Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-06-27
Lister from ruth Mooavren.
Compton.
Samara, Russia, April 80, 1915
Dnarasf Folks.

Oe8roSL folks.
It has been so long since
have even attempted to write yo,
that l scarcely know where to be
gin. | suppose that by the tim,
you receive this you will have ;
pretty good reason to believe w,
are headed for home and perhap.
have already selected the YER,
calf to be fatteped and slaught.
cred on the return of your prod
ligal daughter. But, no such luck
All the rest of the party leave fol
lVladivistock, this afternoon, ant
from where they hope to go t,
j the United States, but Carl ha.
been asked by the Y. M. C. A.
with headquarters in Samara, tt
stay over and do one of six OIL
seven different things. There j:
a great deal of relief work to b,
done among the Serbians who are
here. boy scout work in differen
lq;tios near here and Y. M. worl
in the University at Tomsk. We
have practically been given oul
choice but have been here only
three days so we can't decide iust
yet what we wish to do. For the
first month we will study Rus
sian hard and fast.
Perhaps l had better begin al
the beginning and tell you the
whclc tale. l haven't any idea
that you have received a single
letter | have written since we
left Eiadivostock. <Ve reached AL
exandronople about December ~,
and soon settled ourselves in
three rooms, where l kept house
for four people. We kept house
about as we used to out on the
farm in the summer and down at
Glenwood--using as much pack
ing box furniture as possible be-
cause we felt our stay would be
only temporary. We were very
comfortable because our rooms
were large and light and we had
plenty of food and everything
to keep us warm although the
winter was very cold. The alti-
tude was 5000 feet. At Christmas
time we went to Erivan and had a
regular circus. When we returned
we settled down to good old hard
work and organized a soup kitch-
en- where 100 people were fed ev-
cry day. hospital, carpenter
shop, blacksmith shop, indus
the weaving plant. Work simply
doomed and we brought up hun
dreds of bushels W grain for
food for the refugees to purchase
who cannot afford the outrageous
prices asked by the merchants.
About the middle of February,
we moved into a new house--a
very nice one--with ten rooms,
and all sorts of conveniences. We
were expecting lots of Americans
and English through there and
felt it our duty to keep a place
for their accommodation. We
were barely settled when two Eli
glishmen arrived and there never
was a time after that when we
did not have our house full of
company. 1t was very nice to have
SO many people there because we
had no books to read or letters,
or papers OF news of any kind
which could be believed.
On March 8, MIR. Stapleton of
Erzeroum arrived and said that
he had been ordered out of there
because there was no hope OF it's
standing against the Turks. We
did not believe him at the time,
but a week later the Turks ar
rived and burned his house to the
ground. He had lived there for 20
years or more so he lost all OF his
possessions. On March n, Mr..
Stapleton and Mr.. Craig came
from Tiflis and said we were to
pack at once and leave for Tiflis,
the next day because it was abso-
lutely unsafe to stay another
minute. The Turks were walking
to Alexandropol as fast as they
wanted to come and the Germans
were coming along the Black sea
coast and it was only a matter of
days when they reached Tiflis. So
we packed in double quick time
and left the next evening. Mr..
Partridge was in Erivan at the
time so Carl had to close up all
the business. The week before,
5000 more refugees had come in
to Alexandropol and Carl and Mr..
Wells and Miss Orvrs, had spent
all their time distributing soup
and bread to them until they all
could find a home. 1t was awfully
hard to leave all that crowd be-
hind, as we'll as the 10000 refug-
ees we had taken care of all win
ter. But it had come to the point
where we could not get money at
all. All cable CONNECTIONS were