The Washington herald., 1921-09-04
HUNGRY RUSSIANS
BOW WNPRAYER' AS
THEY FACE DEATH
Million Doomed to Die, in
Spite of Relief From
America.
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to be taken on board and removed
from the ,sghastly sand banks.
marked with fresh crosses for their
dead. &S -t,sT -. ssssS<
Caravans on Road. "
We passed caravans Of them on
the roads, pIodding wearily on foot
and carrying sacks on their backs
or in wagons drawn by detected
skeletons of horse flesh and followed
by crows and other birds waiting to
swoop on each deserted camp in
search Of possible human wastage.
In small county seats I saw hun
dreds of abandoned children. housed
In schools and dwellings and spend
ing their entire time in beds or
huddled on floors under blankets
and carpets to conserve. as much as
possible. the heat and energy which
they derived from their ,pitiful daily
rationss of bread made Of grass.
straw. weeds and a minimum Of rye
-four
In the cities and towns along the
ably worse due to the congestion Of
over-population, total absence Of
sanitation and the total inability of
the railway and municipal. authori-
ties to help move or to feed the
ever increasing thousands which
continue to arrive by railroad from
all directions. They cover the city
streets, railroad yards, river banks.
public squares and even camp. and
live in cemeteries before making
them their Anal resting places.
Dogs Feed ON Dead.
talked with a doctor who saw
a dog tearing the flesh from q dead
man lying here in the market place.
The commandant of our train tells
of a woman with two children in
her arms who threw herself under
the train preceding ours. Women
with puny weazened babies biting
at their fiat breasts wander through
the streets, shouting wild gibberish
and with a wild light in their eyes.
Every day the city authorities find
rotting bodies in cellars, attics,
lofts, sheds and out-of-the way
places, where misery crawls away
to gain the privilege of dying alone
rather than in the midst of the city's
filth and confusion.
Even death is comparatively clean
in the country where the famine
victims succumb principally from
malnutrition or eating poisonous
weeds or from stuffing themselves
with a native clay called ool, which
the system is not able to eliminate,
with the result that the foreign mat
ter causes a monstrous abdominal
distention and finally results in
death by worms. But in the city
the filth is terrible. 1t is a breed
ing spot for vermin and disease.
Families of human rag bundles are
lying everywhere on the ground.
sufferers.
Extreme Filth Prevails.
There are no toilet facilities-the
simplest army trench latrine being
unknown-and the ground is COW
cred with bones and carcasses OF
dead horses. melon rinds, hulls Of
sunfiower seeds. rags. old sacks.
newspapers. parts of broken wagons.
broken pottery. and all manner Of
debris that could be assembled from
four directions by frantic thousands.
The air is pestilential. The long
summer drought has made the
ground like fine powder and the pre-
vailing hot winds sweep the streets
with choking dust clouds, heavy
laden with contagion. With the
wind comes all the surrounding
smells. The members OF. our party
wore heavy towels over their faces
and nose when talking in the street,
in the camps, and in the concentra-
ton areas Of the sick and starving.
The number of cholera and typhus
oasis is so large that counting ava
registration. much less isolation, has
long since been abandoned. New
comers from the country simply
land in a death trap. They go down
beside the vermin-infested rags Of
cholera and typhus victims-for' they
receive the cholera germ from the
dust on their hands, mouths. or food
and typhus from the lice with which
each rag bundle is alive.
Docility Of Victims.
Most remarkable to observe 10
the docility of the victims. 1t is
perhaps a heritage of their oppres-
sion under the Gar, and later their
submission to the revolutionary die
tatorship, which now makes II pos
sible for them to sit with empty
stomachs and wait for death. AL
most in the midst of the starving
wretchedness in front of the rail-
road station here is a small thriving
market with rows of peddlers squat
ting on the ground after the fashion
of Oriental bazaars. They are
stocked with small supplies of flour,
grain, large loaves Of black bread,
melons. potatoes, dried fish, some
cheese, butter. and eggs. Most Of
the luxuries arc bought at the sta
tion from passengers on passing
trains and resold in the market at
speculative prices.
The surprising fact is that the
pangs of hunger so far have not
driven the starving hordes to storm
the market place and take the food
there displayed for themselves. 1t
may be because they are too weak
1t may be that starving men will
not fight, for these men and women
do not fight, not even the latter to
save the lives of their children.
Among the thousands occupying the
streets and squares in front of the
station market, 1 counted not fifty
armed soldiers guarding the depot
entrances, and this small force
could hardly constitute intimidation
which might hold the starving in
check.
No Case Of Revolt.
witnessed no hEht between any
of the sufferers over food. The Rus
sian peasant remains docile even in
Samara. which once, during the rev.
olution, was the refuge Of Keren-