." Now this was early in March, when tho drought had j lasted no more than two months, when it ; vrus not yet eertaia thnt tho yeor would bo t. . 1 L _ J - ? . ? a| aiiog<Hiicr a una ,jhte. i?ui 10c poor oertancjo U so evenly balanced with naturo that he cannot stand a fresh strain, llis uiaodioes field is for a year only. In a year and a month he starve unless he has new crops. It was a sad month in the 8ertoa?thia o ie of March. In some places thore had been light showers, bat tho young grass wrowth from these had dried >-< up on the blaek plains. There wero no leaves on the trees. The cattle were crying for water as only mute nature can. ChilSaL 4* drcu were crying for food in palm-thatched ] huts. All the earth cried for rain, and yet t not a tear of pity came frout tho clouds.? 1 The large cattle proprietors began to kill J their stock in order to get the meat nt)d ( ttides while there was time. Tho peasants gathered around these slaughter houses to beg a morsel of flesh,and, for tho most part, they found willing hearts and hands, for the richer Cearcnccs aro not the men tore- fuse an alms. Jiut where there wcro no cattlo the poor people Buffered dreadfully. Already they began to devour the muciiman seeds (like a red bean) and forest roots ?unwholesome, discasc-prodtMtnj; food? but what could starving people do ? April came with u blazing suu; uo hope of rains. The* people, indeed, wore in despair. They had formed long penitential proccssious, cutting thomsclvcs with sharp knives or carrying heavy stones on their heads.? New they began to flee from tho country to tho larger villages. Some of them catno down to tho City of Fortaluza, 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 scheuio to bring their party into disrepute. The people were eating cats and dogs by , this time, when they could get them.? 1 l*ut for the most, part they were begging of j lichcr neighbors. The strain was so great , that private charity began to fail. Cattle stealing and potty thefts of provisions were , of every day occurrence. Letters written ; at this time already contained sad pictures. [ DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. , This universal abandonment of the open ' couutry was a feature of the drought.? * The poor people from the first sought ref- 1 ugc in the interior towns or at Fortalcza. Some fled to neighboring provinces, where, however, matters were hardly better. In Piuuhy and ltio Grande the peasants were 1 already dying of hunger. And this, re- 1 member, was only in the beginning of the ' evil tiuie. Think of the suffering all through this weary year ; think how people 1 who were starving in April must have lived 1 in July, October, December, with the bra- 1 zen sun every hdur drawing awav the little uioisturo thai was left. It was no longer tho question of saving herds and crops. P but of siving.huiunu lives.. The oattlo had ij , TTot n tenth part survived or tho lmuieusc 1 herds ; sheep and goats had fallen a prey to starving robber bands. It was unsafe to 1 travel alone, even by day, so desperate were tho poor people. The influx of refugees to the villages and towns was enor- 1 uious?fifteen or twenty thousaud was uo 1 unusual number in a place whoso normal population was no more than two or thrco ' thousand, liy the end of the year there 1 were 70.000 wretches cncauiped around ' Kortuleza, lying on the sands under huts 1 made of boughs or palm leaves, hardly ! clothed, filthy, famished, begging, where J 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? 1 hunger, pestilence, us^assiuation, ruin of the rich, dying of the poor. DAWN OF TilR YEAR 1878. Picture to yourself the condition'of Ccara 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 few beeves survived about the larger towus of tho thousands that had roamed over these plains. The cotton aud sugar industries almost annihilated ; no mandioca eveu, except in about three or four mouutain villages. People obliged to go fivo or six miles from their houses to dig for water in the bed of some torrent. At least two hundred thousand refugees encamped about the larger towns ?70,000 of theso added to tho 25,000 of Fortulcxa. A famine mortality which iu many places has reached twenty per day. A mortality from disease very much greater. No money in the provincial treasury; uo hope ot outside aid, except the drop of private charity, and all uicu looked for rain. So I might go on endlessly. Alas! I know how real it was. The tears como to my eyes even now when I read these piteous-cries for help. Hunger, pestilence, want?theso were what (Jeara hud to fight when the second great famino year broke upon her. Iu January there was fear, in February terror, in March despair; no rains at all in somo places, littlo, useless showers at best. And now cotnes the most torrible scene of all. Thcro wus no nioro hope in tho Scrtao. No food and no possibility of obtaining it, exoept along tho seashoro. Then the wholo bewildered, famine-stricken, pauio-wild crowd camo sushing down to Fortaleza and tbe coast citi'-s. Without food for the road, naked, sick, dying even as they fled from death? every man for himself. Childron striving vainly to keep up with their parents, crying as they roll over tho atones, with bleeding foot and skeleton bodies, walking, crawling along, bogging where no one could give?for how could a man support thousands ? They were famished when they started. Three, fojtf,'five days they held their way. Then they foil by the roadsido and groaned and died, Some pitying hand, tl .kg*-. ? .!? _ . . J _ J 1LIMP g.l perhaps, threw a handful of earth over hem, but for the most part each w as too jusy with his own safety to carc for others. 