The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-10-03
HOPELESS GROUPS
FAMINE REFUGEES
GO TO ASTRAKHAN
Russian City Is One of Misery,
Suffering and Death; Many
Claimed By Cholera.

(By the Associated Press)
ASTRAKHAN, Russia Oct 3-Hope-
less groups Of famine refugees crowd
the wharves of Astrakhan. Bitter rains
of autumn are falling almost contin-
ually and the first snow of the Rus
sian winter has whitened the roofs
here but the throngs of emigrants
have no shelter while they wait, per-
haps vainly, day and night for trans.
portation to the Kuban and Don region
where they can obtain food Astrakhan
| is city CT misery and suffering and
death
The traveller Of times of plenty may
expect to meet with rosy round
| faced people, but everywhere instead
he sees thin faces with skin stretched
| tight across the cheek bones. He
remembers Astrakhan as city filled
with industries and commerce, but he
! finds ii but shadow of its former
/ self. Its caviar and fishing industries
are estimated to have dwindled nearly
1 70 per cent Here once, 1000 ships
| daily sailed up and down mother
! Volga." There are now barely 100.
Many Die When Taste Food
| Death seems TO dog the footsteps Of
the refugees. They are fleeing from
/ hunger, and many adults as well as
| children die from the food they eat,
the very bread they have striven for
proving fatal for them in their weak
ened condition. Bread costs 5000 rub.
les or about cents a pound, but there
are a few who have money enough to
pay this expense day after day. Dis
eases have played their part in ruin
of Astrakhan. Black typhus took q
u terrible toll during the winter in
1890. not only in districts of the
north but In this city. Forty out o!
every hundred persons died during the
awful scourge. During the past sum
mer Asiatlc cholera has carried of
thousands Of victims.
There Has Been No Rain"
When one asks the people the cause
OF the present terrible condition OF af
fairs the inevitable answer Is:
There has been no rain"
The only ray in the gloom is the
fact that the potato crop was slight
~ larger than usual.
Medicines cannot be found here. II
the entire province OF Astrakhan
which measures 10000 square miles
there are only 500 grains of quinine, i
is declared. The correspondent Of Tn,
Associated Press has visited severa
homes where malaria patients are ly
imp dying. In each he has found tn
sufferers sitting In blank despair. say
: ing:
b we have no quinIne, We can d
nothing"
Floating Hospital Maintained
a floating hospital is maintained a
ono point in the delta of the Volga
where sick sailors are taken from
Caspian Sea vessels ana 100 death
, IRON undernourlshment and lack o
7 medicines occurred there In August
, Or. Novanoff, In charge OF this hoi
pital, wept for joy when given u sun
? ply Of quinine and castor oil.
/ Along the western coast OF tn
, Caspian Sea stands the island OF Sh'
loh, where one of the grimmest trag,
} dies ot the famine was recently q.
: acted.
, Mariners noticed the lighthouse o
r the island was darkened and landed I
} investigate. They found In the ligh
, house 10 keepers all dead from sta
| vation. They had eaten their shoe
, and had boiled fur skins to maintai
: life and one by one had succumbc,
, the light going out when the last ,
y. the ~ sank in death.