Terrible Famine In Morocco

The crops liaving heen a total failure, the farmers and peasants in the interior were ruined, and, failing to pay taxes and imposts, all their cattle and little property were confiscated by the local autíiorities, so that they had left their ruined homestcads and tramped to the seaports in a starving condition, many dying on the road. At Mogador there were over 2,000 of these poor refngees, besides thousands of poor townsfolk, ! both Moors and Jews, in a state of utter destitutioii. Living skeletons of men, women and children might be seen groping on foul refuse heaps for hideous bits of offiii. Down at Waterport and in the streots along which grain bags are oarried poor starving wretches were I stantly scratching and sifting the sand, j dust and mud for stray grains of rice or j barley. Over the rocky ledges trudged, at low tide, half-naked women, eagerly ! collecting mussels, limpets and other j sholl-fish. Beggars were swarming in j streets, corpses were often seen, small-pox was horribly rife among the j poor folks, who all huddled together - those aftücted with the disease were neither isolated nor tended. Sick, sound and dead might be seen lying together in foul, fetid dens. Owners of horses i and mules coidd no longer añbrd to j feed them. Outside the town gates and along the sea beach lay scores and ' scores of carcasses and skelctons of beaste of burden which had been brought out there to dio of starvation - rich feasts for jackals, dogs and carrion crows. The wild country Moors were very desperate with Inniger and inisery. ■ Murders were very frequent, one man being killed for a bunch of grapes, another for a loaf of bread, and so on. Robberies were, of course, also frequent. The English people were pretty safe ; we were in high esteem and received greetings and blessings evcrywhere. Tho committee had been giving relief for many ] weeks past to from 1,200 to 2,000 people daily - first in bread and afterward soup. Tlie poor refugees were very grateful. Deaths were from twenty to forty per day among the oountry folk alone ; of course, many other deaths in the Moorish and Jewish quarters. The cattle left to the townsfolk were nearly starving. There is no grass in the land ; the cattle and sheep go out miles hito the country daily to feed on scrubby brushwood and dry, prickly plants, and come back at evening slowly, thin and