3o our humun brothers aicd. )NE HUNDRED AND ?'I fA THOUSAND VICTIMS. . The greatest mortality^rom hunger was probably in March; IVotit February 1^to May 1, when the exodus Was taking place. L can hardly calculate the number of famine deaths at less than one hundred thousand, ind during tho whole drought probably ono hundred and fifty thousand died of hunger. I should ndd ijtift tliy calculations ire much lower than those of other persons; jomc place the cntiro number as high as three hundred thousand. In Aracaty the loath rate fluctuated between ninety and jnc hundred and ten a day; in Fortalcsa it was less at this time, but eighty per day was bad enough. I havo uotices of ten, twenty or uiorc daily deaths in small villages, and everywhere alone: the roadsides nameless crosses still tell the story of uncatllOgUed victims. Dark talcs of eaunibalisui begiu to appear. From a letter written at Quicxcrauiobim I translate as follows : ,lI write in hasto. Have no. time to transcribe the sccuc of horror about me.? It is enough to give you as n specimen cue nameless crime. A father, whoso ns^ure was so overcome by huugur that he killed ind cooked in u pot his little child, two years old. This took place in California, a settlement near Quixada. The father died ?oor. after his horrible least. I have three or four similar stories, very well authenticated. I believe that these nnd 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 villgec is full ot abandoned chidron; the despairing fathers would no longer see them torn by the mostcr hunger. This very lay, while I was eating dinner, my house u/rw invniliifl tiv n priuril nt ... .... t Al..1 .. ..w ?UTMvaw M vivnu ui hUVOU NIUVUI1VU childrcu, very skclctous, who could hardly speak. Some of them were so weak that they would take only soup, obstinately refusing uioro soli 1 food. The road from here to Aracaty is full of bodies. ' You can o^cr ^ and one old woman. By the bbdiSfc there were three strips of leather in the kettle over the ashes ef an extinguished Gro.? A dog, the faithful friend of the family, was still watching them. Near Lcttrado three young girls and an old man were found eating the flesh of a dead horse which lay by the roadside. This was a family from Loaras. Even in the villages these poor wretches no longer ask for maniioca meal ; they ask for cats and dogs to sat. (This is no exaggeration. Ouc shopkeeper told ir.c of a refugee who asked permission to kill the rats about his place.) Three days ago I made a journey of six leagues by the road from Ico, aud what 1 saw was indescribable/ I found eleven dead bodies by the roadside and at least forty who were dying. Happily there is no pestileuco hero j tho deaths ere l'roui hun?cr " , , . * From the first, both public aud pvivato charity made tho terrible mistake of giving r...wi ?. i?.1 1 1UUU nilllUUb IUIUIII9, lUIVIIl^ LIIU JIUOJUU 111 idlcuess. The result was inevitable. After a few weeks the peasants settled into condition of easy mendicancy and idleness ?would not work whcu they could. They lay all day in thejr filthy huts, drew their rations and cooked them, grew fut but not healthy, for thoir laziness made them fit food for disease. TIIK FILTHY REFUGEES EMIGRATE. For those that wished to emigrate the government paid a deck passage, in the early part of 1878 especially the number of these emigrants was very great?as many as 1,000 on one steamer. They took passage generally to Para, sometimes to Mnranhatn, Periiauibaco or llio. Paekod in dirty crowds on the vessel, oftonsivo, even to the sailors, by their filthiness, and often poorly supplied with food, they fared badly Mough. In more than one instance tbo smallpox appeared among them on the oyage, aud then they died like vermin and wore thrown into the sen. Probably fifty thousand emigrants left Coara. They were rccoived kiudly enough iu the other provinces, though their aeods wero not always promptly met. But for the most part they would not work; thoir uiendicaut habits were now so confirmed that they would only beg or starve. So they nursed their misery long after pcQplo had ceased to pity them. The neat Para peasants despised them. At best they wero unfitted for a forest lite; so they begged and stirred and sickened and died, just as as they had in tboir own province. CEARA IN JUNE, LA8T YEAR. And now we come to tho last sad scene, the scene that is yet unrolling itself, and no one can tell the end. Unhappv province ! Pitiless indeed would he bo wlio could view thy tortures unflloved. Consider the prov inco as it was in June, 1878. Tho intcrioi region, once well populated^was now almosi deserted. Only a few starving families re nmined to mark thriving towns and villages I state literal truth when I say that in th< fall of this year it was alntost impossible t< ^ ? u v 1.1 v a L- * " " '5T-^ Waste In lIoL'BKKBKMKO.