The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-10-24
Gay Vienna in the Grip Of Gray
Despair.
Kansas Girl Writes of Terrible
Austrian Suffering.
RUSSIAN BU1CHERY Fearful
Thousands of the Grief Stricken
Homeless and PennilesS.
AristOcracy Refuses to Aid the
Suffering People.

(By Alice Robe, formerly of Law
renee, Kansas
Vienna, Oct. (by mail. Vienna
is city Of lost hope. Of gloom, of
gray despair.
The once gayest and most beautiful
capital Of Europe is today the saddest.
the most distressed. Silent, hopeless
protests against the horrors of war
which have turned this wonderful,
joyous city into a melancholy sepu1-
cher for the living permeates every
stratum Of society.
1 have seen procession OF four
thousand mothers whose husbands
have died in Salicia carrying in their
filed past the great, cold palace Of the
ministry of var. 1t was their mute
appeal for peace.
/ have seen a procession Of little
children, plaintive and futile ennis
saries of life, silently protesting against
needless death.
I nave seen trains arriving, every
one crowded to surfocation with the
wounded and dying.
From the midst of these manned
and mutilated, sickened and suffering
men i have seen uncomprehending
soldiers, dazed by the horrors of war.
crazed with joy at being home again.
dragged from their companions and
Why they cried out in the delirium
of excitement their cruises against the
Russians who had brought such ter
rible defeat to the Austrian armies.
For no news must be whispered by the
wounded or the fugitive which reflects
tie truth of Austrian disasters.
And above these visual pictures Of
the melancholy Vienna Of today I
have sensed the touch of those gray
wings of dread which cast their
shadow over the town-the soiled. the
sOrdid, the horrible wings of cholera.
1 have felt with the people, stalk
ing beside this hideous enemy the
plague. its sister specter-hunger.
Hospitals Have 10000 Wounded.
In Vienna today seventy thousand
wounded are being cared for in hos
pitfalls, schools, universities, hotels.
churches. The Red Cross admits it's
inability to care for all the wounded,
and the sight of helpless men. suffer-
ing needlessly and hopelessly, is one
which cOnfrOnts the workers in the
cause of humanity.
I talked to one Of these wounded
soldiers as the car in which he was
being carried was stopped in front of
the Burg theater for repairs. He told
me in whispers, while the guards were
busy with the car, of the freightful
ravages made by the Russians and the
Servians upon the Austrians.
They have buried our dead in
heaps" he said, tears coursing down
his face. They were killed like
sheep driven to a slaughter yard. The
Russian artillery has done unbeliev-
able things. The Russians waste
their ammunition as though it were
free as air. Their infantry is not
good, but how terrible is the artillery
how terrible"
In the hour when war and its hor-
rors are keeping a pail over Vienna
the sight of religious professions,
headed by priests praying for Divine
aid. brings out in relief the picture Of
faith. The churches are constantly
filled with women and children, pray
ing for husbands and fathers and
brothers who may never return. In
the time OF sorrow, too great to en-
dure alone, the people are throwing
themselves more and more upon the
bosom of the church which has Of
fered them consolation SO many times
before