The New York herald., 1921-09-07
Continued from First Page.

! hungry refugees. and here at the edge
of the woods were residents of Stavro
pol living for all the world like boy.
picnicking in the Adirondacks anc
| sleeping in huts. Women were cook
ing over fires which emitted thai
sweetest incense of all-burning leaves
In view OF those 324 tons OF wheat
I felt that I need not be hurt by the
thought that the primitive huts had
for a month been sheltering hungry
families driven from their own hearths
by famine and who were waiting In
vain to leave for any corner of the
continent where they might find bread
l picked my steps among the huts
and heard voice-the first hostile
sound since entered Russia. A woman
was nursing child. She was surrounded
by half dozen peasants with faces
and rags OF the same brown burned hue.
She might have been thirty-five. Her
black hair showed from beneath dirty
headcovering and her eyes CLEANED and
her large white teeth flashed in the
gloom of the hut as she held forth.
| She was touching her breast. where a
blue faced baby was lying in apathy
and she was expostulating about some
thing.
| "Neponimayou Russki'"
II don't understand Russisn." ] said
quickly. But any one could have tod
at glance that she could only be tecA-
=. "a N
the Laby was going to die.
wen Fed Men Curfos.ties.
she saw before her man who had
! had clenty to eat, and she had had moth
ing. 1t was not for herself that she
| was /. ciignant, but for her motherhood.
! 1t gave her the air of all Russia address
ing the outside world.
Distressed ~ my impotence, 1 re-
ioned my colleagues. Some one in the
party mentioned Icing famished, and !
volunteered to go N board and fetcn
sandwiches from Our stores BY the
time I returned our party mad been
hemmed IN by refugees. There was
nothing strange in this for everywhere
we had gone we had been the silent OBJ
jects of silent and deferential curiosity.
But to-day we were SURROUNDED py
half a hundred full limbed farmers,
eyes afire with fever and passion. The
secretary from Samara was trying to
explain something. but he could not
finish the sentence before volley OF
heated language burst on him. We
asked him to interpret.
They were saying that they wanted
food Unless food came Immediately
all the children would die. The town
cemetery was already filled and they
had been burying children in the woods
Unl,ss reip came soon the river would
freeze and they all must perish.
One swift flash of logic lighted up
the torrent OF protests. I'VE are peas
ants and we feed the cities" one man
argued If you let US die you die
yourselves. You must save US. You
must save us for the sake OF our
children. for the sake of ourselves, and
II not then, for your own sakes."
There was no tone OF subservicnce,
and there we're no messages to far
away Moscow. They were men who
wanted to live and they spoke straight.
"Mussorgsky. my son there" cried a
patriarch. pointing to fine looking boy
OF Is, hasn't eaten for four days.
Someone pushed forward a lad, white
puffs under his eyes and swollen wrists,
with the words, "only two days more
to live" Another child was brought up.
His abdomen had distended to incredi-
BILE proportions A wonderful old man
with long beard and loving eyes, a
Tolstoi. carried wan baby under a
sheepsSin coat. He didn't. fear death for
himself. He wanted his grandson to
survive.
They held their so-called bread for us
TO see--greenish. stinking stuff. made
OF pulverized dried weeds. The talking
nd laI ~
A woman began to weep and was re-
buked by a stern relative.
Hoover Relief Explained.
Something had TO be undertaken to
stem the rising tide OF hostility. The
time had come to deliver O message OF
American relief. One day we had asked
the Governor OF Samara whether the
news of the Hoover agreement had
reached the peasants, and he had said,
mo"
They weren't to be told until the re-
lief had materialized 20 that they would
not be disappointed and every impetus
for svlf-help could be utilized.
We undertook to violate policy and
asked the secretary to translate our
carefully formulated address. Goaded,
ne explained:
tolu tneHl iOnB ago. Iney want
help right away"
Tell II again." we insisted.
SO he began afresh. Tho 'peasa nts''
In FAR away America had heard OF
drought and suffering in Russia and
| were sending grain to their distant broth.
crs. He described how the grain mus,
he harvested and carted and loaded onto
| ships to cross the ocean and carried Ia
the railroads to be distributed.
When he ended one good soul took of
his cap. But the secretary sharply COM
manded him to put IL back The flow
OF protests began again. They thanked
America, but the volga was going 10
freeze ten weeks hence. We tried the
magic OF reason. Think" we said. III
famine had been In America how long
It would be before the Russian peasan,
could send food to his brother beyond
the seas"
But what we were doing was not
bringing the gospel of hope but sealing
their fate. Everything we said merely
went to show that we, SIX strangers
were not going to be able to save their
lives. But they saw that we meant well.
The secretary from Samara exalted us
TO the position or crnissarics OF tht
American Government come to survey
the needs and eager to do ALI possible
to bring relief. Yet their last chance o.