davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1914-03-15

the infants are at an age when milk is
the only nourishment. Further, the hos
pital is overcrowded. 1t was meant to
take in 5000 children year and to keep
them until they came to school age, al
lowing for a. normal child mortality. In
stead it takes 10000 year and has some
times taken $4,000. The overcrowding
means wholesale death. The wholesale
were it not that there are enough home
less infants in Moscow alone to fill. three
such hospitals.
The dom takes a pride in saving
few infants. 1t picks these out on eu-
genie principles. choosing the strong.
and these it gives to healthy foster moth
ers and puts in relatively well aired
rooms. No serious attempt is made to
save the other children. The hospital
administration reasons that death is the
alive the dom would soon not be able
to take any more. and what would be-
come of the 10000 due next year? The
simplest thing is to put them to death
and make room for the next.
The slaughter in the villages is ac-
celerated by the fact that the dom
sends out the most unhealthy children.
The peasant woman does not feed them
with milk. She gives them what are
known as bread rags" These bread
rags" are called ''soski" by the peas
ants, and 1t is said that some children
who are fed on them survive.
Despite the philosophic attitude to-
ward the massacre of innocents Of the
dom officials. people outside are not
pleased. The newspapers published the
figures with notes Of exclamation, and
ask why the dom" does not save trouble
and suffering by giving the babies a
dose of morphia on the day they ar
rive.
Once or twice the outside authorities
tried to check the slaughter. Formerly
the dom" took in all foundlings found
in the streets and also all children deliv-
cred by their mothers or by others. 1t
asked no questions. Any one could get
rid of child gratis by sending it to the
DOM and vicious parents were not
tempted to murder their children for
the good reason that the dom" did the
numbering for them and saved them
trouble and punishment.
This system was reformed by compell-
ing mothers to bring evidence of identity
and by requiring a payment down of 10
roubles $50 per baby. The results were
bad The number of babies delivered at
the dom fell of, and the number
found in the streets quadrupled. AS the
children found in the streets were often
weak from exposure, the reform had
merely the effect of increasing the NOR
tality Other attemps to remedy abuses
had no results. and now Empress Alex
andra and other persons in authority
think the scandal is too great and want
to put a stop to it.
When Empress Alexandra passed
through Moscow on the occasion Of this
years centenary festivities, she sum-
Evening star., 1914-03-15

Herod's day-is the terrible slaughter of
babies that goes ON in Moscow's Found
ling Hospital.
Every one in Moscow knows the Found
ling Hospital-the ''Eospitatelni Dom
a vast, white barrack like house, proba-
bly, the empires biggest building, which
lies on the banks of the Moscow river.
Nobody can help knowing it. for from it
every day issue from ten to fifty collins
Of little children who have done no one
harm. except the harm of being born into
the world. .......
Since this charitable institution was
founded it has put nearly a million babies
10 death. and despite science" and civil
lization," and the progress of medicine
il is more fatal to be put into II today
than il was in the barbarous age of its
founder Catherine the Great. For though
I'm the first years of foundation 20 per
cent of the foundlings died before one
year of life was finished. that is nothing
Evening star., 1914-03-15

TO what happens now. OF the 1870
foundlings brought into the dom" during
the decade ending 1911, 9o.s59 were dead
within a year.
Last summer a member of the Moscow
municipal assembly called the ''Vospita
telni Dom a great lethal chamber. but
somewhat expensive. If they must all be
killed why not kill them at once" This
remark was called forth by a newspaper
report that of 2u7 children brought into
the hospital during Easter week 135 We're
dead before the end of July. Moscow
wits call the big institution "bozhya
grablya," or Gods rake for there is
proverb that God rakes in everything at
the end and baby sent to the dom
is almost as sure to be raked into the
Evening star., 1914-03-15

not one inch Of down grade from the sea
to the top. and the heavy cars must
climb all the way up.
The route for the road is the valley of
the Rimac river, a rushing stream of
snow water which bursts forth from the
glaciers Of the high Andes. and rolls over
rocks, through gorges, a mass of white
foam all the way to the sea. In places
the road is high above the river, clinging
to the sides of the hills; again it is on the
river level; and at one point where the
space was not wide enough for both road
and river the engineers made tunnel
through the mountains and turned the
stream out of its course to use its bed
for the track.
In coming up the mountains, You pass
through tunnel after tunnel and over
bridges of steel. which span mighty
gorges. There are altogether sixty-f1ve
tunnels and sixty-seven bridges in this
100-mile trip: and there are sixteen
switchbacks located on the sides of the
mountains where the road could climb in
no other way.
The great wonder of the construction is
that the steepness of the mountains
has been conquered by this four per
cent grade. The Denver and Rio Grande
narrow gauge in Colorado reaches its 1O,-
Evening star., 1914-03-15

