The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-02
THE RED TERROR IN MOSCOW

|
 THE RED TERROR IN MOSCOW l One of my most horrible experiences was in Moscow, when witnessed the ar | rest of three young women who were charged with the inevitable crime of spy | ing. They were quite innocent. rather stupid young women, but they happened l to have aroused the wrath of couple of | men who had formerly been common sol I diers. but who, by reason of the gen eral disorder everywhere, had managed l to worm themselves into the confidence ! of German in authority, who had given them posts of some importance in the city. These girls had known the off | cials when they were in their lower rank, and had made some testing remark | about them. The poor creatures were ar 1 rested and taken off to prison.
 | T happened to be a witness to the in- | cident, and I tried to do something to | save the girls. I am afraid I only made l matters worse, however, for I was threat | ened with arrest and the women were most cruelty fogged and kept in a com | mon cell for many weeks. When they were at last released. they became pub lie property and were not permitted to | try to find their relatives, who probably | thought they had been massacred.
 These things originated In German efforts to undermine the nation and | weaken it's moral condition.
 l People seem to labor under the idea that the Russian people before the war were ill-fed and miserably dependent upon the richer classes. But this is not so. In the happy days before the Ter 1 TOT, they had ample food and every possibility of living comfortably. It is now that they suffer because their weakness has found them out. They are like children who obey the strong est will, and we all know who has the l yx-h hy,-b -bot, l
 ESCAPE TO FINLAND l Tt took me nearly six months to prepare my escape from Petrograd. At i last I was promised a passport to Fin i land. But, as soon you are prom 1 lsed passport, you at once come under suspicion, and, like many other Russian men and women of rank, I was arrested t, as a spy. I was threatened with the l Torture House., as they very rightly i call the prison, on eight separate occa- sions, and when I finally reached the l frotier on my way to Finland I was again sent back and my passport taken 1 from me. Finally, after endless delays, my passport was returned to me. and 1 then the luggage that I had with me was searched.
 1 II had concealed in a little pillow that l carried under my arm a revol- yer and some cartridges These were
 
 1 cle that my life was saved. The official | who was searching me, however. hap pened 10 have just grain of humanity i left in his composition. and after ! threatening me with what is called l The Wall which means that you are put with your back to a wall and shot i he let me go. In the meantime d party Of sailors, who were standing near i opened all my trunks and stole many articles Of Value from then1
 At every mile of our progress along the railway to Finland we were stopped and interrogated by soviet agents. who boarded the car, examined our passports, and, in many instances. searched our luggage. About half way to the frontier our train stopped, be- cause bridge over river had been destroyed by bolshevik forces. We were told that we would have to shift
 for ourselves in getting across There were about seVenty-five refugees, in cluding myself, on board the. train. and everybody hurriedly alighted. seized
 what hand luggage they could carry and tried to caJole some of the men in attendance upon the train to drag some of our heavier baggage to the river
 side, where we hoped to be able to get a boat to ferry us across.
 Tt was at this time that l met with one of my bitterest losses. Among the
 few treasures that l had saved from my flat in Petrograd were some wreaths of silver and gold leaves that
 managers at important theatres were accustomed to present to an actress when she had made a successful ap- pearance in play for certain num- Der of nights It had been my good | fortune to win good many of these
 beautiful trophies, and had had case specially made with velvet layers into
 which they fitted.
 One of the men who I bribed to
 carry my things down to the river
 front, deposited everything else in q heap on the bank. This case. however, he seemed to take a special fancy to,
 and weighed 1t in his hands as he stood waiting for me to give him the extor-
 tionate fee he demanded. l told him
 to put the bag down beside my other
 things. He replied insolently that he
 would do so when l paid him his
 money. There was no use arguing
 about it, so l handed over the required sum. He snatched it from me, turned
 about and ran off, carrying my precious wreaths with him. I appealed to sew eral soldiers and civilians lounging about to catch him, as he had robbed me. They simply shrugged their shoul- ders, laughed and said that the thief
 was probably a poor man who needed
 what was in the bag much more than 1 did"
 FERROUS BOAT JOURNEY