The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-09-08

NAAh5St ONA AN~
caravan started at five o'clock in the
morning; it was dark and the roads
were frightful.
1--WE arrived at R on the second
of December. We were able to stay
four weeks at our home, then in great
haste we had to embark on the boat
sent to Finland for the fugitiyes and
we arrived at Helsingfors. Lassitude,
troubles, and emotions of all these
weeks overwhelmed at last my poor
husband.
Fortunately we found two rooms in
a hospital; there we lived for two
months, being often hungry, and when
We could get some food 1T was execra-
BILE.
'The high prices of living in Fin
land are unbelievable. A pound of tea,
which ordinarily cost from five to IF
teen kronen, cost from one hundred to
a hundred and fifty marks; q kilo-
gramme of sugar one hundred marks.
etc. Also Finland tried to get rid of
so many people she had to feed, and,
as the bolsheviki who come up to %
kilometers from R had been re
pulsed by the Finn troops, which had
ut the last moment come in aid TO the
Let's and to the volontaire corps of
Balthes-Germans the Firms then or
dered all fugitives to leave the country
within six days. However, we re-
ceived, on account of my husbands bad
condition, permission to stay until he
would get better.
Going back was an im~possibility,
the situation being still very grave a
second expedition was no longer pos
sible for the strength of my poor hus-
band; moreover, we had nothing left.
Our large city house was taken and
turned into a hospital by a Russian
volontaire corps. NJ devastated
and plundered! First by the bolshe-
Wiki, then by the Esths, whom the
Germans left unpublished then by the
white troops and the Firms, who were
fighting the reds, German properties
being left unmolested.
Family Lost Everything.
Last year our estate had suffered,
but our magnificent castle with all it's
dependencies had been respected. Now
all have pillaged 1t. The Firms being
more civilized stole the most beautiful
things-paintings, bronzes, antiques,
etc. Finally the 80 masters rooms and
the IL servants rooms were ~plundered.
What they could not take away they
4 CVnn0hn1 nn h.rnA W.
thing. Not a sheet, not a plate or a
glass exist, and when our intendant
complained to the minister of state Ga
Thesthe), he answered him that nat
urally In war time everybody wanted
to have some souvenirs. The whites
pillaged, as / hear, so estates, and they
were supposed to be our defenders!
Friends here obtained for us the
permission to come to K, where we
found two rooms In a family. We
hope soon to find some occupation, and
sell some furs that / could take with
me, for unfortunately my beautiful
laces are also In P%etrograd.
II do not know whether you have an
idea Of what the bolsheviki have done
everywhere whenever they had to re-
tire. At W they killed SO people /;
we have lost friends, acquaintance
and our excellent and noble doctor. Al
most all were tortured before being put
to death. Before shooting Doctor L
they broke his two legs. To the old
Baroness H., seventy-two years old,
after having opened her stomach,
snatched out her intestines while alive.
They killed priests, doctors, mobiles,
merchants. women, children and peas
ants. They made several persons dig
their own graves, forcing them to UNI
dress; a carriage was waiting to take
away their clothes. Then they tor
tured every one, breaking arms and
legs, crushing the limbs, snatching the
intestines, gouglng out the eyes, scar
ring the cheeks, and they even burned
two persons alive.
There were three large pits; they
tossed pell nell in one of them the
living and the dead, and then these
monsters jumped into the pit and
trampled under foot the un%fortunates
until they were lifeless.
Twelve persons were so crushed
and disfigured that they could not be
recognized. And all hat is truel
AFTER the corpses had been ex-
humed the doctors and the officers of
the state took photographs Of each, af-
ter having examined everyone of them.
Russia Awaiting the Allies.
"At D., at W, etc, whenever
the Reds were repulsed-note, | pray
yon, that ! say 'everywhere'-the same
fortunes were inflicted to the unfortu.
nate ones. / shall not try to describe
the horrors Of other places, for 1t has
been the same everywhere.
"At D.. hundreds have beer
thrown under the Ice of the river, yet
a element death compared with ths
others.
Thousands die from hunger in al
Russia bolsheyism reigns everywhere
We had hoped to be delivered by this
Germans, and they having failed We
hoped for the allies now. as an Off
Ger who has escaped from Petrograt