Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-27
FLEEING TO SIBERIA.
Starving Families Tramp Thousands
of Miles Through Snow
TO SUBSIST on ARCTIC CHARITY.
Typhus and Scarlet Fever Claim Victims
Left by Starvation.
RELIGIOUS CONSOLATION WITHHELD

LONDON, Jan. 2G-Advices received here
from St. Petersburg show that thousands of
peasants from the famine-stricken districts
have started for Siberia in the hope that
they will be able to effect some bettcrment
in their condition in that part of the en-
pire. On Saturday last it was announced
that /, 400 of these emigrants, who had the
city OF Tobolsk as their objective point,
had arrived at Toomen, 120 miles south
west of Tobcisk. These people had no
money. Sickness was decimatlng their
numbers, and, altogether, their condition
was about as miserable and hopeless as
could well be imagined.
The more kind-hearted among the inhab-
itants did all they could to alleviate the
distress among the emigrsnts. Of course,
these men, women and children could not
pay for conveyance. They were too sick or
exhausted to walk the 12G miles to Tobolsk,
and being thus unable TO so forward or to
return, they were compelled to subsist en-
tirely upon charity.
Doubling the Towns Population.
Their number was constantly added to by
fresh arrivals. Daily, hourly, there was a
constant stream of these unfortunates pour
ing into the town, and every newcomer
made the situation worse for those already
in the town.
The condition of affairs at Tiocmen is too
terrible for language to describe, and no
one can tell what the outcome will be. In
the town, whose population is but $1,000,
and its immediate vicinity, there are now
IA. 600 persons who are absolutely destitute
and helpless, and whom it is impossible ior
the residents of the place to help. The
scenes of misery aud actual starvation are
almost beyond the power of pen to portray.
OF shelter, it NAV be said that they have
practically none, their only protection from
the elements being sheds constructed flight
boards, which, though they may lr meas
ure protect them from snow, do not in any
wav save them from the effects of the bitter
cold Siberian winter. There is not par
ticle OF fire in the sheds, and the only
warmth the sufferers have is their own
bodies huddled in groups.
PestiIence Adds Other Terrors.
In this dense mass OF humanity typhus
and scarlet fever is making sad ravaces.
Weakened by their long and painful jour
ney, enforced abstinence from nourishing
food and by their utter hopelessness, they
fall ready victims to the scourCe.
1t is impossible to render medical aid to
the sufferers. However willing they might
be, the doctors in Tioomen are completely
powerless to hattie against the diseases that
are carving of the peasants in enormous
numbers. To be attacked by either of the
fevers is almost certain death. No care can
be taken Of the sick, no precautions to pre-
vent the epidemic from spreading, and the
people of Tioomen are fearful lest they, too,
fall victims.
So numerous have the deaths became that
there is no pretense of holding funeral |
over the bodies. Neither are the last sacra-
ments of the Church administered to the |
dying. So intensely cold is the weather
that in very short time after death the !
bodies of the victims are frozen stiff. The |
bodies are then thrown into carts and taken !
TO the cemetery. where ther are uncere-
moniously buried in a common pit,
The Inhuman Greek Priests.
Amid all this misery the action of the |
priests of the Greek Church Stands out in !
vivid contrast to the humanity which it is |
thought should be shown by those in their |
calling. Tioomen, which is the oldest town |
in Siberia, has many churches and many |
priests, and here, il anywhere, it would be |
expected that compassion would be shown |
for the sick and diving; but the priests |
fatty refuse to oficiate at the side of the
dying or to perform anv funeral rites unless |
they are paid. The priests give as an ex-
cuse for their heartlessness that thev are too
busy TO attend TO the poor emigrants.