The Washington herald., 1921-09-06
FOUR AMERICANS GIVE BREAD
ToSTARVNG PEOPLE ONVOLGA
Hundreds Fed in First Distribution of Relief
Gibbons Tells Pathetic Stories Of
Famine Sufferers.

CRY oens lying 200 feet away
among the trees would move down
and take the means Of life which
was denied to them
Four of us Americans, who had
brought promises only to this ,and
of need, bought out the waterside
bread market-it, only amounted 10
seventy-five or eighty POUNDS Of
bread and cost $4,000 rouhles. or
sbout 81 each for the four nf Is.
1t was almost dark wher the pL:-
| chases were made, aid big ships
lantern was held ovs-' two tables
on the sand. while tne captain nEd
several Of the crew cut the br"ad
and passed out the black chunks.
| They grabbed it with their Claw
like hands, which stretched into the
circle of yellow light ans Clutched
IT fer life. The tears came into the
mothers eyes =: they held the W.
expected food % their babies
mouths.
SiAty IL Line Not Fed.
Then came talking in the crowded
tense darkness surrounding the Ian
tern. There were 372 chunks of
bread handed out and each went to
different mouth nd athere was no
more. Sixty Of those who had walt
ed in line were not fed and we sent
man on horseback to town four
miles away where we managed to
buy thirty pounds more which we
! distributed an hour later.
/ 1t was the first distribution of
American relief in the Nolga Coun-
| try hut we had no mistaken ideas
about the good that it did. We could
! only feed that mite to some who
had passed the food-craving period
and il would only renew the tor
lures that they had already gone
through. We. who gave the bit of
food. received more good from 1t
than those who received it because
in a measure il atoned for the fact
we had in our bodies the warmth
| Of ample food and were wearing
whole clothes and were housed on a
boat while 400 fellow humans Of our
color ana belief in our God were
! dying miserably within a stones
! throw.
! Passe. 0st Black Bread.
| Late this afternoon when our dros-
kies appeared coming across the sand
after trip 10 the inland villages
| the hungry ones re-emerged from
the cottonwood trees and lined up
! in three rows-the children first.
mothers with babies back OF them and
the men in the last row. We passed
out another 100000 roubles' worth
Of black bread-almost a half pound
each. We tried not to see the tears
, Of sratefulness which rolled down
! cheeks here and there. We prevented
! the women and children from throw
/ ing themselves fiat on the ground
! and kissing the sand at our feet by
announcing through our interpreter
that this form OF greeting was most
Objectionable TO Americans. with the
distribution ended We walked back
past tarpaulin covered mount
which we had noticed on the shore.
A solitary soldier. smoking a Gig
arctic with his rife leaning sgainst
the mount. was on guard.
One Man Guards Seed Graiu.
What is under the tarpsulin"" J
asked the governors secretary.
Il am surprised. you have been
here two days and you do not know"
he replied. That is $4,000 pools. or
$4,000 pounds of grain seed for next
years harvest"
And these people are dying here
without eating it-one soldier surely
cannot keep 400 starving humans
away from food within their reach.
Why haven't they rushed it," I
queried.
''ou do not know Russia replied
the secretary. The seed for next
years harvest is sacred. These stsrv-
ing ones may not live to see the
next harvest. but there must be seed
for those who survive to plant. Ii IL
the nature OF those who love the
land.
tCopyriEht. 1871