Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-02
RUSSIA DREAMS
in BLACK NIGHT
Tragedy and Pathos Ruling
Factors in Lives of Hope.
less Millions
FRIENDS GIVE SUCCOR
Philadelphia Quakers Tell
What Huge Tasks Con-
front Them
FRIENDS GIVE sUCCOR

three Philadelphia women have had
part in making. story of heipfu'ness
and hope. where all has been dark, is
contained in pamphlet describing the
work of the ouakers' in interior Russia,
which has just reached this country from
England.
This pamphlet, published by the
Friends war victim relief committee.
which co-operates with the American
friends service committee at 20 South
Twelfth street, in reconstruction work
in Russia. has no concern with BolsheV-
ism or RUSSIAN internal politics. 1t Is
a dramatic story of ''friendllness" car
ried to the hopeless in the most con-
fused community in the word.
For the first time. the story of what
three Philadelphia Quakers have been
going through in the last two years is
made known through this pamphlet
They are Esther NJ. White. Anna j.
Haines and LYDIA Lewis Hickman, who
went to Russia in 1916. Emily c. Brad
bury, of Jarrettown, Pa. is another of
the American workers whose story is
tolG
One Doctor to $4,000
At the beginning the peasants we're
suspicious of a trap, the pamphlet says,
: but the need was so great the attitude
of the workers was such that before
long the Friends were received EVERY
where with kindness in a district de-
scribed "as large as Belgium, colder than
Archangel, a bare monotous. level
steppe with mo- trees, no fences, no
roads save tracks lined here and there
by collections)of one-roomed hu!s called
villages"
1t was in such a country that the
Americans helped the peasants through
war, revolution and finally famine. Med
ical attention was so badly needed that
only the surface could be touched, The
first doctor found himself alone among
$4,000 persons with no medical man
nearer than twenty-five miles.
For two years the mission went on"
the pamphlet continues, "doctoring, nurs-
I ing. feeding, educating. employing and
clothing. They saw men marching six
abreast to the war with rifles only
y for the outside file. They met men in
their villages who had defended them
selves with sticks and stones and fought
for a dead mans rifle when he fell.
They heard the peasants Mortified sto-
ries OF treachery in Petrograd, and
ten, days after it had happened they
heard of the revolution and they sim
ply went on with their work."
Excerpts from letters written by the
workers themselves make up the bulk of
the story. One of these excerpts, writ
ten by Robert r. Tatlock an English
Quaker, Is an intensive description of
q the Russian peasant. SO little thought of
In the whirl of Bolshevism and anti
Bolshevism literature coming out Of Rus
sia.
ut is Impossible to understand Russia
without understanding the peasant" Mr.
Tatlock explains. "and II Is Impossible
TO understand the peasant without un-
derstanding his home. the steppe. The
conditions of life on the .steppe are the
peasants constant enemy. All winter
wild nature fights against life there
freezing up the streams and freezing
4 the blood out of all moving things. In
the autumn, after the short, gala day OF
: burning summer, all birds and beasts
nee south, and men and wolves carry
out, each In their own way, their prep.
arations against the ferocious cold.
lIopelessIy Dreaming
''As the winter comes the man and
bis wife and family shut themselves n
The snow comes high over them ID
the world Is invisible and soundless ex.
cept for the fitful barking of dogs and
j the deep church bell toled to guide
travellers over the steppe day and night
Hermetically sealed. i'm this way the,
pass the winter, idling, sleeping, talk
ing and dreaming. And what they sa,
and dream they feel to matter very Iit
tie. Nothing happens as q result of H
all. Kings and wars and democratic.
grow and pass, books are written ant
great men die both east and west hu,
no news comes of these events till lon.
after they are past All is stagnatio,
and stiffness without. All within il
mysterious, nsoluble. hopeless, ignor
ant
TWO more quotations from the work.
ers letters show the attitude of the
4 great mass of Russia s millions
This from the letter of DIR. John Rick
man Is of interest on the mystic mind
OF the Russian peasant
Their attitude to death shows q
strange contrast with ours and IL Is
coupled with their apathy in the matte,
of treatment. 1t is probably true thai
the Russian peasant is able to with.
stand physical hardship, hunger and
cold far beyond the average of Euro.
peans. but gives In far more quickly II
4 confronted with the thought of dealt
from disease. This follows from thei
belief that God takes away life and the,,
peculiar relish in the circumstances OF
death. Some of us regard it. as q
passing over; it Is a~moment of oul
existence that calls for the best tina
is In us, but hardly any of us woulc
think of dressing UP for the occasion
With the Russians 1t is not SO. The,
dwell on the details, think out the cos
tune they would prefer to be buried In
talking of death with less agitation tina,
bride talks of her weddings the,
49, .