-^Americans arc industrious, money-making people, but they are not economical. Our housekeeping is proverbially wasteful, allowing lcaktgo nt every point, sufficient in the aggrogatc, iu many households, to support a European family. Some writer (wo know not to whom to give the credit,) has made the following v extensive, but by no menus complete enumeration : Muck waste is allowed in cooking meats. Unless watched, the cook will throw 6nt water in which meat has been boiled, with-r out letting it cool to take off tbc fat; orsbo will empty the dripping-pan iuto the sarill? pail. The grease is useful in innuy ways. Again, bits of meat arc thrown out, which a French cook would convert iuto an excellent hash. Flour is sifted in a wasteful manner,, or the bread-pan is left with the douerh stick? travel fur from the count, because food and water were on utterly unattainable an they would be in the Sahara. 1 have conversed with a man who made the journey to Crato in November ; lie described a howling wilderness, where oue sees ouly deserted houses aud leafless tveos und crosses by the roadside. With our genial climate we cannot understand a real drought. Iu Oearn birds and insects died during the first blazing summer. Imnpfne what tho plains must have been with a second dry year. The whole population was gathered in a strip not more than scvcuty-fivo inilca iu its greatest width running along the coast.? The people were crowded alout the cities and villages, living in wretched huts and drawing government rations. At one time there were 150,000 of them at Fortalcza, 80,000 at Aracaty, and so ou for other places. 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 May or June. Iu Aracaty it was hardly less. There were pernicious fevers, boriberi, a little cholera. Yellow fever disappeared with the spring months. Jtut above all other disease the smallpox began to assume a terrible pre-cuiincuco. It was worse at Fortalcza. Very few of the people were vaccinated. Isolation of the sick was never enforced. The pestilence, confined at first to tho refugees, soon spread to the richer classes. By October the 150,000 adventitious population had dwiudlcd to 70,000 or 00,000, 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 persons died of suinllnox in Fortalcza; ou November 2, 121. utid this out of a population of only 80,000. Your yellow fever deaths never reached stlch a proportion. But tho disease went ou increasing rapidly. Two hundred, three hundred, four hundred deaths a day ?toward the eud of November the figures ran above five hundred. Ou tho 30th there were 574 registered, but this includes onlv the interments in-tho nuhlio (rrAHiulsi thick forest or carried out to sea ou catamarans and sunk there. APPALLING DEATH LISTS. The whole number of registered deaths in November for the two cemeteries in San Joao Haptista and Logoafuuda was 11,075. Of these 9,270 were smallpox cases. Hut I think we must add to this at least one thousand buried in tlio woods or sunk at sea. At this time there were 30,000 sick?more than a third of the population. Still the death rate increased. On December 10, 808 smallpox dead were buried ir the cemetery of Lagoa-funda, at least 75 in San Joao aud probably 150 in the woods and the sea-^-a total death record of over 1?000 in a single day?and this out of a population (now reduced) of only 75,000. The great plaguo at Loudon reached this death rate, but that was from a population of 300,000. Alter this the mortuary rate decreased, but only because the disease had nothing more to feed on. A certain per ccutage of a community are exempt fron: smallpox. A few, no doubt, were saved bj vaccination, lly the end of the year the death rate had gone down to 200 per day, (pi., i i_-.i-- p? .i - ? ue vuiiiv iiumiuui ui UL'.UIIS ior (DO DIODtl) was not far from 21,000. In all great cpi demies, it is said, the people become indifferent to their danger. In Fortaleza this iudiffercnce was sufficiently astonishing.? When I reached tho place on the 20th ol December the death rate was 400 per day, but business was going ou much as usual nnd hardly anybody had been driven out ol tho city by the danger. APPERANCK OF THE DLACK PLAQUE. I could write muoh more of Cenra anc tho good and evil I saw there; tho evil alus, too sadly predominant! Only ont thing moro I will note, for it may bo the sign of another scourge in tho future.? When I left Fortaleia people were talkiug of a disease which they called black small pox. It was utterly unlike the ordinary smallpox. The patient was seized with t sudden giddiness, fever