The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-07-23
Buckets
of Blood

Or the astonishing adventures OF
one, Duckworth by name, erstwhile
reporter for the Cleveland "Press" in
the land Of the Bol-shev-iks.
If the Cleveland Press ever gets
away from its timeworn habit of
placing the word bolshevist in the
same sentence with blood shed and
human gore, it will be happy day
for its readers. The monotony is be-
coming oppressive. In this particular,
the Press is following an established
policy however of never giving its
readers anything new. 1t is doubtful
if it will live to break the rule.
For weeks there have appeared spe.
cial articles ostensibly written by one,
j. II. Duckworth, representative of
the Press who was sent to Russia to
see what he could see of bolshevism.
These articles have the ear marks of
being written by the youngest report.
er in contest to prove his lack Of
veracity as a qualification for his job
as Press reporter However that may
be, we have followed them with
watchful eye for any accidental ele-
ments of truth or probility that may
have crept in. But the quest is
hopeless. We give it up and we want
to tell you why.
Take the issue of the Press for
July 18th and let your eye rest upon
the illustrated title head of columns
one and two. Notice the drawings
right out of an illustrated "Buc-
cancers of the Spanish Main " the
blood dripping dagger in the mouth
Of the villain; three buckets stopping
over with blood, the aggressive figures
Of the two-gun man. All calculated to
be both funny and to leave the i'm
preston of bloodshed and murder in
connection with bolshevism, sovietism
and the Russian people.
The first line will lead you to believe
that the story arrived via wireless on
the date of publication. This plea.
SAINT little deciet Of newspaperdom
should not worry you as it is common
practice to place the date Of public,
alton and the name of foreign city
tat the beginning OF news articles
which were cooked up in the reporters ;
room.
But anyway, this Duckworth got into
Russia, past the vigilant Red Guards,
who would have murdered him before
breakfast, we are led to believe had
they caught him. He wanders about
Russia at times lodging the terrible
Reds and at others consorting freely
! with them. There are tense moments
whom we are led to believe that should
the Reds discover the identy of our
hero the jig would be up and then
again he comes ont in the open
braving the daggers and all and jok-
ingly conversing with commisars and
the multitude alike without apparent
fear or danger to his presious civilized
neck.
But this particular two columns of
ten point is especially interesting in
that it contains and unusual number
Of improbabilities Hero Duckworth
meets a bolsheviki from New York in
the office Of the "Rosta" in Pskov
The New Yorker bolshevist, Medell by
name, who is of course, dirty, badly
in need of a shave and wearing
trousers apparently pulled off Ear.
list trooper much larger than himself
Right here we object to the trend
of the story. We would like to know
something about that newspaper Gro
sta". Is it bolshevist paper' How
is it run' How is the help hired and
paid, all alike or some more thar
othersl What is the particular charac
ter Of the "Rosta" and what in
general is its policy' It it up against
n paper scarcity as we are in Amer
leaf A dozen quest ions arise in our
mind, but no, there is nothing about
that. Mr.. Duckworth merely sat in the
office of the "Rosta" apparently safe,
and there met Medell and there the
matter Of the "Rosta" ends. We thinl;
Duckworth is damned poor news
paper man to lose chance to tell us
sll about how bolshevist newspapers
are run, and allow himself to be led
astray by an accidental meeting with
dirty bolshevist from N. Y. II
seems that Medell was at one time
on the Commission for the Suppress
sion Of Counter Revolution, but hav.
ing a weak heart he found it impo.
sible TO order the shooting of prison.
ers. However, he bucks up in the next
sentence and says he is ready to shoot
bourgeoise anytime-"just like a
dog". But Duckworth doubts his
statement. He "thinks he returned "a
Russia for 'pickings' and was disap
pointed" Can you imagine bolshe.