year They took the money and let the
infant die. This system is still in force,
with the difference Chat the village people
are a little better, paid. But the mas
sacre in the villages goes on. How many
die is not exactly known But in TOUR
Moscow districts which took children in
1909 and 1910, 5,sft. children died out Of
1900 The final estimate of DR.. Dunaisky
a recognized authority. is that of the
1,0S3,UOO babies brought into the hospital
during the 80 years, at least 100000 per-
ished either there Of in the villages, with
in one year of birlt.
The cause <Qf TIE massacre of inno-
cents is more or .ass Intentional neglect.
starvation and lack Of air. The condi-
tions in the hos,ital.' says Dunaisky,
Evening star., 1914-03-15

Authorities Believe
Death Is the Best Thing
That Could Happen to
the Majority of the
w a i f S. Contentlng
Themselves With Saw
ing a Few of the Most
Healthy and Promising
Institution Called "A
Great Lethal Chamber
and Popularity Known
as Gods Rake
Evening star., 1914-03-15

Amazon river. and the day will probably
come when this road will form part
of steam route across South America.
Leaving Lime for this 100 miles the track
steadily rises. From the sea to the top
of the pass the average grade is about
per cent; and there is no place
where a train or a car, if left on the
main track. would not slide by gravity
clear down into the ocean. The road is of
standard gauge, and its rolling stock is
largely American. The engines burn fuel
oil, which comes from northern Peru, and
the journey throughout is accomplished
without dust or cinderS. The system OF
brakes, which assures safety, is both
British and American, and in the descent
pilot car always goes in advance of the
train.
This road is known as the Central
Railway of Peru. 1t belongs to the gov
ernment and is under the management Of
the Peruvian Corporation, a British COM
pany that has control of the railways OF
the republic. The railway runs from Cal
lao. on the Pacific, to Huancayo. go
miles distant. on the Atlantic side of the
Andes 1t crosses the coast range at TO-
665 feet, with a branch of nine miles to
the Morococha mines, upon which the al
titude is almost 5000 feet. The road
was suggested by Peruvian. but the
man who laid 1t out and constructed the
greater part of it was Henry Meiggs. an
American. Meiggs raised the money to
build it, and, In fact, he is entitled to the
credit Of its construction. He began to
work on it away back in 1870. and in
1876 when he died, he had completed it
as far as Chicla, point more than two
and one-half miles above the sea. By
that time the twenty-seven or twenty
eight million dollars which he had raised
for its construction was exhausted and
the work stopped. 1t was resumed some
years later and in 1898 was completed to
Oroya, distance of 1873 miles from the
coast. The extension to the rich valley
of Huancayo was finished only six years
ago.
The road was originally planned to
reach the rich silver and copper mines of
Cerro de Pasca. but after going over the
pass at an altitude of 1865 feet, it came
down about 5000 feet and stopped at
Oroya. Then the mines were bought by
an American syndicate, and this syndi-
cate has built q standard gauge railway
from oroya, along the high plateau of
the Andes to its mining center, which is
still at an altitude of 14.2OS feet. l ex-
pect to go over that road within few
days and shall write of it later.
The Central Railway of Peru is consid-
cred by experts the most wonderful piece
of railroad engineering on earth. 1t
reaches the highest point ever crossed by
rail, and its course from the sea to the
tops of the mountains is almost straight
up into the air. The distance as the
crow flies from the Morococha Pass to
the ocean cannot, I should say, be fifty
miles. and, with all the windings of the
road, with its loops, twists and turns, its
zigzags and its tunnels and its other con-
tortions by which it climbs up this wild
est part of the world it Is only 100 miles
All of this is accomplished without the
rack or pinion or cog systems used on
other high roads. and that with a grade
of only about four per cent There is
Evening star., 1914-03-15
.9lli6AlS

