This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
[[left margin, insertion]] 132 [[/left margin, insertion]] An Appeal from the Board of Trade in Behalf of the Destitute People of Nebraska-A Few Suggestions from a Stranger. The Detroit Board of Trade makes the following appeal to the charitable in behalf of the grasshopper sufferers in Nebraska: BOARD OF TRADE ROOMS, } DETROIT, March 13, 1875. } To the Public: The Board of Trade of Detroit having carefully examined the credentials of Messrs. Frost and Tibbals, now in our city to solicit aid for the starving population of Nebraska, beg to certify to their undoubted integrity and to the pressing necessities of their cause. There has never been an appeal to our sympathy and aid more worthy or more urgent than this one, not excepting the famines and the fires that have hitherto roused the benevolence of our people, and for which our treasure has been literally poured out. Thousands upon thousands of the worthy and usually well-to-do people of Nebraska are eking out a miserable existence without animal food, upon an allowance of two ounces of lard and a little flour or corn meal each per day. This scarcity of provisions is gradually increasing in the extent of population affected by it. And there is no possible relief before the season of new crops, say July or August next, except such as is furnished by the contributions of the benevolent and humane. It is appalling to contemplate the picture of physical suffering these gentlemen make known to us; but who can fathom the full measure of the mental deterioration and moral delinquency that are sure to follow a long period of such privation of nutritious food for the people of almost a whole State. It will not be forgotten that when the appeal came over the water 20 years ago that Ireland was "famished," "starving," with what alacrity we came to the rescue. The cry comes now from our own fellow-citizens. Men, women and children of a frontier State, usually self-reliant, ready and willing to accept hardship, but, alas, now helpless and hopeless by tens of thousands. Will not the good people of our favored city, which has signally escaped calamity, now, as in times past, at once arise to the relief of these sufferers. May we not, if need be, divert some of our gifts already set apart for other and less pressing wants, and feed our starving fellow-citizens of a neighboring State. The gentlemen coming for help ask no money paid them. Contributions go directly to Gen. Ord, well-known in the city, who is at the head of the relief committee, and he distributes with the aid of the military under his control. The Board of Trade offer no apology for this appeal, for none is needed. It is a "wailing cry for bread," and we have confidence it will not be in vain. And they request the clergy of the city to read this appeal from their pulpits, and that they will announce a public meeting at the Opera House on Wednesday evening. (Signed) PHILO PARSONS, President. PETER HENKEL, JACOB BEESON, ALBERT BOTSFORD, J.H. WENDELL, THOS. RATCLIFFE, Committee.
Transcription Notes:
Appears to be a clipping from a newspaper
2 lines in CAPS are joined on the right by a curly bracket }