The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-09-06
Half Million Russians
 Starve In District Send Appeal For Aid
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 in the famine stricken valley of the Volga- Docks and railroad stations the crowds that throng the streets or the refugees who were driven from their land by the drought and the clouds of graSshoppers that destroyed even the meagre grain that had de- fled the heat of the terrible summer now drawing to a tragic close. com mittees are trying to move the refu- gees to other points where there is some promise of food, but it is neceS- sary to use the limited river and rail- road transportation facilities to send seed grain into the country and to bring bread into the famine districts.
 Many professional beggars of the gypsy type are to be found here and in other large centers in Southeast ern Russia, but the starving farmers ask no aims and utter no cry. They stand silent and await their fate with the stoicism pictured so graphically and truthfully by Tolstoy and Dos toievslly. Markets have sprung up mushroomlike here and there about the refugee camps offering for sale They are surrounded by hungry peo- pie, who have no money to offer, but who exchange wedding rings, fur coats coats, caps; kettles. pans boots and the Russian winter is coming and that it will find them without shelter and clothing, but they are obliged to give up the necessities of the future
 
 Large peasant families arrive in a state of exhaustion, their carts drag gged by camelS and Straved horses. There is no hay or grain here, and there is slight prospect that the ami mals can be kept alive until spring. Ia the carts are SamovarS, talking machines, concertinas and American sewing machines which are bartered for food or for coffinS. The dead lie unnoticed for hours, while near them are pitifu1 groups boiling a few po- tatoes and onions with which to keep alive. Some markets are under armed guard, but this appears to be unnec- essary, as the peasants are too weak and passive to take violent measures Great crowds attempt to cling to hte few trains that leave here daily, and soldiers often pull some of the refugees from the cars, frequently separating families. some members of which have managed to Secrete themselves between the cars. Typhus has appeared in many l places, and the hospital superinten- dent at -Samara said the other day the only way to handle the situation was to segregate those who had been | stricken. They receive rations when | food is available, but there is no soap and no hot water to wash the suffer CTS, many of whom are children. Five | hundred sick children were found | grouped in one building in Samara- Some of them were seen eating leaves | from shrubs while. others were lyins | aDOut on Q1rJy DaSS more Qedo In1n alive. Most of these children were so ashen and emaciated that they re- sembled old men and women. | Many once prosperous German families from Mariupo1 and other | German centers are among the refu- gees at Samara and are living in filth i and poverty in crowded dock-sheds | or have no shelter at all. Several | Germans told the Assoc. Press they | had relatives in Siberia, and were trying to reach Omsk, but they had exhausted their money and could not get permission to migrate eastward Miss Anna Haines of Philadelphi a worker for the Friends Relief Organ | ization is in Samara and last week said the mortality among children | less than years Is very high, and that nearly 80 per cent are already | dead.
 She told of four persons dying or | a station platform in Samara the oth- | CT night while they were waiting tc be transferred to some other town 1 Others were lying about and were SC | helpless that it was difficult to dis | tinguish between the living and the | dead.
 | A committee sent to Russia by tho 1 American Near East Relief left Sa | mara last week for Tiflis after mak ing an investigation. Dr. John R Voris. one of the committee will ge to New York to report on the situa tion