moving with more and more friction. At
10000 feet my voics:was so weak 1 could
not have whistled ;.edog and much Of my
dictation at $4,000 shas been done in a
whisper. After wes passed the two-mile
level / found myself weighing each sem
tence to see whether it was worth the
breath to utter its AT the stations !
walked very slowly< and when the train
started Unexpectedly at Casapalca and
FIVE minutes befoIa l recovered. Just
now my ears are sEumping and the top
of my head feels as: though it was being
pried up with craSbar.
In the cars behiHsi me there are men
Evening star., 1914-03-15

but-of starvation or suffocation--within
a week or ten days of their reception,
and usually within four weeks of their
birth.
To kill half a million children out of a
million is no great achievement. But the
charitable Institutions success was great
er. For these figures show the total num-
Der of children taken in, but of the deaths
they show only that portion which took
place within the hospital walls. The real
mortality was double. That is. since the
hospital had the ingenious notion of send
ing the children out to nurse in the viii
lages near Moscow. At first the village
women were given lump sam of $1.5O
for each child. and for this they: were ex-
pected to bring up the child fos whole
Evening star., 1914-03-15

and Catherine the Great built the
vast Moscow hospital She was put up to
it by her favorite Betsky. Betsky him
self drew the plans. Catherine issued
a decree saying that the dom was for
the good education of innocent children.
and to prevent the innumerable murders
by unhappy mothers" The dom" was to
take children born out of wedlock whose
mothers were poor. 1T was to be model
institution, Ito save many thousands of
lives" The male foundlings, when they
attained manhood. were to marry serf
girls, who by virture Of the marriage
were at once to be set free. This pious
intention was frustrated by the fact that
more than half the babes, male and fe-
male, died before they were twelve
months Did: that not one in ten reached
the age Of ten. and that not one in twenty
reached an old enough age to marry and
liberate q serf girl.
The trouble was that while munificent
Catherine and benehcent Betsky built
splendid edifice they gave 1t no subsidy.
They declared that it must be main.
tained out of good mems charity" The
good mems charity was so abundant that
in 1867. four years after the foundation,
out of 1.Os9 children taken in, 1,O73 died.
To remedy this tax was put on playing
cards for the ''dom's'' benefit, and it was
allowed to run a pawnshop
These resources brought it in $1,000 a
year. or about 81 year per child. In
those days the dom took and slaughter
ed about 1000 children a year: now its
sphere of beneficence is enormously en-
larged, for it takes and slaughters about
10000 The last attempt at reform was
the inclusion of the dom in the class
of charities known as The Institutions
of the Empress Marie
This charitable organization has ST.,
10000 annual revenue, which comes
partly from compulsory voluntary con-
tributions, partly from tax on playing
cards and theater tickets. The elderly
Empress Marie Is unable to mango it;
much of the 81. 10000 is stolen the in
stitutions are all badly run, and the
Founding Hospital continues to man
facture corpses at a speed which would
make the god Of cholera turn green with
envy.
The full exuberance Of massacre is. of
course. not shown by the official figures.
The Official figures merely show that OF
10000 babies taken in in the decade end
ing 1893, $4,000 died; that in the next
decade, out of 114.OO0. 1900 died: that
in the next decade 10. 600 died OUT of 103.-
COO The figures further show that in the
100 years of existence, which were COM
pleted this summer. the charitable insti-
tuition took in 1.OS3, 600 children, of whom
49S. 600 died within a year. In reality,
most OF these died, not within a year,
Evening star., 1914-03-15

and there is. one Peruvian who has bot
tie to his nose and a gun in his bag. Be
fore 1 came. out Of the train he told me
he had two cures for the soroche- Said
he: "One is this smelling bottle" and he
thereupon asked me to try it. But will
this do the business?" said 1. II don't
know he replied, but if not, 1 have
sure cure hsre.' and he thereupon open
ed his bag and showed me the revolver.
This last, ] am told. is about the only
safe cure for soroche. The doctors can
do nothing TO help you. and every one is
sure to get: 1t if he stays long on the
tops Of the; Andes. One may have it
again and again and any indiscretion
may bring On an attack. i doubt not I
Evening star., 1914-03-15

