The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-01-18
EXTREME SUFFERING
AMONG RUMANiANS
Those Who are Fortunate Enough to
Live In Shattered Adobe Houses
are Still Living Under Condi-
tions of Wretched
Misery.

cnce OF the Assoclhteu IItss - rAtith
poverty and suffering exists among re-
ugees and peasants in the little mountai
villages that are so numerous just bac
of the Rumania German battle line.
large number Of eases the refugees ar
without shoes and without shelter Of an
kind, many of them being compelled I
live in the fields and to endure the ex
posure of the prevailing cold autumn
nights. Often their clothing consist
only of few thin ragged cotton gar
ments that give scarcely any warmth T.
their wasted bodies. Their situation i
rendered the more precarious by the fac
that the districts in which they are living
are subject TO frequent artillery fire anC
to bombing by airplanes.
Those who are fortunate enough TO have
even the poor comfort of shelter in tn,
shattered adobe houses that remain
standing are in almost every instance
living under conditions 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 await
which they have fed; for in these small
villages there is neither anything to sus-
tain life nor that medical care which
often would save life. All doctors are
needed on the front, and these unfor-
tunate people, who might otherwise be
useful factors to society if properly
cared for, are left either to struggle
alone with the ravages Of famine and dis
ease or to die of starvation.
| In some villages the refugees and
peasants receive bread twice week; in
Others none at all. 1t is true that a
scant supply of corn meal is obtaina-
bic by application to government agen-
cies, but this slender staple for every
meal is not calculated to give strength
and sustenance to people already reduced
to the last extremity 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 picking
in the fields kind of wild grass, which
they eat, but which in America, we
would think only of feeding to cattle.
The most pathetic case of suffering and
want was witnessed in the little village |
OF Seltiu, in the district of Putna. In a |
squalid shack of wood and mud were
three little children on the point of ex-
hauston for lack of proper care and
feed They were orphans. The mother
had lately 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 four and seven. The
child was lying helpless on a
bag on a stone floor, tragic spectacle
If famine and disease.
A second case, which was only typical
IF numberless others, was observed in a
liapidated house no larger than the ordi
nary American bedroom. There was no
,lass in the windows. The roof was full
# holes Elsewhere in the house the
pen spaces were stuffed up with
ags. Here there were 10 persons crowd
d together under conditions of squalor
nd misery Bags and tattered patch
uilts formed the only coverings on the
nakeshift beds.
One of the inmates was an elderly
conan who had recently lost her hus ,
and, but whose pride it was to have ;
hree sons serving in the army. For |
his solemn contribution to the cause of ,
er country, however, she had not even ,
he small reward from her government
a decent existence. She had no food
eyond a few handfuls of cornmeal. She I
as a spectre of famine Her face was
rawn and pinched and her countenance /
inexpressiby sad that it told its own +
lent tale of the terrible hardships she :,
nd her nine companions in the house
ere enduring. =
One of her children. helpless mite of !
,ree, lay under the clay stove, in which l
lere was a feeble fire. slowly succumb- n
& to pellagra, The other nine occu- &
lnts, most of them children, were pa h
etic figures of poverty and misery.
There probably are thousands of cases a
ually as extreme or even worse. The :.
server could easily see, with this trag -
picture before him, why typhus had G
ken such n terrible toll of life last win n
r. The houses visited were in most el
ses dirty and unsanitary and offered
e most fertile breeding places for YER
in. The occupants were so terribly inn
verished that their feeble bodies could
,rcely be expected to withstand the in
sion of even the mildest of diseases.
In these villages. which often are only fiji
short distance from the area where ri
litary activity is greatest, and which
: subjected almost daily TO shell fire SO
the Germans, one would think that ~,
: inhabitants, following the instinct of -. y.
preservation, would 60 to places at "
st free from the terrors of actual war on
e. but a hope borne of confidence in oh
, bravery of the Rumanan army and af
ability to drive back the Germans CT
lse simple, guileless peasants continue 10
linger in the danger zones, believing IN
Il soon the German army will be -
ced to withdraw and that the popu- "a
ion win be able to return to their pi'
erted homes. Tx
IN the other hand. there are some who by
lie the great jeopardy in which they re,
placing themselves by staying with ed
the range of enemy guns, and they sb.
e wisely abandoned their homes for 80
ces at least removed from the i'm -
renee of airplane bombardment and ilis
n fire. In these cases it is a sight III
ply impressive TO the American OBJ pc;
yer to see the poor but sagacious of
SAINT burying in the cold earth his sol
re clothes or the household articles ,
ch he treasures most, in order that
V NAV not fall into the hands of the an!
aiding Germans and that he NAV re- tan
er them when the enemy is driven gre
est
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The Report. the
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