The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-02-05

are seeking to destroy all government
and legal restraint.
II saw bolshevism at first hand"
he said. 81 saw lying in heaps, men
and women and little children, boys
and girls, bayonetted and disembow-
eled, not for any crimes they had
committed, not for any offenses
against the societs, only because they
belonged to the bourgeoise or middle
class as we term them inaccurately
in this country. Poor, childlike vic
tins of murderous ferocity, the like
of which has seldom been equaled.
Prisoners Ill Fed
ct was once ordered to take 5000
Russian prisoners, through Poland
and into Russia, en- route to their
homes. When I first saw these pris-
oners they were emaciated as Egypt
ian mummies. They we're literally
starving to death and had been sep
arated from their families for more
than four years. The allied commits
sion fed them up and outfitted them
with new suits, new shoes, two army
blankets each and rations for ten
days, when they were to start on the
march to their old homes in Russia
after we reached the end of the rail-
road in Poland.
"Never shall I forget so long as /
shall live, the Joy that shone from
their faces as I told them, through an
interpreter, of the order to start them
home to their families from whom
they had not heard for more than
four years. 1 told them of the boil
shevists and advised them not to have
anything to do with them.
81 took my prisoners through Po-.
land and accompanied them a days
march into Russia and there babe
them goodbye and G~odspeed. They
were happy and hopeful, and, oh, so
grateful. They marched away with
radiant faces.
Slain by BoIsheviki
"Back in Poland 1 stopped for a
day to rest" continued the colonel,
"and the next morning a rumor was
spread that my 5000 prisoners had
met with disaster. 1 hurriedly went
in an automobile into Russia and
there I met some of the men who had
escaped. This is what had happen
ed: They had been met ear a small
town by a bolshevik commander who
had told them that Lenine and Trot-
zky were in control and that they
must join the bolshevist army imme-
diately. They demurred. They want
ed to see their families. They pre-
ferred to take my advice to avoid the
bolshevists. At once they were COM
manded to join the army or be shot.
They turned and started back for
Poland and the commander sent for
a machine gun company which fl
nally overlook them and 1000 of
them we're shot down like dogs. The
1,400 were enabled to es-
cape into Poland, owing to the fact
that the bolshevists had stopped to
the dead. That, and night
on, enabled them to get
away"
Bourgeoise Are Killed
Colonel Roote related incidents
told him by refugees of how bolshe-
visit commanders ordered squads of
from 20 to 1000 bourgeoise shot
down every morning before breakfast
for 10 days, depending upon the size
Of the town or village captured. One
merchant had been able to purchase
his life by turning W. all his money
and property, but the bolshevist COM
mander forced this man to go out
with the firing squad and give the
which should start the slaugh-
ter.
II talked with men who told how
1T Riga the bolshevists had ordered
young b~ourgeoise women brought to
headquarters for the use of the Off