River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1921-04-07

4 anu the rest Vi tllC NCSSht PCOpic ia
Russia are here, too. Gee, this cup Of
burning hot coffee Is good. I'm wet
and froze. II was anything to
get aboard and away from the Bolshis.
They're alive and that's all. Condi-
tions are so awful that they are inde-
scribable. Have been getting off sick,
wounded, old people and kids to hos
pitfalls and orphanages. Kids are great.
! All are wonderfully brave-how they
stand it don't know.
"Took young captain. %, off with
me last evening for good dinner and
a sleep at our house. He had been
seven days on the boat with scarcely
any sleep, three without food. His
voice was gone-he was the only one
who could talk good English and he
simply had to run everything. He's
a wonder, butt was nearly dead.
MAY stay here several more days
don't know. Will write when can.
am o. X"
The last letter received by his FAM
lily, from Mr.. Van Toor, bears the date
of Nov. %. He says:
IF | ever find time to write up the
notes / have made I'll write a diary
Of the last ten days.
Refugees Live on Shipboard.
Think of 10000 people so crowded
on ships that some cannot even sit
down. Just food and water enough,
sometimes, to get 'em down here.
Luckily, all have winter clothes and
overcoats, Wrangers army having
been QUILTED by the British. There
are 10000 front line troops, about TO-
900 service of rear, 10000 officers
(enough of what's left of Russia's 49,
| 100000 army and the rest civilians
and families of the troops. The officers
and civilians are of course the last
! remnant of the educated people in Rus
STA and they are wonderful-all talk
five or six languages, are summers for
looks, have beautiful Persian lamb or
sable coats and few jewels Gall they
| have left of huge fortunes) and their
kids are simply wonderful-so polite
and charming.
ITO think of such people, stranded,
knowing nothing of the future, many
/ with relatives massacred, all having
gone through terrible hardships and
dangers, living for days amid the filth,
cold, wet and general awfulness on
these boats, is simply CHASTITY yet
i they are cheerful, they have great
sense of humor and are grateful for
any little thing we do-never cry or
kick / can imagine a bunch of Amer
leans in such situation, just. raising
/ the roof because everything isn't be-
| ing done for them.
Some are being sent to Siberia, the
army to Gallipoli, others debarked
here in Constantinople or on the
/ islands nearby, fed at soup kitchens.
sleeping on stone floors in old bar
racks or monasteries, and being gen.
orally miserable.
1--WE been on subchasers, torpedo
boats-anything- round the
/ harbor from morning till early the
next morning getting sick people OFF
to hospitals, kids out to our hospital
| (Which is more of an orphanage),
passing up food, dishing out water.
Gosh, how the poor devils on one boat,
with no water for four days, scrambled
for it, lowering pals, bottles, anything
/ they get on ropes, for us to fill!
Everyone has just about escaped
with his life, and that's all. One love-
| ly woman has only her husband, he's
| i'll in our hospital Her son was killed
in war, two beautiful daughters of IL
and 10 captured by the Bolshis. One
kid of IL has big scar and a cross OF
| ST. George for defending a machine
gun post all alone. A young looking
| girl is Nine. Olga, served two years
with Cossack cavalry, says her health
is ruined, but is glad to have given it.
Another. woman has lost every relative
in the two years constant evacuation
from the Bolshis. Another woman,
whose estate was confscated, saw her
brother tortured and then killed.
Nobility Glad to Obtain Work.
"The captain whom | pulled off the
'Rion' doesn't know where any of his
| people are. He's only %, but looks
/
he was 16. He has fought on every
! front, but hasn't cent He had abolst
collapsed when l saw him. I dragged
| him off with me, got him a hot Turk
ish bath, gave him clean underwear, a
bunk in my room and good meals al
oar house. He's working for us now
interpreter with me, and after only
one nights sleep insisted on starting
right to work with me. He's wonder
very well bred, and just think of the
responsibility he has had, for boy OF
| 90 Then I've Russian prince, who
am told, was terrible highbrow in
Petrograd, working also as an inter,
prefer on the boats.
Here comes the Turkish maid, bare
foot, on these cold stone floors of the
bakery-to scrub out. We're getting