Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-01-10
Ow' Girl Reporters First News
From the Lumd Of B0Jshev1Sm0
VIadivostok, Gateway to
TerroL Gives Foretaste Of
Interiors MiSerieS, Says
Peggy Hull
BY PEGGY HULL
Woman War Correspondent Now
Covering Russia and Siberia

By PEGGY HULL
Woman War Correspondent Now
Covering Russia and Siberia
for The Semi-WeekIy Journal.
VLADIVOSTOK, Siberia. -The
gateway to The Terror.
That's Vladivostok.
came to this forsaken corner
of the earth to penetrate the
blackness that surrounds Russia.
find that blackness rushing
here to meet meas it meets all
travellers from America who seek
to enter Russia by it's frozen back
door, Siberia.
Savagery and civilization rub
elbows here. ...,
Filth reeks amid wealth.
Order and decency are nearly
overwhelmed in a back-to-the-
wall battle with barbarism.
And these conditions are only a
beginning to the misery that rules
in the interior-or so they tell me
here. sgs
Human wrecks huddle on stone
floors among vermin-infested
rags
Others, drowsy, stare with
vacant eyes
Beings hardly step removed
irom extreme savagery drag their
way through the crowds
It's worse than this in the in
terror" voice shouted in my ear.
Think of those who couldn't get
away" KIN 49,
Even before the gangplank was
dropped, we could see from the
boat that abject misery gripped
many in Vladivostok.
Hold your BREATH an officer
from American headquarters re-
marked as we passed through the
custom house.
| tried to, but one accidental
Whit sent me Keeling toward the
door.
A dirty wharf and collection
Eof human beings not half so we'll
kept or clean as the average vii
lage dog back home-that was my
welcome to Siberia. l began to
realize that l hadn't. been alt
gether misinformed about
part of Russia. Ill
Our machine 81 sassd
4leasesss lin Of J! ~ ~ y de M
drawn by blind, + umbling wrecks
of horsefesh. they might haYes
been just invaded home from
the western front. Other machines
passed us, rocking and humping in
high speed over the cobblestones.
L am sure not one was going less
than 40 miles an hour. British,
Russian, Japanese and Czech flags
waved from the radiators, and the
moment we got out of the longest
ed traffic our chauffeur stepped on
the accelerator with what appeared
to me to be fiendish determine
ton to outspeed our allies.
] found Major General William
S. Graves, commander of the
American forces, and his staff
quartered in an imposing Russian
home on the main avenue-Svet-
lantskaye is one way of spelling
it, and there are a dozen ways of
pronouncing it.
From a window in the chief of
staff's office l had a good view OF
the street below. In less than
fifteen minutes I counted thirteen
distinct nationalities in the pass
ing throng-their clothing as
varied in style as their countries in
distances.
On Whitehall street, even dur
ing the most crowded hours, there
is a semblance of orderly proce-
dure. Here the people pushed
each other off the walk without an
apology.
They bumped into strangers and
glared at them. Many pedes-
TRANS took the street, but were
chased back almost Immediately
by speeding machine.
l stood there and fearfully
watched the crowds, momentariIy
expecting an accident. | couldn't
believe automobiles could travel so
madly and recklessly through a
traffic-laden street and not hit
somebody or something.
l mentioned it to one of the gem
erals aids. He had only been
here month, but his answer was
as blase as native Siberian:
"Oh, they get a drosky driver
now and then, or coolie."
French, British and Canadian
officers, handsome, well-dressed,
distinguished figures, rubbed ell
bows with the half-savage crea-
lures who filled the street below.
Italians in smart gray uniforms
followed in their wake. Czecho-
Slovak officers moved their grand
physiques with erectness and mill
tary precision through the strange
procession.
Two Chinese officers, glittering
forms in gold, red and blue, raced
through the street in an automo-
bile almost as magnificent as
themselves.
And if this is only the beginning
of RTsSia's anarchy, what must it
be like in the where ]
am going, just as fast and as far
as allied protection or my Unborn
American nerve, defying terror
ism, will take me?