The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-27
Phantom Hunger Strikes Down
Thousands in PetrOgrad.
There Is Plenty of Worthless
Money in Circulation.
WEALTHY NOW PEBBLE CANDY
Former Rich Become Newsb0ys
in Silk Hats.
Pretty Girls PeddIe Themselves
To Get Bread.

Correspondence Of the Associated PressJ
Petrograd, June 25.-Petrograd is .
city of despair and near starvation
For many months the threatening
phantom hunger already has struck
down thousands. A great majority OF
the two million persons now crowded
into the once proud capital of Peter
the Great know what it means to be
without food and know that winter
is coming with probably worse In
store
The people talk, dream and-when
| they ean-eat food. Long lines form
early in the morning before the shops
| to buy food. Thousands storm incon-
| ing trains in a wild scramble for food
| brought in by peasants and travelling
soldiers. In front of every shop win
| dow where foodstuffs are displayed
people stand and gaze longingly with
their eyes glued to the window panes.
Plenty of Worthless Money.
Petrograd is also a city with its
pockets fuiY or worthless money. Mon
| wages are increasing, but neither can
keep up with the rising prices. The
Nevsky Prospekt ('the" street of Pet
rograd) is picturesque evidence OF
the city's interest in food. In this sea-
son of white nights. every hour of the
twenty of daylight sees it lined from
one end to the other with street ven
ders. selling cakes and chocolate and
candies and queer little pancakes
| called "Bleeneys' and sugar in Jumps
| from carefully guarded little boxes.
Former Rich Now Peddie Candy.
| Persons who formerly owned lin
| cuisines and lived in the palace-like
homes along the Nevsky are selling
candy and biscuits in the streets to
earn their living. Their customers are
opulent sailors and workmen who buy
biscuits at fabulous prices. because
even they, part of the time cannot get
| bread
There is a daily sight That always
| brings hopeful smiies--the motor lorry
with flour on its way to the soldiers
| bakery. Six cavalrymen ride in front
of the lorry and six sailors, heavily
armed, are perched high on the sacks.
Newsboys With Silk Hats.
One need not be surprised II the lady
dressed in silks and satins--orce
member of the Bourgeois who sells a
biscuit on the corner addresses him in
any of the two or three foreign Ian
guages she knows. Then one may buy
newspapers from greybeards in frock
coats and silk hats and former army
officers in shiny boots. All are trying
to earn livelihood in Petrograd where
property is confiscated and incomes
4 have vanished.
4 Pretty Girls Sell Selves for Bread.
Some of these on the Nevsky are
girls, pretty, and they walk the long
length of the street all the day and
into the night asking for the little
postage stamps that pass for money in
Russia now-because they are hungry.
And there are other girls, and the
number grows larger every day. who
do not exactly beg, but look wistful
and hungry and sell themselves, in
stead of biscuits or chocolate or news
papers. to the rollicking sailors and
debonair Spectators.
Bourgeois Get Half Ration.
i One of the mysteries of Russia is
where the vendors of cakes and bis
cults get things Ithey sell. There is
absolutely no hohr to be had and the
bread allowance per person. which
Il one sometimes gets and sometimes
does not, is one-half pound daily for
the profetariat and one-eighth of n
pound daily for the bourgeois. The
bread is black and heavy and its in
gradients cannot be identified. Sugar
cannot oe obtained IN the shops. In
the homes, horse meat, dried cabba ge
and what bread is availa BILE is the
principal diet for the majority Eggs.
butser and milk are high in price and
extremely scarce.
Takes $500 RubIes a Month To Live
Formerly an income of zoo rubies
N$lVu) month was comparative
opulence. Now. according to the best
estimates available. it costs from
$500 to 5000 rubles (sl,200 to
s1,5Oo) to maintain a family of three
in anything like comfort. Most of the
families in Petrograd even with wages
soaring, have less than 1000 rubIes a
| month But even the wealthy suffer
munger pangs because transportation
is crippled and the cityis cut off from
| the Ukraine, its principal flour and
sugar producing territory and from
the nearby Finnish and Baltic Conn
munities that once supplied it with
butter milk. eggs and vegeta bles.
In the city's largest hotels, some
formerly among the show places of
| Europe there are no electric lights,
| no elevators, no hot water and rem
orally no food. One provides always
his own bread and must keep IL under
lock and key. A dinner in one of the
better class restaurants today costs 10
/ rubles (s20.)
But the city struggles on Now
desperately and now npnehalantly Il
strives to adapt itself to the topsy-
turviness of its present life.
FREE MOVING PIcTIIRES