The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1921-10-21
A WORD PICTURE OF HARROW|NG.
EXPERIENCES At BEGINNING Of WAR

Feeling that the personal experien-
ees OF one who had actually passed
through the narrowing scenes at
the beginning, and during the great
world war, would be interesting, com
ing especially from one known locally.
it was arranged to have Miss Fannie
Baron, neice Of Mr.. Jacob Baron. write
her experiences for The Commonwealth.
Miss Baron came to this country
from Germany in July, this year, this
being her first visit to this country
Of her experiences during that aw-
full world struggle, Miss Baron says:
It would be very hard for me to tell
you about everything in the time of
the war. However, I will try to tell
Of some Of the most interesting hap
'penings.
One day in the Summer Of 1914.
just as we were IN the midst of pleas
ure, terrible shock came to us. It
was a telegram telling of the awful
fact that our country had plunged
bloodiest in the annals of the world s
history. Everyone felt as if a dark
cloud was coming over his eyes. It
seemed as if the sun did not shine near
SO brightly, and all the birds ceased
| to sing For few days we could
see long, long lines Of men, dressed in
uniforms, carrying guns. There were
also great crowds Of women and chill
dren weeping loudly, telling their hus-
bands, fathers and sweethearts good
bye for what proved to be, to many,
the last time. It was the saddest
sight human eyes ever beheld. After
the soldiers left the town in which ]
lived, we could hear the women and
children weeping, crying as if their
very hearts would break, over their
loved ones whom they did not ever
expect to see again.
The war was on in full blast. A few
days and the trains began to pring il
-. IL II VI,
war was near our town. We could
hear every gun-shot. The cannon:
roared like heavy thunder. Many
houses were wrecked, many people
were killed in the streets. I recall
that in the second house from wher
T lived a dead woman was left in tn
house three days before she was bur
lied. That was while the shells wer
flying in the city and everybody wa
afraid to go on the streets.
One afternoon when we could hea
, no guns firing, nor cannons roaring
) and everything was quiet, seeing mum
: bers of people moving about on tn
: streets, we thought the worst Of tn
conflict was over. The church bell
: began to ring and all the peopl
thanked Almighty God that they wer
l living. But their hopes were 500
2 shattered, for, in less than two hour
5 we heard, on one side of the tow1
: g Hurrah! Hurrah!' We could no
! understand what it all meant, an
thought that the German corps ha
4 taken the town. But Oh. when W
i saw thousands of soldiers with the re
: flag in front Of them, we learned th
: terrible truth It was the Bolsheviki
: The first thing they did was 60 visi
5 the stores and take what they coul
find. Later they took all the house
, and allowed the citizens only one roor
e for three people. At that time
e was in the same city The name Q
h it was Riga. I would have been tn
e happiest person in the world, if onl
e I could go to my home; but nc
I could not go; I had to stay becaus
e i was nearly one hundred miles t
: ,,.- home, and all the trains had stoI
e ped running. Ny hostess had FOO
e enough t. last only five days. Whe
d those five days had ended we ha
e nothing at all to eat. It was tn
e first time in my life that L knew tn
4 meaning of hunger. Next morning