Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1919-04-24
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF

MR.. AND MRS. CARL COMPTON.
Omsk, Russia, Feb. 90, 1919
Dear Folks at Home:
! don't know when our next messen-
ger will be starting, but this time /
will take time by the forelock and try
to have something ready. Our long
expected Y. M. @. A. train arrived
last night. We expected it to get
here with supplies for Xmas, but it
was delayed weeks and weeks in
Vladivostok after the supplies were
all loaded ready to send. Then after
it actually got started it took 36 days
to get here. (The ordinary time from
Vladivostok Osmk was days.) 1t
has been just few miles from Omsk
for couple of days, but was not
able to come on in because of the'snow
drifts. 1t brought in lot of supplies
for our work which we are in very
great need of. 1t had quite bit of
mail on board, but very little for us.
Ruth received four letters from home
while one from Mr.. Pye was all
drew. was delighted to hear from
him, but was very much disappointed
not to get letters from home.
The letters were full of the peace
celebrations held in America 1t
must have been great. Here every
thing was so quiet that you would
never have known anything had hap
pened. OF course it was not peace
for this country. We were very cur
ious to know what the people at home
are thinking about Russia and what
the policy will be. Some of the peo-
pie last night were asking us if we
were not crazy to get home We are,
yes, but we are not crazy to leave
Russia right now | wish we could
skip home for few weeks and then
right back again. But things move
so rapidly here that there is no telling
what changes few weeks time would
bring. e really are very anxious to
get home, but don't feel that we can
right now when we are so much in
need of men. 1t is simply impossible
to do all of the work, or even a small
part of what might be done, because
we haven't enough people to man the
job
We f.rs carrying on three lines of
work right now, war work, city work,
and rclists work for the prisoners who
are X u.ing from Germany The
biggest of course is the war work. At
the fronts and in cities like Omsk,
Ekaterinburg, Cheliabinsk, Novo Nj
kolaevsk, ETC., where soldiers are To-
Gated, we have Soldiers Clubs. At
the front the soldiers are actually in
need of food, so one of the big things
there are the tea cars where the men
can get hot drinks, sandwiches, cigar
cites, etc. At places like Omsk the
important thing is to have big,
warm, lighted place where the SOL
diers can gather evenings and play
games and read and write letters and
have movie shows, etc. Our Geek
Club here is packed every night with
from 1900 to 1000 men. Our Russian
Club is still not ready for occupation,
but we are hoping to have it ready
within a few days. We could have
opened it up long ago, but we have
been waiting for definite permission
from the Russian general staff. Owe
have general permission, but this
building was given to us originally to
carry on work for returning prison
ers of war, and we don't want to use
it for other purposes without first
getting permission Our official
transactions ought to be much sim
pier now, as the Russian Staff has
appointed Russian captain to be an
official o-between. He takes CHARGE
OF all our requests, etc, and keeps us
in touch with the proper officials,
while we in turn keep him informed
with everything we are doing and ex-
pect to do.
The Russians returning from Ger
man prison camps are coming thru
by thousands. For the most part
they are in very pitiful condition.
Some of them are almost barcfooted
A Russian Ladies' Aid Committee
mot of the church yoriatv ua hove =