The New York herald., 1921-12-04

when he begged me to go up 10 Spassk-
THE people are feeding on grass"
he told me. 1T is plucked from the
marshes and is called libida. 1t is
sold for 10000 roubles a pound, but
Is not very good to eat
'Is there no other food?" I asked.
He said: "There is blue CHALK
from the hill at Ktijarsle, which ties
ones bowels into knots"
Have they no potatoes?
He laughed and shrugged his shoul-
ders.
"On barges there are $4,000 pools
Of potatoes for the whole district. But
they are rotting. We have no means
to transport food, for there are few
horses left"
He told me the Soviet officials had
acorn flour each month. which is just
enough for life.
300 Children Deserted.
Nine hundred children who had
been deserted by their parents were
sent to Petrograd. but every day others
were found lying in the roads and
they could not find room for them in
| Luo nOIueS.
At Spassk the people received 49,, 900
pools Of seed corn for planting and
had sown 10000 for next years har-
vest. They had taken 10000 poods to
feed the hungry who are now hungry
again.
] go to Spassk." said the man, ''if
you wish to see sadness. There Is
much typhus there, and no medicine.
The people are dying in their homes.
I see no hope for them"
| I could not go to Spassk, for the
captain was anxious to get the boat
home before the ice came down. I
have not been able to go to those thou
sands Of villages from which refugees
como trudgfng with fearful tales. But
beyond Ufa, Kazan. Simbirsk, Sara
| toff, Samara, ASkran, in q wide belt
where the great drought killed all up
standing crops or the seed itself, there
is not much difference, imagine, in
the sum of human suffering.
Some are a little worse than others;
at best there is hunger that is a little
less than the starvation that kills.
Disease feeds on Ill nourished bodies
and graveyards grow fat.
| I went into a hospital at Kazan
with an American offlcer-Col. Haskell
who is organizing work for famine
relief In Russia under the Hoover
agreement. He is a man who wastes
no time In words but gets sharply to
the truth and acts on the old law that
he gives twice who gives quickly.
He questioned the doctor at the hos
pital about the stock Of medicine as
we stood in the dispensary Of what
once was fine, well equipped hospital
Have you any drugsT
VERY few"
Amy Quinine?"
"No"
ANY ASPIRIN"
mo"
"Any castor oil?"
! "A uny drop"
The hospital had no drugs, no band
ages, no gauze, no bed pans, no soap.
The reserves had been long exhausted.
as have all reserves In Russia
| Hospitals Overcrowded.
In another hospital there were more
dreadful conditions. Owing to q lack
Of fuel the patients were crowded to-
gether In unventilated rooms: the
stencil into which entered was worse
| than ON a battle field of unburied dead
These were living. suffering from
many diseases. including typhus and
dysentery. but lay close to each other,
30 close they were four to bed In
some wards. Two were sleeping one
way up, two the other. Few had
blankets or bed covers, but lay IN their
old clothes. fever stricken, wasted.
They were mostly old women, with
young children among them They
seemed to have no comfort Of any kind
except the fetid warmth Of the germ
infected rooms. The nurses waiting
on them seemed hardly healthier.
| I noticed their waxen faces and look
of langor. 1t was not surprising. for
that morning they had surrounded the
American doctor and said. I'VE are
starving. Help us to get bread Our
rations do not reach US. We have to
cat some of the patients food to keep
ourselves alive"
They were like animals, tho doctor
said afterward. as he stood with them
IN the dark basement. and saw their
hands outstretched to him. their
fingers crooked, as though to grasp
the bread which they clamored for.
To me these women seemed more
like martyrs than animals. After
twenty minutes In those wards I
wanted to escape and felt like vomit-
ing. But these young women stay In
these pest houses. hungry. cold and
comfortless. until they, too. or some Of
them, siclsen and die. 1t was not In
the great hospital at Kazan, but In
refugee house. that I saw one little
nurse dying among the patients.
"She has caught typhus." said the
doctor. "She Is rather bad"
Her face was red and bioated as
she lay on bare boards with hundreds
OF children III like herself. or suspected
of having typhus. There was not a
bed among them. They Just lay OH
the floor, without covering except the
rags In which they were abandoned by
their parents.
I have already described one Of
these homes for deserted children.
Since then I have seen many others.
but none worse (though I am told
there are worse) than this large one
at Kazan. The children arrive at the
| gate hundred--sometimes two hum
dred--dally. and though the director
- - Iraa -