The Alaska daily empire., 1915-08-14
WAR DEVAsTATES
 BALKAN STATES


 SPOKANE. Aug. 7.-The Rev. c. Tolford Erickson. missionary of tho American board to Albania, who was compelled to leave the country tenn porarlly, has made a journey of inves- tigaton from Rome to Che three coast cities of Albania, Valona, and Durazzo and scutari. He has sent to the secretaries of the board in Amer ica an account or the desperate sit uatlon in this 'state left without ruler or protector distracted with civil strife, and afterwards invaded by the armies of Serbia. Mr. Erickson has written in the Spokesman Review the following
 "As l pass up the road to the city from the boat landing, ] notice on the right in an olive grove. some thatched shelters about two dozen of them. The land is low and pools of green scummed water are all about perhaps 100 people living there This is half the original number, the other half now resting in the improyised ceme- tery not far away. An Albanian friend, Islam Bey. is with me. He too. has suffered; houses burned, property destroyed, or carried off, animals driv- en away family scattered, and he knew how to sympathize.
 eve gathered the little company to- gether. three men, the rest women and children. A few men were in the town trying to pick up an odd job and earn a penny or two; others had been killed by the Greeks before they got away and many died by deliberate starvation. There wasn't enough food to keep alive and they denied them selves and gave the family what there was This, l ascertained, consisted of a little handful of corn meal, decayed and mouldy mixed with nettle leaves and stewed in a pot. One grandmoth- CT has managed. God only knows how, to get a few pennies to buy wool and is spinning yarn to make O pair of socks to sell. She may make five cents on her transaction She needs them herself, poor thing but socks are a luxury in this community.
 Death Vail Everywhere
 "I cross from tho lowland up hill overlooking the city. It is beau tiful place. high, healthful and clean and shaded with olive trees. Down be- low are seen the clear waters of the bay, with ships lying quietly at an- chor. Here is a camp of 17 shelters. Surely 1t will be a delightful contrast now to what I have just seen below in the minsmic lowland, but no soon CT do come within hearing than my ears are tortured with the death wall of another mother. Once heard. it can never be forgottenl This mother has just lost her little two-year-old boy. He couldn't stand the fare of thistle leaves and decayed corn meal and no mama fel'
 'I pass from the olive grove down into the city. It's narrow, cobbled rambling streets are swarming with men, an army of unemployed, thou sands of them, with latent strength enough locked up in their muscles (given a few good meals) to build up cities, lay forests, construct railways and highways, extract from the land its mineral wealth. prepare fields for golden harvest. They have the will and heart and mind to do it. and out beyond the city is a land needing all of these and ready richly to reward every effort There is no strike of discontented worl1men, asking higher pay and shorter hours. But sufic- tent to put bread. just coarse corn meal stirred up in water and baked over the coals. bread an American dog would turn up his nose at-to put enough of that into the mouths of their women and children and themselves to keep them alive-that is what they want Here they are all moving up and down the streets like a sluggish tide that has lost its way. or like @ plague stricken army, stolid, stunned and helpless
 Gray Scraps Like Hungry Dogs
 Groups of them finger by the pub lie ovens, or the vegetable market in the hope that some scrap will fall which they can grab. Others slump down in some shady place, often in the cemetery as though hoping death itself might summon them. There is always a great crowd before the gov ernment building where relief is oft times issued to a few of the most desperate cases.