Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-10-24
HOMES
IN T|FL|S NOW
MASS. Of RUINS
People Walk Streets
Looking for Work
They Can Not Find.
Beautiful City Once
So Gay Now Like a
Great Burying Ground

Tiflis, Oct. 23.-(By The Associ
ated Press) This city under Sovie
rule bears many. resemblances t
another city Of unique beauty, Buda
pest, Hungary, when that gay plac
of opera and fine streets and house
and handsome people was favored b.
IA Soviet, under the ardent Bella Kun
in the spring and summer of 1913
Before that time both were wealth!
and well-cared for, despite long ant
disastrous war. Business was fairl.
brisk, shops were filled with ex
pensive articles, with all that thu
heart desired in adornment.
When the correspondent saw thi!
city of Tiflis two years ago, it,
magnificent Georgian club, a huge
municipal resort open to rich and poor
was the scene Of unbounded gaiety
Here public hospitality was handed
out broadly to all strangers. Its little
theater was filled with good dancers
and actors and singers.
No Longer Gay.
Now, until the opera reopens, it is
the sole place of amusement, except
the movies. 1t is attended by red SOL
diers. it's gardens filled by faded street
beauties of the other sex, while those
who have been unable to
flee hold forth in a modest little res
taurant downstairs called the Cafe de
Paris. Its manager is the former proud
owner of the Hotel Orient He is a
Frenchman.
people do strange things in the
name of liberty" is his summing up of
the situation. As matter Of fact,
they like this new liberty SO we'll that
both poor and rich would like to get
away from it.
In Tiflis, some things are better or
dered than they were in soviet Buda-
pest. There is food to be had, good
food, and at not impossible prices.
There the comparison ends. The
street cars are not running, for lack of
'il or something. Anyway, people
night just as well walk, as they have
40 special reason for getting anywhere
quickly.
The homes Of Tiflis, once so vast
and elegant in their hospitality, are
still outwardly handsome but the in
Leriors are different. Most have been
requisitioned and divided, with their
furniture slowly finding its way to the
oawnshops. One man, formerly promi-
aent as politician, has had all of his
iAe ICsiuVAcc Ldheu from MIN ana pacn
line he finds furnished room. it is
at the order of some old
Enemy, until now he has been made to
move eight times.
No Work Anywhere
There is still enough clothes left
rom the old days SO that nobody ap-
,ears shabby. Of work for a living
here is little or none. The only civil
cation influence left is the Near East
Relief. There the correspondent met
| woman looking for work. She was
rom Riga and haA lived Is years
eaching languages in Tiflis But now
the had no one to whom to give les
IONS or who could pay for them. Work
lnder the soviet was of no use. she
said, because it paid only 10000 rubles
! month, the price of few pounds of
,read
She was now engaged in selling food
md clothing in the markets on COM
mission but the profit was so little and
as she appeared to be, she
,egged with tears in her eyes for any
lind of place, sewing, scrubbing,
loors-"anything." What would hap
zen when winter came she dared not
hink, like many thousands of others.