Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-08-19
Pathetic Appeals
From Austria
ny Frederic J. nassin

Washington, August 1s.-yrhe Post
office Department has been the recip-
lent Of hundreds Of letters from
postal employees in Austria and Hun
gary ever since the Arruistice was
signed, and even before that, bog
ging assistance that they might not
starve. Realizing tho futility OF APP
peaiing 70 their own city or national
governments for assistance, these
people have turned In despair 90 others,
ia tho same business. even though
they had been engaged on opposing
sides In the greatest clash Of arms
the world has ever known.
One Of these letters. addressed
main POstofice." written in laborious
English by an orphan girl employed
in a Hungarian postoflce. enclosed
several stamps OF her own. country,
and asked the Postmaster General to
buy them and send her the few dol
lars the stamps represented. Another,
addressed TO the Principal Of the Post
and Telegraph Office" AZ Washing
ton. set forth FIRST that only want
and despair" drove him 10 writing
the appeal for aid. This man said
he had beer stationed at a point IN
what Is now Jugo- SlaVia. aDd that the
Serbs cxiled him. lie secured a posi-
tion in the postal service in Buda-
pest eventually. His small salary
scarcely suffced for medicines for his
sged and sick mother, this man
wrote.
"In my great need" his letter said
n know Of no other way out except
America"
From German Austria a letter came
20 the Postmaster Gazeral which.
after extoiling the dear fatheris nd"
az some length. said his government
was not sble 20 help him or his wifi
and baby. therefore he vas turning
to his colleagues In the postal service
Of the United states.
MY wife and my child are m" he
said, we have little and Bad TO eat. Il
| foods. and on the ready money 10
/ buy those things" A. the end Of
1 the letter this young man asked that
| he might be recommended for any
kind Of . job anywhere else. just 80
there WAS food obtainsbIe for his
ailing baby and his wife.
Another cry of distress came &c
Washington, addressed TO the Union
Of Postal Employees. from the widow
Of former Austrian postal empIoye.
/ E1iled from Marburg when Il was in
/ corporated into the nsw nation %
Jugo- Slavia. this woman and her three
children fed to Graz. in German
| Austria.
Beesers Among Bcer-rs.
with no pension destitute Of All
4 means. having aold an my furniture
and articles of value To buy food. com
I pIeteIy exhausted by trouble. sorrow
and want. ] am plunged into the
| deepest despair she wrote. "AH pen
| sioners get assistance. but We get
nothing We are bergars among
bexgars.-
Another appeal. from q man too
proud to ask for outrfgh. aims. came
in letter which got into thu hands
! Of the Postmaster General. This man
though for twenty-five years an en-
I pioye in an iron works had bern strug-
Cling all of his life 10 get start as
a musician. The letter had an en-
/ closure asking that IL be forwarded %
some orchestra in Washington, and
/ asked TOT Work N uan8criOing AUS
trian music. The man said that in
/ his twenty years OF work he had
managed TO save up a little money
/ but that the whole little saving had
been swept away by the war. His
/ children hac been without proper
clothing for months.
Necessity is already claiming my
musical instruments. his letter said.
my sacred possessions from which
only the grave should separate me, 50
| come as a last resort TO strangers ir
q stra0ge part Of the world. Here
in this country people are unable &
heip one another"
These are all fair samples Of the
begging mail coming from the PosIal