The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-01-18
(By Associated Press.)


numerous just back of the Ruman-
lan-German battle line. In a large
number of cases the refugees are
without shoes and without shelter
OF any kind, many of them being
compelled to live in the fields and to
endure the exposure Of the prevail.
ing cold autumn nights. Often their
clothing consists only of a few thin
ragged cotton garments that give
scarcely any warmth to their wasted
bcdies. Their situation is rendered
The more precarious by the fact that
the districts in which they are liv-
ing are subject to frequent artillery
fire and to bombing by airplanes.
Those who are fortunate enough to
have even the poor comfort of shell
ter In the shattered adobe houses
that remain standing are in almost
every instance living under condi.
items of the most wretched misery.
Forced suddenly by the exigencies
of the military situation to abandon
their former homes, they have found
even severer hardships awaiting
them in the desolated districts to
which they have fled; for in these
'small villages there is neither any
thing to sustain life nor that medi-
cal care which often would save
life. All doctors are needed on the
frcnt. and these unfortunate people,
who might otherwise be useful fac
tors to society If properly cared for,
are left either to struggle alone with
the ravages of famine and disease or
to die of starvation.
Tn some villages the refugees and
peasants receive bread twice week;
in others none at all 1t is true that
" oNohI supply VI COlu Iucdl Is OU-
tainable by application to govern
ment agencies, but this slender sta
pie for every meal is not calculated
to give strength and sustenance to
people already reduced to the last ex.
tremity of restitution by the loss OF
their material belongings and the
financial support usually given them
by husbands or sons or brothers now
serving their country. In two in
stances refugees were observed pick
ing in the fields kind of wild grass,
which they eat, but which in Amer
lea we would think only Of feeding
| to cattle.
The most pathetic case of suffer
ing and want was witnessed in the
little village of Seltiu, in the Dis
triCt Of Putna, In squalid shack of
wood and mud were three little chill
dren on the point Of exhaustion for
lack of proper care and food. They
were orphans. The mother had late
ly died of typhus, which has blighted
nearly the whole of Rumania; the
father was serving at the front, and
a little girl Of 10 was acting as
mother to two tiny tots Of and Z.
The youngest child was lying help
less on bag on stone floor, trag..
ic spectacle of famine and disease.
A second case, which was only
typical of numberless others, was OBJ
served in a dilapidated house no
larger than the ordinary American
bedroom. There was no glass in the
windows. The roof was full of holes
Elsewhere in the house the open
,spaces were stuffed with rags Here
there were ten persons crowded to-
gether under conditions of sQuaIor
and misery. Bags and tattered patch
quilts formed the only coverings on
the makeshift beds.
One of the inmates was an elderly
woman who had recently lost her
husband, but whose pride 1t was to
have three sons serving in the army.
For this solemn contribution to the
cause of her country, however. she
had not even the smallest reward
from her government Of decent ex-
istence. She had no food beyond
few handfuls of cornmeal. She was
a spectre Of famine. Her face was
drawn and pinched and her counte
nance so inexpressibly sad that it
told its own silent tale of the terri
ri, hardships she and her nine COM
panions in the house were enduring.
One of her children, helpless mite
of 3, lay under the clay stove, in
which there was a feeble fire, slow
~ succumbing to pellagra. The other
nine occupants, most of them chill
dren, were pathetic figures of power
ty and misery.