El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-01-26
CAMP
INMUDDY WASTE
Servia Refugees in Saloniki
in Desperate Plight With
Very Little Shelter.

SalOniki GREECE. Jan. 26.-The tenn
porary Servian refugee camp lies in
the vacant lot back of the Russian
hospital For only 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 its own hos
pital, its own schools. its own post
office. as it had its own consulate So
there is a Russian hospital at Sa-
loniki.
1t is an imposing and well equipped
building in an elaborate setting of for
NAL 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 dumping ground.
full OF mud holes, undrained and mo-
rose.
Here are pitched some % tents that
shelter over 1900 men. women and chill
dren whose stock of worldly posses
sions is what they carried with them
on their flight from war-flayed Servia-
Some came by train before it was too
late They have beds. a trunk or two
of clothing to a family-possibly an
American sewing machine. But most
fled afoot in the last hours of SerVia'S
agony. tearing their peasant hearts re-
luctantly from their native soil They
have the clothes they stand in. Perhaps
there is a homespun blanket between
two OF three.
Is Waste OF Mud.
From the inside. the canvas Of the
oval tents shows yellow and opaque,
under the rain of every day. The
ground is wet with the continual COM
ing and going of muddy feet. shod only
with flimsy sandals Badly guttered
around the edges the canvas walls of
the tents let tiny rivuIets trickle across
2 he In he
ing 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.
One tent after another reveals misery .
indescribable- Around their sides, in
the pouring rain, feeble old men clad
in patched rags seek TO dam the tor
rents that continually break through
the earth dykes and seep into the tents
Others lie on the ground within,
wrapped in blankets. too wretehed to
move. The hospital is full of the more
seriously ailing-there is no room for |
those who are simply slightly i'll, or |
weary.
Young Mothers Grief.
At one end of a tent, seated on Pc |
troleum box as if enthroned, is \ young |
woman, a shawl drawn over her head. |
She is rocking to and frc. moaning !
From time 10 time she buries her face /
in the torn rag Of what was once a pill Z
low slip held clutched in her lap Her 1
shoulders shake with the rythm Of eX-
pressed grief Old women. squatting on (
the ground about her in a semi-circle /
at little distance tumble at incense
quent tasks. chattering like a Greek
chorus. No one speaks to her. Only
occasionally the children come and
stand staring with the cruel curiosity !
Of youth. whispering among themselves.
Her baby was i'll when she left
GhevgheH 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 TO bury
him there. in a shallow grave hastily J
dug by French soldier
Such fairly able bodied men as there
are among the refugees are employed
by the allied armies in construction |
work. on the Notifications now hur-
riedly building around Saloniki The
French pay them four francs a day. the
British three-princely wages, that
help the little colony vastly.
Aid Is Planned.
Meanwhile the Russian relief COM
nittee has been busily at work A hun
ired and fifteen thousand drachmaes
have been collected large part of |
he sum in Macedonia itself-where-
with to feed and clothe the more des-
-itute. Princes DemidOff the wife Of
The Russian minister at Athens, is !
head of the work, herself on the ground
Erecting everything, with the assist
lnce Of the Russian consul at Saloniki- |
Der work is the immediate relief Of
hose whose misery cannot wait the
ong process of the establishment OF
IN elaborate permanent refugee camp
II Volo projected by the British Ser.
-ian relief committee.