''are such that the figure of mercy which
stands on Gsne of the gate pillars ought
to be labeled 'death'-that is. unless
mercy is understood to mean the put
ting Of innocent children out Of a sinful,
sorrowful world. In that case the dom
Is an institution. of mercy. for the feed
ing, clothing and ventilation are splendid
ly arranged for the causing of speedy
death"
Nearly ali the deaths are registered as
due to intestinal and breathing troubles.
That means that, the children are either
starved or wrongly fed to death, or that
they perish from want of air. There is
no decent milk supply and there are fos-
ter mothers for only a third of the in
fants. This alone means death, for all
Evening star., 1914-03-15

shall be more afflicted as I go on with
this journey. but 1 shall keep put in
the fresh air and l hope to get through.
l despair of making you see all the
wonders Of our trip up the mounta. ms
The long chain of the Andes walls the
whole side of this continent. 1t begins
at Cape Horn and the fiords Of the Strait
OF Magellan and goes north crawling
close to the coast in great winding
rampant for a distance of 1900 miles,
when it drops down into our cut Of
Culebra on the Isthmus Of Panama.
Throughout the whole length. except at
the top apd the bottom. this chain has
peaks which are three or four miles in
height. Its average elevation is more
than 1900 feet, or almost the height
of F'ujiyama, Japan. Mount Aconcaqua,
in Chile. is about 1900; Mount Misti
in southern Peru. is over 10000 and there
is a peak, within sight of my eyes. that
is 21,OO0 and more. North of here. in
Ecuador. are many volcanoes, including
Chimborazo, more than four miles in
height: and south of me. in Bolivia, is
a plateau which has an average altitude
Of 1900 feet, with no drainage to either
the Atlantic or the Pacific.
Right here in Peru are some Of the
highest elevations. and l shall have to
to the Inca city of Cuzco and I shall
cross Lake Titicaca, which. itself. is
almost two and one-half miles above
the sea.
X X
These striking attitudes are the more
impressive on account OF the steepness
1t begins right at the sea. only a narrow
strip of sand separating it from the
ocean, and it jumps. as it were, into the
clouds. I rode this morning through
Lima, a city of perhaps 10000. It is
situated on the banks of the Rimac. close
to the gorge into which We started as
we came up the mountains.
During the first part OF our journey
we passed through an irrigated valley.
There are fields Of alfalfa, sugar cane
and other green crops on both sides Of
the railroad, but the mountains over the
valley were as arid as the Sahara.
remember I thought OF the difference be-
that IL cou bore a hole right through
the desert wall 1 might come out into
the region of the Amazon, where the
waters swarm with turtles and allfga-
tors, and where the vegetation is dense
jungle with palms. rubber trees and all
sorts of tropical fruits. On this side
Of the mountains there is no rain and
everything is, dry. On the other side
it rains all the time, The Rimac river
here is not fed by the rains. 1t comes
from the SHOWS, which the winds from
the east have left on the tops Of the
Andes.
The vegetation of the arid Andes is
remarkable. I sat on the rear platform
wound our way up the cliffs. Near the
ocean there was no green at all. The
mighty rocks seemed perfectly bare and
there was no soil or any green thing.
gray cacti clinging to the rocks and
silver-gray moss, which in places COW
cred the stones like mantle. These
plants were probably fed by the dews.
Evening star., 1914-03-15

moned Gov. Mouravien and asked him TO
do something. All he could do, said
Mouravien. was to compel the sanitary
police to inspect the building, and TO In
sist on inquiries being held into the
causes of death. He further said he
could enforce police measures which
might diminish the evil OF abandoning
children in the streets. This is not easy,
Evening star., 1914-03-15

