Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-03-11
PEGGY HULL Tells OF
BOLSHEv|k DEATH TRAIN
Second Story From The journals Correspondent
Carloads of Starving, Dying, Almost Naked Men and
Women shunted Along the Trans Sberan-Other Hor-
rors of the 'Reds" Rule Revealed
BY PEGGY HULL
The Journals Own Staff COrre-
SnOndent in Russia and Siber1A =


spOndent in Russia and Siberia
VLADIVOSTOK, Siberia New
horrors pounce upon me from eV-
cry direction. Atrocities fade the
plumber and rape of Belgium into
insignificance. The Bolshevik
reign is SURPRISING in history in
premeditated viciousness.
Siberia is face to face with a
power that has reverted beyond
even state of savagery--for saw
agery knows only brute strength,
but the perpetrators OF the pres
ent-day crimes over there have
perverted their civilization TO
make their deeds more appalling.
BISHOP BURIED ALIVE;
OFFICERS BODY CARVED
The night the news came
through Of the fall of Perm there
were tense, low spoken groups
everywhere. Solemn faces and
white oh seks and eyes hat glowcd
with apprehension, for we knew
that a few thousand miles to the
west madness had taken full sway,
and we shuddered in anticipation,
Bulletins brought the details. /
A bishop had been buried alive
and his priests had been killed by
driving long nails into their
backs! a.t
Then we received the details
on the capture of a young Czech
officer. His comrades found his
body with epaulets carved out OF
his skin, on his shoulders. Fac
SMILES Of the buttons on his uni
form were crudely cut in his torso,
and there were other mutilations
too horrible to write about. No
one knows how long he lived
under these tortures.
In a battle that followed a few
hours after the body was found
900 Bolsheviks were made pris-
oners. General Gaida, the youth
full commander of the Czecho
Slovaks, made them pay the price,
and they faced the machine guns
in squads of ten.
Raiding Bolsheviks along the
Trans-Siberian line whip many Of
their captives to death. Some of
the railway employees who have
stuck to their posts through tho
various changes of government
often meet sad and pitiful end
at their hands. Their favorite
procedure now is to occupy terri
tory off the railway line and to
make sudden visits to stations
when troop trains are not\ going
through. Many valuable supplies
are obtained in this way, and the
Bolsheviks suffer no losses, as
there are no armed forces to OPP
pose them.
DEATH TRAIN" FILLED
WITH FREEZING PEOPLE
The death train episode,
more than any other tragedy
which has occurred since the al
lies came, showed how insensible
the people have become to the
cause of humanity.
The inmates of the train were
Bolshevik prisoners rounded UP
in Samara last October. There
we're 2,100, including men and
women found in the provincial
Jail who claimed they had been
arrested by the Bolsheviks be-
cause they wouldn't expouse their
cause. Sixty people were packed
into box cars which could legiti-
mately hold but 40. There was
no provision for heating, and the
sanitary arrangement consisted
c. small openings in the floors of
the cars.
This train was started for ST.
IBERIA, and when it reached
small station on the western side
of Hardin early in December,
American railway engineers re-
ported to the American Red Cross
that 775 had died en- route. Some
were shot by the guards when
they tried to get food and water
at the stations. Typhus, typhoid,
dysentery, scurvy and pneumonia
took the largest toll. One boy Of
II was found dead across the
doorway of a car when Red Cross
workers entered. He was naked
with the exception of a piece of
gunny sack tied around his loins.
1t was then five degrees below
zero. Half his face had been
eaten away by scurvy.
None of the prisoners had been
permitted to leave the cars since
their arrest, and they all wore
what was left of the clothing they
had on when taken into custody.
NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR
DEATH TRAIN" FIXED
In spite of the rapid work Of
the Red Cross the prisoners were
dying Is a day. And no one
knows who was responsible for
the train-no one knows who
sent it to Siberia \ and no one
knows who ordered it out Of
Nikolsk the evening after the
worst cases had been taken off
and the remainder bathed and is
sued pajamas. 1t went, and all
the generals in Vladivostok
stormed, but to no purpose.
1t went east toward Samara
with 500 sick and dying men and
women clothed only in pajamas.
and the thermometer clinging
around 40 below in that direc-
ton. It was last heard CT in the
vicinity of Chita, where Semenoff,
the Cossack ataman, presides.
That was a month ago, and it is
hard to believe that any of the
victims still survive
wTTT uTT1TSTS uTTSzaN n Is.N