The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1921-09-30
People Sit Silent in the Streets
Awaiting Death to End
Their Sufferings.
PICTURES OF GRIM MISERY
Docks and Railroad Stations Piled
High With Belongings Of Refugees
Driven From Their Land by
Drought and Grasshoppefs.


Syrian, Russia.-There was time
when Syzran was the most colorful
nty along the Volga, but that time Is
zone. Today 1t is crowded with dust
begrimed peasants, who group them
selves into gray masses in their search
Tor food.
There was time when the air was
oiled with perfect babel of tongues
the languages of the Kalmucks, Mon
rolls, Tartars, Chinese and Russians
but the crowds that throng the streets
Of tho city at present are mute Evon
the laughter of children has been 81
fenced in the despair that has settled
over these tens of thousands, who sit,
crossing themselves, and wait for
what seems to be the inevitable.
Pictures OF Grim Misery.
Pictures of misery seen here are du-
plicated in Samara, Simbirsk, Saratoff,
Tsaritzin, and every other city in the
famine-stricken valley Of the Volga.
Docks and railroad stations are piled
high with the belongings Of the refu-
gees WlO WSIC LAWN thSA A~AU
by the drought and the clouds Of
grasshoppers that destroyed even the
meager grain that had defied the heat
| Of the terrible summer now drawing
| to tragic close. Committees are try
| ing to move the refugees to other
points where there Is some promise
of food, but 1t is necessary to use
| the limited river and railroad trans
portation 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 southern
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 Dosto-
ievsky.
! Sell Rings and Clothing.
Markets have sprung up mushroom
like here and there about the refugee
camps, offering for sale vegetables
bread, flour and meat. They are sur
rounded by hungry people, who have
no money to offer, but who exchange
| wedding rings, fur coats, caps, ket
ties, pans, boots and other small pos
sessions. They know the Russian win
ter is coming, and that 1t will fint
them without shelter and clothing, bu
they are obliged to give up the ne
cessities Of the future to meet the de
mands of the present.
Large peasant families arrive In
state Of exhaustion, their carts bein
dragged by camels and starve'
horses. There Is no hay or grail
here, and there Is slight prospect tina
the animals can be kept alive unit
} spring.
In the carts are samovars, talkin
machines, concertlnas and America
sewing machines, which are bartere
for food or for collins. The dea
lie unnoticed for hours, while nea
them are pitiful groups boiling a fe'
. potatoes and onions with which t
keep alive. Some markets are unds
armed guard, but this appears to
unnecessary, as the peasants are to
weak and passive to take violer
measures.
Typhus Claiming Victims.
Great crowds attempt to cling
the few trains that leave here dali
and soldiers often pull some Of II
refugees from the cars, frequent
. separating families. some members ,
: which have managed to secrete Their
selves between the cars.
Typhus has appeared in mar
places and the hospital superinten