furnace below that take the chill from
our. bones. We are short distance from
Ticlio. above the pass which crosses the
mountains from the Pacific ocean on the
way to the Atlantic and at the very
highest railroad point of the world. We
are higher up in the air than any noun
tain in the United States. outside Of Alas
ka We are 100 feet above the top OF
Mont Blanc and 1000 feet higher than the
sacred peak of Fujiyama, in far-off ia
pan IL could fly on this plane north to
Pixies peak I should have to drop three
times the height of the Washington
Monument before could land on its sum-
NIT. and If 1 fell 900 feet should still
be far above the height of Mount Whit
ney.
Our actual altitude is 1866 feet above
the sea, and all about us are mountains
that rise several Thousand feet higher.
Over there is Mount Meiggs, whose alti-
tutie is over 1900 feet, and not far away
is another mountain that ascends to
10000 and more.
As I write We seem to be i'll a great
fertilization on the very roof Of the
world. We are in a basin surrounded by
gigantic walls of blue. black, white, red
and gray rock. We are also in a great
glacier garden. / can count a half dozen
mighty ice rivers from where / am sit
ting. and there are glaciers so near that
! could almost throw a stone in the ice
as I stand up in the cab.
A moment ago the sky was bright
blue. Now the wind has come up and the
clouds hang low over the glaciers. The
black masses rest on the ice. and it
seems to be flowing out Of the clouds
down the hills Some of the glaciers are
of enormous extent l can see one that
seems to be the whole top of the noun
tain: and near it another has burst out
of the rocks and half fallen in an icy
veil down to the valley. The top of that
glacier is covered with snow, but the face
toward the train is this veil Of icicles.
through which you can see the ice wall
behind. We have here the sun of the
tropics. 1t fights with the cold of the
highlands. and the battle goes all
the time. You can never be sure OF the
weather 1t may be clear for week
and it may snow day and night. In the
winter the mountain blasts are SO fierce
and the glare so great that the trainmen
use smoked glasses to keep from becom-
ing snow blind.
But before I describe the scenic Won
ders about me let me tell you something
of this road from the sea to the clouds.
1t is the worlds greatest wonder in the
way of railway construction. 1t begins
on the Pacific ocean at the port of Callao.
and in 100 miles it climbs up the noun
tains to an altitude of 1886 feet. 1t
crosses the pass at 200 feet lower. and
then goes down to the Indian market
town of Oroya on the other side of the
range. Oroya Is not a great distance
from the navigable tributaries of the
Evening star., 1914-03-15

IMPRESS ALEX-
ANDRIA FEODO-
ROVNA. Moscow's
governor. Count l.
N. Mouravieff. and
many other mighty
persons are deep in
discussion of the
massacre of inno-
cents. The massa-
ere of innocents-
nothing Ike 1t has
been seen since
Evening star., 1914-03-15

RUSSIA,
Under whose Omclnl control the Mos
COW Founding Hospital II operated.
as 80 per cent Of Moscow's children are
born out Of wedlock, and since the dom"
was reformed and the ten-rouble fee
made compulsory the impulse to conceal
parentage has become more marked.
Gov. Mouravien then suggested that the
dom should be taken over by the mu-
nicipality. This caused trouble. because
to hand 1t to the municipality would
mean taking 1t out of the institutions
of the Empress Marie and that has al
ways been opposed by the Empress
Marie. who is extremely Jealous Of her
control.
Probably nothing will be done. When
Gov. Mouravieff visited the dom he
saw ten babies' coffins being carried Out
at the same time. One man carried
three, balanced on top Of one another as
walters balance plates. This is quiet
day." said the hall porter. .'The day be-
fore yesterday thirty-seven died"
Copyright, 1914, by Curtis Brown
Evening star., 1914-03-15

Special Correspondence of The star
MOSCOW, March
Evening star., 1914-03-15

AM debating this
letter on an OIL
burning engine on
the very top of the
Andes. My secretary
sits by my side in
the cab and takes
down the notes.
The air is so rare
that I can hardly
talk, and it is only
the great flames of
petroleum in the
Evening star., 1914-03-15

grave as is a sentenced man who als
ready has the moose round his neck.
Russia had always peculiar ways of
treating her foundlings. Peter the Great
was considered a great civilizer when he
issued q decree of ordering the church
Ito institute hospitals at the church
boundaries and to circulate the ukaz that
children who were found thrown away
should no longer be swept into the ash
pits with other dirt. but should be hand
ed over to the aforementioned hospi-
tails
Since then many czars and czarinas
have fought the problem. Peters widow
Catherine /, and his daughter, Elizabeth,
built several founding hospitals,
Evening star., 1914-03-15

A Road Which Rises
Three Miles in One
Hundred, and Is
Worked With Oil En-
gines-How 1t Was
Built-The Vegetation
of the Andes and the
Abandoned Terraces of
the Incas-The Won
derful Rimac Valley
The Terrors of Soroche
Striking Pictures
Taken on the Roof of
the World.
Copyrighted. 1914. by Frank C. Carpenter,
TICLIO, Peru
Evening star., 1914-03-15

Copyrighted, 1914. by Frank C. Carpenter,