New Britain herald., 1921-10-03
REFUGEES HAVE ID
 EAT OWN OLD SHOES
Famine and Death Stalks | Throughout Russia

Astrakhan, Russia, Oct 3.-(By the Associated Press. )-Hopeless groups Of famine refugees crowd the WharVeS or Astrakh han which in happier times were filled with the tides of commerce flowing to anr from Russia and the As tIakhan-Caspian plains. Bitter rains of autumn are falling almost contin- uously and the first snow of the Rus sian winter has whtened the roofs of the buildings of the city, but the throngs of emigrants have no shelter while they wait, perhaps vainly day and night for transportation to the l<uban and Donsk Regions, where they can obtain food. Astrakhan is city Of misery and suffering and death.
 VOI9a Is Deserted.
 The traveller who has seen Russia and the Russians in times of plenty expects to meet with a rosy round faced people when he again enters the country. Disillusionment is in store | for him, however, for everywhere h9 l secs thin faces, the skin Of which is | seemingly stretched tight across the | creek bones. He rememb bers Astrak- | han as a city filled ith industries and commerce, but he finds it but s-adow of it's former self. It's vcaviar | and fishing industries are estimated to have dwindled nearly 70 per cen. where once 1000 ships daily sailed up | and down Mother Volga," there are new barely 100 on that stream. Death Stalks Refugees. l Death seems to dog the footsteps | of the refugees They are fleeing from starvation, but many hungry children | and adults die from the first food they | t1t the very bread they have striven fer proving fatal to them in their I weakened condition. Meat or bread cost 5000 rubles, or about 5 cents per pound, but there are few who have money enough to pay this price day l after day
 Disease has played it's part in the | ruin of Astrakhan. Black typhus took | q terrible toll during the winter of i919-1920, not only in districts fur ! tier north, but in this city. Fory out | of every hundred physicians died dur 1 ing the awful scourge. During the | past summer Asiatic cholera and | malaria have carried off thousands of victims.
 
 When one asks the people the cause of the present terrible condition of affairs the inevitable answer is:
 There has been no rain" The only
 ay in the gloom is the fact that the potato crop was slightly larger than usual. and for the moment this crop Is helping in the solution of the dire nroblem of hunger.
 No Medicine.
 Medicines cannot be found here. In te entire province of Astrakhan. l which measures 9O,00O square miles tlere are only 500 grains Of ouinine It is declared. The correspondent of the Associated Press has visited sew Iral homes where malaria patients are ly'ng. In each he has found the mothers or wives of suffereds sitting Tn blank despair, saying:
 We have no quinine; we can dt nothing"
 Floating Hospital.
 floating hospital is maintained al one point in the delta of the Volga where sick sailors are taken iron Caspian sea, vessels and 100 death rom under-nourishmen and lack O medicines occurred there in August Dr. Novanoff, in charge of this hos pital, wept for joy when given a sup ply of quinine and castor oil
 Along the western coast of tn Caspian, stands the island of Shiloi where one of the grimmest tragedie or the famine was. recently enacted Mariners noticed the lighthouse o1 | the island was darkened, and lande B Ito investigate. They found in tn 2 | lshthouse the 12 keepers all dea { rom starvation. They had eaten thei
 SEioes and had boiled furskins to main
 'aln life, and one by one had sue
 cnmped, the light going out when tn
 last of the 12 sank in death.