Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1921-11-04
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 GrasshopperG

Syrian, Russia.-There was a time
when Syzran was the most colorful
city along the Volga, but that time Is
gone. Today it Is crowded with dust
begrimed peasants, who group them
selves into gray masses in their search
for food.
There was a time when the air was
filed with a perfect babel of tongues
the languages of the Kalmucks, Mon
gols, Tartars, Chinese and Russians
but the crowds that throng the streets
of the city at present are mute. Even
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 seer here are du-
plicated in Samara, Simbirsk, Saratof,
Tsaritzin, md every other city In the
ADMINISTRATOR valley of the Volga.
Docks and railroad stations are piled
high with the belongings of h refu-
gees. who we're driven from their lane
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 q 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 ulms 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 find
them without shelter and clothing, but
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 a
state of exhaustion, their carts being
dragged by camels and starved
horses. There Is no hay or grain
here, and there Is slight prospect that
the animals can be kept alive until
spring.
In the carts are samovars, talking
machines, concertinas and American
sewing machines. which are bartered
for food or for collins. The dead
lie unnoticed for hours, while near
them are pitiful groHrs boiling a few
potatoes and onions with which to
keep alive. Some markets are under
armed guard. but this appears to be
unnecessary, as the peasants are toe
weak and passive to take violen,
measures.
Typhus Claiming Victims.
Great crowds attempt to cling tf
the few trains hat leave here daily
and soldiers often pull some Of the
refugees from the cars, frequently
separating families. some members o.
which have managed to secrete them
selves between the cars.
Typhus has appeared in many
places and the hospital superintend