The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-01-26
SERB REFUGEES
. CAMP BUILDING
Back Of Russian Hospital In
SaIonih Is Most Pleasant
ly Surrounded.
sY AssoeIarso pssss,

tsy ASSOCIATED pREsO
sALONIKI, Jan. 26-The temper
airy Serbian refugee camp lies in the
vacant lot back Of the Russian hos
pital. For only a short time ago
salonikI was Turkish city, and as
in all the leading towns Of the Otto
man empire, each nation with any
important colony had Its own hos
pltal, its own schools, Its own post
Office, as II had Its own consulate.
So there Is a Russian hospital at sa-
loniki.
1t Is an Imposing and well equip
ped building in an elaborate setting
OF formal gardens-such as might
surround the railway station OF any
prosperous American suburban town.
In contrast, the vacant lot behind the
hospital grounds Is barren. a dump
ing ground, full of mud holes, un-
drained and morose.
Here are pitched some twenty-five
tents that shelter over twelve hun
dred men. women and children
whose whole stock Of worldly pos
sessions is what they carried with
them on their flight from war-hayed
Serbia. Some came by train, before
II was too late. They have beds, a
trunk or two of clothing to the fam
ily-possibly an American sewing
machine. But most fed afoot in the
last hours of serbia's agony, tearing
their peasant hearts reluctantly from
their native soil. They have the
clothes they stand in. Perhaps there
is homespun blanket between two
or three.
Ground is Wet.
From the inside, the canvas OF the
oval tents show yellow and Opaque,
under the rain of every day. The
ground Is wet with the continual
coming and going OF muddy feet,
shod only with tiimsy sandals. Badly
guttered around the edges the canvas
walls of the tents let tiny rivulets
trlcltle across the floor. In some,
the women, haunting the Allies
docks and camps, have salvaged a
few planks, torn from box tops.
These nailed together serve to raise
sleeping blankets an inch or two
above the ground. Luxury! The
greater part have spread their wet
blankets on the wet earth.
The men In the camp by day are
old those too old to fight. Or they
| are the manned relics Of battle. The
Serbs who can fight did not flee. They
are with what is left Of their coun-
try's army, still fighting In the noun
tains Of Albania somewhere, or on
the borderland OF Greece. The
women do not know whore they are.
They do not even know II they are
alive. And II they are dead, they will
never know where they Ndied-nor
where they lie buried.
One tent after another reveals mis-
cry undesirable. Around their
sides, in the pouring rain, feeble old
men clad in patched rags seek to dam
the torrents that continually break
through the earth dykes and seep
into the tents. Others lie on the
ground within. wrapped In blankets,
too wretched to move. The hospital
Is full of more seriously ailing--
there is no room for those who are
simply slightly Ill, or weary.
At one end OF tent, seated on a
petroleum box as II enthroned, Is n
young woman, a shawl drawn over
her head. She is rocking to and fro
moaning. From time to time she
burles her face in the torn rag Of
what was once pillow slip, held
clutched in her lap. Her shoulders
shake with the rythm of expressed
grief. Old women. squatting on the
ground about her in a semi-circle at
little distance tumble at inconsequent
tasks, chattering like Greek chorus.
No one speaks to her. Only occa-
sionally the children come and stand
staring with the cruel curiosity OF
youth. whispering among theln-
selves.
Hardships Experienced.
Her baby was III when she left
Ghevgheli week ago. There was no
food for him on the journey afoot.
The bitter wind of the Vardar valley
bit through the inadequate shawl.
The boy died at last in her arms. She
had 10 bury him there, in a shallow
grave hastily dug by a French SOL
dier.
Such fairly able-bodied men as
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