and burning of tlx tongue; then dark spots liko bruises ap penred on the body, and in twenty-foui hours all was over. 1 surmised from tho fifst and I bcliovo there is now no doubt, thai this is tho terrible black plague, tho scoutgt that has so often swept through Europe anc I Asia, but which, so far ns I know, has dev | cr appearod before on this side of the At luutio. The eases were already nuuieroui at the beginning of this year. One of thi first victims was the wifo of the provinoia president. Senhor Jose Julio. She died ii a few hours atler the disease attacked her She was buried at nighk, without attendance , What will bo tbo result of the new pestt lence ? I only know what has been?mi ! province utterly rained, a population o r 900,000 reduced to 400,000 and these dy ing at an enormous rate. Probably thcr r have been 300,000 deaths in tho othc L drought-stricken provinces, of which I hav few notices. There is nothing in histor . that will compare with it. God grant thn > there never may be again !?Letter fcoi ) Brazil to New York Herald. iug to it. Pic-crust is left over, and laid by tosour, instead of uiaking a few tarts for tea. Vegetables arc thrown away which would bo nice if warmed over for breakfast. Cream is allowed to mould and spoil, mustard to dry io the pot, and viuogar tocorrode the castor. Good knives ar j used for cooking in tho kitchen, silver spoons arc used to scrape kettles, and forks for toasting bread. Tea, roasted coffee, pepper and spices, are allowed to stun*! open and thus lose their strength. Dried fruits not cared for in season become wormy, aud sweet-meats are opened aud forgottcu. Viucgar is drawn in a basin, and permitted to stand until both vinegar aud basin arc spoiled. Soap is left in the water to dissolve, or more used than is necessary, and the scrubbrush is left in the water. Parrels and tubs arc left in the sun to dry and full apart; tins put away without being properly dried aro rusted. ? ~ Molasses stands opcu and flics take possession. Vwi* rubbed on tho wash-board; and laces are torn in starching. Table-linen is thrown carelessly down' and nibbled bv mice ; is put away damp aud mildews; or the fruit staius arc forgotten nnii the etninu u'mlinJ *> " " ? ...v ?I Itauvu IU J ui nut. Tabic napkins are used to wipe dishes, auJ tea-pots arc melted ou the stove. Lard is not well tried out, and becomestainted, aud rats destroy tho "soap grease." Hones arc burned that might he broken up aud thrown into the compost heap. Old shoes, woollen rags, aud such accumulations arc permitted to lie round loose | iuslead of being composted l'or your favorite grape vines. Sugar is spilled around tho barrel, coffee from the sack, and tea from the chest. Wooden boxes nre used to take up ashes, 1 then the box is p ashed aside and forgotten. 1 1 Many a family has boen made houseless and > homeless in a night by such an iuadverl tencc. Each of the above items is a trifle in it*1 self?and yet in a houso where all theso ' trifles were "happening"?just iuiagino > what a place it would bo ! la theso and many other ways a careless and iuexperieu? i ced housekeeper will waste without heeding,. ?nay, eveu without knowing that she wastes. On the contrary, because she cn1 tertains but little company, buys no fine clothes, makes her own dresses, and eooks plainly, she may imagine that she is an cxi oeeding'.y economical woman aud a very 1 superior housekeeper. I CJ i vo T..? - " * " KjttTm ?. iym nia.iiht.?xjvcd Dy tarmcrs, who should bo the ones who would rcalizo tbo value there is iu it, there seems to be but an iodiffcrout effort made to save tho * hen manure, for much of its valuo is wasted ! by not taking care of it properly or iu time, ' while it is often used on such crops as are not oapable of utilising it to tho greatest > ndvantago or profit. Good hon nmnuro from fowls whioh have been liberally fed is ' worth a9 much as guano, for all kind 1 of crops for which guano is used^nd if ' farmers and those who have small gfcrden patches would only realise this fact, they : would pay more attention to collecting and. * saving tho droppings from their hens than. 1 they do. Wo do not think there is mueh ? necessity for cleaning the fowl house out every dAy, as Rome do, but clean it out every week, giving it a good sanding every time it is cleaned, so as to keep the floor 3 clean from droppings and make it easier to ' clean out when ncoessarj. Some sprinklo ashes, sawdust, chips, ete., on the floors, but 1 wo consider sand prcferablo, for it seems ' to separate, to disintegrate, tho droppings ' better, soon making it by a little care in. working over almost aa fine and as easily * Applied as guano or any of our superphosphates. Wo always put it into barrels as soon ns it is taken up from tho ohieken c house floor, and oonvey it to some drv. sirv ^ place where ,*ro let it remain until wanted, for use, when wo empty it out on a heap, y and work it ovor well Defore applying it to. ' the crops.?Poultry Jinlletin. i Pay the printer what you owe, and renew.. t