New Britain herald., 1916-01-26
SERBIAN REFUGEE
 CAMP AT SALON|KI
One Tent After Another Reveals
 Misery IndeSCribable


 Saloniki, Greece, Dec 20.-The tem- norary Serbian refugee camp lies in the vacant lot back of the Russian hospital. For only a short time ago Saloniki was a Turkish city, and as in all the leading towns of the Otto- man Empire each nation with any important colony had it's own hospltal, it's own schools, it's own post off1ce, as it had it's own consulate. 50 'here lS a Russian hospital at Salonlk1.
 If is an imposing and Well-eQulpped building in an elaborate settlnS or formal gardens-such as might sur round the railway station of any pros uerous American suburban town. In contrast the vacant lot behlnd the hospital grounds is barren, dumping ground, full of mud holes, undralneo and morosc
 Twenty five Tents.
 Here are pitched some twenty-five 1onts that shelter over twelve nun dred men women and children whose whole stock of worldly possessions IS what thev carried with them on thelr flight from war-fayed Serbia. some came bv train, before it was too late. They have beds, trunk or two ol c7othing to a amily-posslply ail American sewing machine. But most fled afoot in the last hours ot Serpla agony. tearing their peasant near ts !uctantly from their native SOIL ,i0S have the clothes they stand ln' haps there is homespun plaiiNo' between two or three.
 From the inside the canvas or tiie oval tents shows yellow and opadue' under the rain of every day. Inc ground is wet with the continual com ing and going of muddy feet, shoo only with fimsy sandals. Badly gut tered around the edges the canvas walls of the tents let tiny r1Vulets trinkle across the floor. In some Ihe women. haunting the Allies docks and camps have salvaged few planks' torn from the box tops. These nalled together serve to raise sleepl1lS blankets an inch or two apoVe the ground. Luxury! The greater part have spread their wet blankets on the wet earth.
 Too Old to Fight.
 The men in the camp by day are c1d-those too old to fight or they are maimed relics of battle. The Serbs who can fight did not flee. They are with what is left of their country's | army, still lightning in the mountains 1 of Albania somewhere on the border | land Of Greece. The women do not | know where they are. They do not 1 even know if they live. And if they | be dead, they will never know where they died-nor where they lie buried.
 One tent after another reveals r.iserv indescribab ble. 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 " retched to move. The hospltal IS full of the more seriously a1hng- there is no room for those who are simply slightly i'll, or weary.
 Woman in Tent.
 At one end of a tent, seated on 1 petroleum box as if enthroned, Is a l young woman, a shawl drawn over her heard. She is rocking to and fro, | moaning From time to time she 1 buries her face in the torn rag of what was once a pillow slip, held clutched l in her lap. Her shoulders shake with ] tte rythm of expressed grlef. Old women suuatting on the ground about i her in a semi circle at little distance 1 f, mble at inconsequent tasks, chatter ;rg like a Greek chorus. No one 1 sneaks to her. Only occasionally the | children come and stand staring With 1 the cruel curiosity of youth, whisper ing among themselves.
 Her baby was i'll when she left i a week ago. mere was no 1 food for him on the journey afoot. l r,he hitter wind of the Vardar Valley i hit through the inadequate shawl. | The boy died at last in her arms. She i had to bury him there, in a shallow .~r.ve hastily dug by a French soldier. l
 For Construction Work.
 Such fairly able-bodied men as there are among the refugees are en-