The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-06-20

lA1opyrlgnl, 1870, by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.)
Reval. Esthonia. June Is.-The ap-
pearance OF Moscow stunned me
I had read what other correspon-
dents had written Of the bolshevik
capital.
Now I know that they must have
been led over Cooks Tours through
Moscow-that they never saw the real
Moscow or they could not have written
without reservation that the city was
running normally.
l flatly contradict those who have
said there are automobiles. well-dressed
men and wome1 attending theatres and
restaurants-that things are running
full blast.
Moscow looks as though It had been
smitten by terrible plague
The people Of Moscow are dazed with
sorrow. Their clothes are threadbare
and they are almost shoeless.
1t is true there is opera in a few
theatres. few restaurants. open and
Few neighborhood movinA picture
places But these are not for the
starving masses.
The only automobiles IN Moscow are
soldiers from the extraordinary COM
mission for the suppression OF the
lcounter revolution.
These Official cars race about with
open exhausts and. like the cars called
Juggernaut, make people shudder with
fear
Every other school and public build
Ing is prison. and through barred
windows I could see rooms packed
with prisoners charged with aiding the
counter revolution.
/ saw long lines OF haggard. mlser-
ably-clad people. waiting for hours
outside soviet Kitchens for their e
meal a day.
The citizens look like shades from
purgatory. With dull, drawn faces and
with the sickly parchment-like skins
OF the starved, they stalk the streets.
All the Moscow shops are closed
and dirty. broken windows are plas-
tered with flaring red revolutionary
posters
Such department stores as Muir e.
Berries, in Kuzneicli Most, which was
to Moskow what Marshal Field is .
Chicago. now are empty shells.
Kuzneicd Most. once the Fifth-ave.
OF Moskow, now IS like a deserted stree.
in a dead city at O'Clock on a sun
day morning
My tours Of Moscow included not
only the former business districts. but
also the section where the workers
dwell
passed through the famous Suk-
harev public market one Sunday. Here
one can buy anything from beeves
TO canaries. But at the prices charged
the market is for communists. COM
missars and spectators only.
Another morning visited the street
market at the corner Of Karefni and
Sadevia- -sts.
Here is what various foods cost in
rubles and in dollars at the pre-war
rate Of 81 cents a ruble;
Bnutter Ob.). $500 rubles or s1.42s.0O.
White Bread 0b.) 75O rubles or
sss2.5o.
Eggs (each) 12o rubles or s6120
Picked Herring leach. 900 rubles or
$4,000.
Butter Obj, $500 ubbles or s1.42s.oa.
Thousands of Russians. who are not
working for the government, exist BY
exchanging household goods to farm
ers for food. The farmers now own
pianos, monographs, fine pictures, car
pets-tlle goods OF luxury.
In Moscow. one carries bread when
he can get Il. in his pockets. In brief
cases or in a bundle sIung with strings
across his back. I was stopped scores
OF times by people begging bread
only bread :
saw men at Nikolaevski railway
station devouring. like mongrel dogs
scraps tossed from a Red Cross train.
New plumbing is unobtainable IN
Russia, and. as a consequence. sanitary
have completely broken
down. Because OF this / have seen
incidents on the streets Of
Moscow by both men and women.
I quite believe the statement made
to me by man who said he was a
commissar Cbolshevik Officially that the
fear that barely 100000
or the 100000 paid-up communists are
sincere.
This minority rules by terror only.
because the majority is too weak and
depressed by starvation to rise.
At least dozen officials Of the
party begged and irnpiored