Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1921-01-13

COURAGE to Finish lt-Ihousano'
Drop by the Wayside and Perish OF
Cold and Huneer-Thousands or
Others Take Service With the Boil
sheviki.
There is a new army of "tramps
In the world. 1t is doubtful II there
ever was one before as big or aS
wretched. Its members cover distances
which would make "tramps" in Ameri-
ca omen their eyes In Amusement.
They face worse hardships than our
Weary Willies and far greater perlls.
To freeze or starve to death is com
mon-place among them. Sometimes
they are stood up against wall anu
shot.
These new cramps are the Ger
man and Austrian prisoners or war III
Siberia, who are trying to get Dack
10 their homes, r.. Il. Nbarra writes
from Vienna to the New York Evening
Posi-. 1t is just short of two years
since the armistice, considerably more
than two years since the central pow
ers made peace with the Russian Boil
slIeviki, but tens OF thousands OF Ger
mans and Austrians are still III 81
beriu, thrown upon their own re-
sources for repatriation. Relief usSu-
Citations in their own and other couh-
tries do what they can to get the mel
home, but such efforts are drop N
the bucket. Usually all they can do
is TO put the men on ships Ut some
Baltic port where they have arrived
after tramping and stealing rides Oh
trains for thousands of miles.
Death Takes Its Toll.
Many who start on the journey have
not the fortitude to finish 1t. They
find some job on the way and stick to
it,. or they take service with the Boil
shevki. Many others suddenly drop
by the side of some bleak Siberian
or Russian road, dead from cold or
hunger or sheer WEAKNESS. Thousands
have died thuS-doubtless thousands
more will so debut the thought of
getting home. some day, somehow,
keeps thousands of others alive on the
long westward tramp.
SCltiui l-ui'pC 10 itii VI '''' 49, W
these strange nomads They are
regular part of everyday life in 81
IBERIA and Russia. They are to be met
on any road; everywhere are the
crosses marking the graves OF those
who have not been able to end the
journey.
They travel alone and in pairs and
H. fnr a day
week or q month and then the cray
ing for home sweeps over them again,
and again they turn their faces west
ward. They stand at crossroads and
street corners, begging for aims. Boil
shevik soldiers sometimes take pity on
them; sentries pretend not to see
when they slip past some military
post. Peasants take them in over
night and feed them and give them
shelter.
All over Siberia and Russia strange
hicroglyphics may he seen on trees
and fences near the houses of peas
ants, which have meaning for these
westward bound cramps" for they,
like other knights of the road, have
tSldbllSneu among themselves
strange freemasonry.
"The people here are good sort:
they will shelter you," Is the meaning
of one sign. And another, to the
initiated, reads: keep on your way.
These people will do nothing for YOU
Help Each Other.
When one of the "pieni''-thut is
the name for the new "tramps' IN
Russia-meets another on the road he
promptly gives all the help he can,
for these men are closely bound to-
gether by their suffering. He tells
where the frontiers are said to be
least carefully watched, where the
sentries are kindly disposed accord
ing to most recent rum0r, where the
danger of being shot as spy is small
est-or greatest. 1t Is an ordinary
thing for n man who has tramped sew
eral thousand miles across Siberia and
Il thousand or 50 more, say, to the
Caucasus frontier of Russia and Per-
STA, to be told casually by another
tramp moving nOrthward that there is
absolutely no chance Of escape through
Persian territory. Whereupon the
wanderer with the hope cherished for
weeks suddenly struck dead, will turn
about and tramp 500 miles more, say
to Odessa.
"Can l get a ship here to some
placer he asks q ragged Austrian or
German whom he has met sleeping I'M
der bridge or freight car.
mo ship has left Odessa for over a
year." is the answer. So he begS q
piece of bread and hides in brake
mans box or under the buffer of n
freight car and sets off to some 9th
er frontier. An American tramp
would probably think journey on
freight cars and his own legs from
San Francisco to New York the event
az lifetime, but there are hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of members of the
army of new "tramps' who have COW
cred three times the distance across
the American continent in their en-
deavors to escape from the vast trap
placed them.
Tricks Of Austrian Officers.
The tricks to which they resort are
legion. Two Austrian officers arrived
rec emily Oh the shores of the Caspian
sea, after tramping and getting lifts"
across a good part of Siberia and Rus
sin. They saw ship loading grain.
The two stole down to the shore,