The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-01-21
PEASANTS OF
RUMANIA FEEL
GREAT POVERTY
Keenest Suffering Is Re
ported From Behind Ru-
manian-G German Lines
GET BREAD ONLY
TWICE EACH WEEK
Bags and Tattered Quilts
Form Scanty Covering
on Makeshift Beds
tRy Associated Pregs.l

/ 3 (By Associated Press.J
| Jassy, Rumania, Nov. 7.-Extreme
| poverty and suffering exists among
refugees and peasants in the little
mountain villages that are so numer-
] Gus Just back of the Rumanian-G Ger
man 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 prevailing cold
autumn nights. Often their clothing
consists only Of few thin ragged
cotton garments that give scarcely
any warmth to their wasted bodies.
Their situation is rendered the more
pTecarious by the fact that the dis
tricts in which they are living are
subject to frequent artillery fire and
to bombing by airplanes.
Those who are fortunate enough
to have even the poor comfort Of
shelter in the shattered adobe houses
that remain standing are in almost
every instance living under condi-
tions 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 fed; 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 front,
and these unfortunate people, who
might otherwise be useful factors
to society IL properly cared for, are
left either to struggle alone with the
ravages of famine and disease or to
die of starvation.
Get Bread Twice a Week.
In some villages the refugees and
peasants receive bread twice a week;
in others none at all. 1t is true that
a scant supply of cornmeal is obtain
able by application to government
agencies, 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 hus-
bands or sons or brothers now sery-
ing their country. In two instances
refugees were observed picking in
the. fields a kind of wild grass, which
they eat, but which in America we
would think only Of feeding TO cat
tie.
The most pathetic case of suffer
ing 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 exhaustion for lack
of proper care and food. 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 little
girl of 10 was acting as mother to
two tiny tots of 4 and Z. The young
est child was lying helpless on a
bag on a stone floor, tragic spec
tacle OF famine and disease. !
A second case, which was only
typical Of numberless others, was |
observed in a dilapidated house no
larger than the ordinary American |
bedroom. There was no glass in the |
windows. The roof was full Of holes. |
in the house the open |
spaces were stuffed with rags. Here |
there were 10 persons crowded to-
gether under conditions of squalor |
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 it was 70 /
have three sons serving in the army.
For this solemn contribution to the
cause of her country, however, she
had not even the small reward from
her government OF a decent exist
ence. She had no food beyond a few
handfuls Of cornmeal. She was a
spectre of famine. Her face was
drawn and pinched and her counter
ance so inexpressibly sac that it told
its own silent tale of the terrible
hardships she and her nine COM
panions in the house ewere enduring.
One of her children, a helpless
mite of 8, lay under the clay stove,
in which there was a feeble fire,
slowly succumbing to pellagra. The
other nine occupants, most of them
children, were pathetic figures OF
poverty and misery.
Thousands of Similar Cases.
There probably are thousands OF
cases equally as extreme or even
worse. The observer could easily
see, with this tragic picture before