Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-11
After Two Years Under
German Rule in Russia,
Girl Finds Refuge Here
Sara SeigeI, Native of Poland,
Says German Soldiers Are
Bad, but CoSSaCkS of Own
Country Are Worse
BY JANE DIXON

Atlanta people may thank their stars
that the above is not a schedule of
prices prevailing locally. But it is "A
has been paying for food and raiment
for the past two years.
| dare say you can call Miss Sara
Seigel, an Atlanta girl, for she has
been here four months now and already
she is so thoroughly Peachtreeized that
she dotes on J. Warren kerrigan and is
crazy about fox-trotting.
Yet only a few short months ago
Miss Seigel had never heard of J. War
rem Kerrigan or Peachtree street, and
the only danes she knew were the
pretty folklore dances of Russia which
she stepped on the stage of Ceishan-
ievies at performances for the beniit
of the wounded soldiers. And this, to
me, is the most remarkable part of
Sara Seigels story-how she. a Rus
sian of the Russians, in four short
months in America has picked up the
language and the customs of the coun-
try of her adoption.
1t was quite another story and / had
in mind when 1 went to see Sara Seigel
at 81 Piedmont avenue, where she lives
with her mother and her father, Sam
Seigel. The story was to be called
something like Ambassador Gerard
My Two Years Under German Rule
bya girl of Poland, Sara Seigel.
But il is very hard to tell in an hours
interview the story of two years of
hardship and suffering and horror. es-
pecially when the person who is being
interviewed speaks only a smattering
of the English language and when the
interviewer knows no single word of the1
four other languages which Miss Seigel
knows.
So Miss SeigeTs real story will have
to wait. She is going to write il her
self some day, when she has studied
English a little longer at the Girls
Night school on Pryor street What
got was only few outstanding impress
sions. In the broken way in which we
carried on our conversation, they might
be ranged like this.
My name?-Sara Seigel Twenty-one
years old. I was born in Russia and 1
have always lived there. Ceichanieviec
is my town. Yes, il is hard to say. 1t
is in Grodno, that is a state of Po-
land"
Two years ago, said Miss Seigel, the
Germans invaded her city. They were
led by Joachim, youngest son of the
kaiser. Him she has seen and spoken
to. II was mot so bad" at first, the in
vasiOn.
The Germans seemed anxious to make
a good impression. They killed nobody
wilfully, there were none of the out
RACES one hears Of Yet this was not
surprising. Poland is almost as much
German as Russian, anyway. And be-
sides. the people did not resist the in
vaders.
I'VE were not like the French said
Sara Seigel. German soldiers told me
when they went in French houses for
food. they were afraid to eat there.
They would have been poisoned. They
did not fear in Poland. French girls
shoot at them. But not us"
do you like German soldiers?"
She shook her head.
do you like Russian soldiers?"
She shook her head again. although
she herself has a brother serving in
the Russian army as a convoy of mill
tary police escorting prisoners of war
from the firing line.
German soldiers are bad?" she said.
Russian soldiers are worse. The Co.'S
sacks are the worst of all. When the
military of Russia treat the people
right, then the Russian" people will be
patriotic"
1t was not long after the German in
vasion Of Poland that. as Miss Seigel's
translator put it, we saw the claws
of the eagle" That first impression
had been good; but it was designed TO
lull the people into security. 1t was
followed by suffering, hardship. The
Germans searched all the houses and
took all the food. 1t was doled out
from their headquarters to the people
AZ terrific prices. Potatoes, eggs, sugar,
yegetables-they were sky high. Bread
of any kind was almost impossible to
obtain. There was no wheat -four.
Womens shoes of leather cost $50 a
pair: that is what Sara Seigel paid for
the shoes on her feet today. Mems
shoes were $50. The people could not
buy them. They went barefoot in the
snow or else wore the clumsy wooden
"sabots.' Beer? Plenty for the Ger
mans; none for the people