The New York herald., 1921-11-27

deaths.
Russia toward LithuanIa, and through
the half closed doors I saw them hud-
died together, hunting vermin on their
bodies.
A tall, bearded peasant came to my
train and to my surprise spoke to me
In English. He was clothed in rags of
sheepskin and rabbit fur, but he had a
kind of dignity. He told me he had
come from Ufa. where every one was
starving. and had travelled most of the
way on foot, for five months. Once he
had been in the United States SO had
learned English.
He is but one of the thousands the
hundreds of thousands, on the move
from the famine country, and he is
iucSier than some. who dropped on the
way, dying of exhaustion, like one
man who lay dead with two dead chill
dren in his arms ON the road from
kazat to the river.
Refugee Crowds in Moscow.
In the Moscow railway station I saw
dense crowd of these nomads. They
sleep there at night, and it was at
night that ! stepped between their
bodies holding my breath because of
the stencil from these mud d-colored,
rag-swathed sleepers, lying close to-
gether-men, women, children in one
tangled mass.
Outside whole families camped like
gypsy tribes, budding close to the sta
ton walls for shelter. All along the
railroad tracks at many wayside sta
tions In this great fiat, limitless Russia
have seen these refugee trains and
camps.
Out Of the 25.000,000 people in the
famine area the Soviet Government
has evacuated $4,000 workers and 27, 900
women and children to Petrograd,
Turkestan and Siberia. But in Petro-
grad there is not much food now, and
In Siberia am told it Is no paradise
for refugees. But people move away
from their own district to any other
In tho hope Of better things, and some
of these nomads--it is an old racial
habit seen only in famine times-pass
each other. some going one way, some
the other. though there Is the same
hunger at each journeys end. Now
their movements are stopped by snow.
Famine does not stare one in the
face until one gets to the villages be-
yond the Volga. In Moscow the people
on the whole look well fed-though, as
know. there are many hungry even
there-and the markets are stocked
with every kind Of food.
Careless observers begin to doubt
the famine If Moscow is all they see,
and for some time I had my own
doubts. But there is one evidence of
enormous tragedy even in Moscow,
Pctrograd and other towns outside the
famine region. 1t is the evidence Of
children deserted by peasants who are
not cruel to their offspring, but, as !
have seen. very kind.
In Samara. Saratoff. Simbirsls, Kazan
and hundreds of other places are chill
dren left by parents who cannot feed
them any more. In the Ufa district
are $4,000 abandoned children; in the
Samara district $4,000. most OF them
picked up with but n few rags about
them. starved as birds that fall from
the nest to the frozen ground.
The Russian people have made
homes for them. they have washed the
filth from their disease-stricken bodies
Though at Samara for a time they
allowed them TO lie in their dirty and
they get little warmth and food--not
much of either. In one home entered
each of these deserted children wore
nothing but ragged shirt or slip and
all were huddled close for warmth ex-
actly like monkeys. with little gray,
wizened faces, grave. watchful eyes
and clawlike hands. They are being
fed now once day by the British and
American relief.
Here are few brief glimpses of the
things I have seen. They are enough
to begin a study of the famine in Rus
sia. They are not enough. alas, to
reach the Imagination of overfed folk
a long way from Russia who have not
seen with me these peasants-these
bravo. fine, simple, frank-eyed folk
weeping as they show their empty
pots. or the filth they eat. or their
dying children.
I will write other things. but II IS
only some power OF words beyond my
reach which may touch the heart OF
the world and rouse IL from deadly,
damnable indifference to the fate of
millions.
Even then this famine is too big
for private charity. Not even the mar
vellous work of tho American Relief
Administration, which is the biggest
chance of rescue, can touch more than
the fringe OF It. Unless the world
Powers act quickly. leaving politics
aside in one great generous effort for
humanity's sake, death TO many OF
these peasants--hundreds OF Thousands
of them--ls inevitable.
And western Europe will be pun
ished by pestilence and will deserve Il.
Copyright, 1921, by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.