The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-20
LOCAL SHOE MANS ! RELATIVES HERE
 AFTER LONG TRIP
Entire Family Had Hard Experience in Recent. @e. War in Russia.

In the arrival in Bridgeport last week from Libau, Latvia, away on the Eastern side of the Baltic Sea, of the father, mother and brothers and sisters of Leon Jacobson, who is in Q the shoe business at 115O Stratford avenue, one is reminded of some of the features of the ancient story of Joseph.
 Fifteen years ago Leon left his home in far away Russia and made his way to this country and to Bridgeport. Then and up to the time of the great war his father was a prosperous wholesale and retail mer- chant. In addition he was in part nership with a. shoe manufacturer and together they had g. little plant which employed some fifty hands. The boys who were old enough were employed in the business with the father. By counting in the men brought to the town by the fortifica- tions in the harbor it had a popula- ton of 100000; everything was pros porous and business was brisk with the Jacobsons.
 Then came the Great War. At first ittwas not so bad. They made boots for the soldiers of the Russian government and slippers for the sol diers in the hospitals. After a time, however the Germans came and then their troubles began. There was fighting outside the city and build fngs in their street were destroyed. There were 500 Russian soldiers to meet 35,000 of the Germans and among the whole five hundred there were only fifteen who had rifles and a part of the Russian cannon were wood.
 The trifling resistance was soon overcome and once the Germans were in the city they stripped it of every thing in the line of raw materials and the Jacobsons were obliged to give up everything in the way of metals except gold and silver. The factories were stopped and the 1eath- CT taken and the men were forced to work as common laborers. For four and a half years the Germans held the city and it dwind1ed down to 56,00o.
 From a prosperous city it has now become one that is faced with famine. The Jacobsons who have just come from there say that people have scarcely enough to eat and the price is almost prohibitive and there is no work. Before the war a Russian ruble was worth about fifty cents, now an American dollar will buy hundred. A laborer gets from 35 to 40 rubles a day; a policeman 300 ruh1es month; office help clerks, :. etc, get 500 rub1es a month. No working man eats butter or sugar; he can not afford to. Butter is 30 fub1es pound. Sugar 40 rubles a pound. Bread from three and a half to five per pound. Eggs one and three-quarters ruble apiece. Meat 23 rubles a pound. e N With things in such a condition it is not strange that they looked to- ward America as a land of plenty or that the son Leon was anxious to get them here. Efforts made by him through the State Department en- abled them to get passports but not too soon for at the last they had to leave suddenly. q From Libau they made their way to Danzfg and were there a while and then went on to Hull, England. From there to Lon don and Southampton and reached New York a little over a week ago on the steamer Imperator. The journey had taken them three weeks
 Leon Jacobson of this city went to New York to meet them but ow- ing to transformation concerning the time they were to be landed from the boat they reached Bridgeport a few hours ahead of him. No one went to bed that night which was one of tears and laughter. In the fifteen years all z had changed so much that the par !. ents did not recognize the son nor he Y them.
 There were nine of the family who came over together. David and his wife Betty, the father and mother five brothers, Morris 2S; Ralph 23; Irving 21; Samuel 19 and Charles IS A sister Rebecca IT, .and a sister in law, the wife of Morris. The family are living at 453 Newfield avenue. .s Leon Jacobson lives at 56 Sixth St