Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1921-01-07
CHILD FACES AT THE REsTAU.
RANT WINDOWS OF EUROPE.


dows Of restaurants in any of the
Polish cities this winter. The eyes
of half-staryed children, with their
pinched faces pressed against the
window glass in the outside cold, are
enough to destroy the appetite of the
most hardened globe-trotter. Wher-
ever food is offered for sale there are
children silently staring in-at baker
les, groceries and eating houses. At
tempts are made to feed them once
day. but this is not enough to keep
them from being hungry most Of tho
time. Up to now it has not even been
possible to furnish small amount
of daily food to every child that needs
it. Cold and exposure are allies of
hunger in pursuing these small citi-
zens. Their homes, in many cases,
are only dugouts, unfurnished except
for pile of straw in one corner, on
which all the family Sleeps in heap,
huddled togethe for warmth. Rags
are the commonest clothing. Multi
piled many times, this description of
conditions, which recently returned
member of the American Relief Ad-
ministration brings from Poland ap-
plies to great part to central Eu-
rope. at isnot an unusual thing 10
find child dying in the Streets"
said this agent, as quoted in the New
York Times. I remember well onu
case at LODI:
II was stop by the sobs of child.
/ went over to investigate and found
little girl in rags sitting close to
the body Of child, also in rags, ly-
ing near her. asked what was the
matter. My little brother wont get
up she answered. I tugged at his
arms and lifted his face. The lad
was dead. We got their story later.
They were children of soldier who
had died in the war. Because they
had no clothes to wear their mother
used to come to the soup-kitchen to
get the meal a, day for them. She
died Of tuberculosis and the naked
were left alone.
"In deportation the little girl finally
took the rags that covered their straw
litter and wrapt the straving boy and
herself in them. They had roamed
the city all day until had found
Them"
Out of every three children in Po-
land, according to the same authority
has ricketts, or tuberculosis. The one
meal given each day to those judged
most in need of it is not enough, and
as for those who are judged not quite
weak enough to need help, says tho
agent:
Nothing Use more Misunderstanding
than to go through the schools to
pick out the worst cases. Those who
are not on the extreme edge of star
walton are left behind. To hear them
sob when they find that they are not
picked out for the meal day makes
pne doubt the existence Of supreme
right and justice"
n TeCeUI DQlSLlih Wy bikS
American Relief Association in this
country emphasizes the fact that
these, sufferings are not confined to
individual cases, or cities, or even
European nations. ore than 100000
European children, according to some
dull and dry, but deadly serious, ia
bles of statistics gathered by the
Paris headquarters Of the American
Red Cross, are either starving or in
danger Of starvation. Among these
millions who have not enou to eat, it
is estimated that there are. about
100000 who have not adequate
shelter, clothing, medical care, or
"kindly human treatment" "The suf-
ferings Of Polish children are beyond
imagination" reports Julia c. La
throp, Chief Of the Children's Bureau
of the United States Department of
Labor, who has recently. returned
from a. tour Of investigation in Eu-
rope. 1t was in Poland, as we'll as in
Ruthenia and in parts Of Jugo-Slavia
that she encountered homeless chill
dren roaming the country like little
wild animals.
at is not easy to believe that there
can be hordes of homeless children
wandering from door to door or town
to town in the farmer war-areas,"
writes Miss Lathrop, ''but the knowl-
edge can not be escaped over there.
Fathers have been killed in the war,
remote villages have been invaded
and depopulated, families have been
separated, typhus and other diseas-
% have killed many, everybody is
poverty-stricken. The new govern
mental machinery for child protec-
ton IL not in operation, and tho old
private ehildren's charities are pow
erlsss to meot the vast requirements
created by. the war. At Ushurod, the
principal town of Ruthenia, the kind