The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1921-09-20
AWAIT DEATH FROM
FAMINE AND DISEASE
THOUSANDS OF STARVING HUI
MANS COME AND GO AT THE
CROSSROADS OF HUNGER.
REFUGEES POUR INTO SYRIAN
Capital of Simbirsk, Where Europe
And Asia Meet, Trebles in Popula-
ton. Government Unable to Fill
Their Dire Needs.

And Asia Meet, Trebles in Popula-
ton. Government Unable to Fill
Their Dire Needs.
SYRIAN, Simbirsk.-Here is where
Europe and Asia meet by railroad
where camel and horse and raft and
barge bring the east and west and
the north and south together at the
crossroads of hunger. One line runs
northeast to Cheliabinsk to connect
with the trans-Siberian railway-and
another runs southeast, tapping the
prosperity Of Turkestan-another runs
west to Penza and then southwest to
Kiev and Odessa, and another stretch
es northwest to Moscow
Lumber RATS bring starving Tartars
south on the Volga to this point, where
they meet river barges laden with ref
ugees from as far south as Astrakhan.
Different in languages, customs,
habits, religion and garb, they find
common denominator in hunger, dis
ease, rags and filth. They come beg
ging or they seek shipment to places
where there is food. They are helpless
and the government they appeal to ad-
mits its helplessness to fill their needs
And thus they sit and wait and pray
to their different gods and die while
the gongs and bells in the gilded
church domes deliver a seemingly bar
barous clamor twice daily.
City's Population Trebled.
1--WE are inundated by this great hui
man traffic and we cannot move them
and if we could move them it would
only mean spreading cholera and ty-
plus all over Russia said the secre-
tary to the governor through an in
terpreter. "Over 100000 have been
moved through here during the last
three months, but there should have
been facilities to have moved 100000
do not know what has become OF the
rest-some left on foot and many died
some are here yet and more are com
ling all the time Our city populations
was normally 60000-now it is almost
three times as many; we have no way
lof estimating.
eve figure that about 1000 are leav-
ing daily-God knows how many are
coming in. When the peasants starve
out on the farms there is no other
place for them to come save the towns
| They stay on the land until the last
food is consumed, always hoping that
relief will arrive, but when there IS
nothing left for them to eat they turn
their faces to the cities. We have shipp-
ed 5000 of their children to Moscow,
! but the town is full with thousands
more whom we are unable to ship
Hospital Place to Die In.
Our hospital is no longer a hos
|pitai-it is just place to die in. There
was no medicine, supplies or anything,
so the doctors just left Now the sick
crawl into the building to die and 9th
er sick have to carry the bodies out
! We have several military barracks on
the edge of the town at the disposal
of the refugees, but they refuse to live
| in them, preferring to camp down here
| in the station, on the railroad tracks,
in the city square and all over the
streets. They believe that is the only
way they can force the government to
act on their behalf. They do not seem
to know that we are just as helpless
as they are
Our ration for government officials.
which has always been slim, has now
been reduced to about one-flfth of the
regular amount. Our harvest is less;
than one-tenth of the average yield
Since June all Of us have been eating
moist grass and bark. Parents who are
not able to feed their children are
turning them over to the authorities
or abandoning them in front of gov
eminent buildings. SO many have BEEN
left on our hands that we are not able
to care for them. There are many Ger
man, Polish and Austrian families that
have been wandering around in Rus
sia since the war, trying to find place
to settle and make an existence until
peace permits them to return to their
been doubled by refugees"