The Washington herald., 1922-02-05
HORRORS
DETAILED IN NOTE
FROM QUAKERESS
Bodies Stacked Like Logs
In Volga Famine Area,
Says Relief Agent.

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 1--WE
were pulled into Buztiluk In small
hours Of the morning one week ago
our car hitched to the tail OF a
freight, and we are still here in our
houseboat on rails. Our last move
was only a yard or so to get into
the lea of a warehouse. and we had
frozen so fast to the rails in even
those few hours that a locomotive
couldn't move US and 1t had to back
of and give Us a kick. Even then
we coasted. as the wheels didn't
move at ALL" This is the beginning
of a letter from Beulah A. Hurley,
of New Hope. Pa. now In Russia as
a member of the Quakers in Phala-
delphia. Miss Hurley reached the
famine area Of the Volga, where 49,
100000 Russians are Starving, in the
middle of December and is taking
charge of the distribution of the
Quaker relief in one Of the sections
of the Buzuluk district.
This business of cooking. living.
receiving callers, running an once.
and housekeeping for unit Of
thirteen in a square box-car wherein
five also sleep, is close work. and we
have learned much. The kick from
the engine upset the soup. but 1t
hit nothing but one seat and the
side of a fur hat; but presently the
tea-water was also upset and it
washed the soup of the fur hat and
so we are all tidy again.
"On Sunday Miriam West and
moved out in the night and slept in
rooms in the town which the Mis-
sion has taken for its headquarters.
For two nights we slept in real
honest-to- goodness beds. How is
that for a record of the last three
weeks? Take warning all we who
come in to Russia and bring along
all the bed and bedding you hope -
use. Also bring some magic powder
to lay q little ring all round your
camp on the floor and say an incan-
tation over IL before you retire, or
else you may find that you are a
host in yourself
Worker Contracts Typhus.
The reason we moved from the
box-car for those two nights was
that the doctor found that Nancy
Babb, who lived on the first bottom
shelf Of our tiny closet, had more
than flu. 1t is typhus and as there
is no hospital in Buzuluk We planned
to hitch this car to a westbound
| train and have her in Samara the
| next day. Therefore our sudden
move in the night with the baggage
Of all ten of US and the foodstuffs
for Buzuluk and household equip
ment for the fve units about to open.
Once at the house we had to open
the foods and pack a supply Of them
to send up with Nancy Babb and a
nurse to support themselves at the
hospital.
No train came the next morning
either way as everything was showed
up; so the next day we spent in find
ing a room for an isolation ward in
the rooms meant for a few people
and which were housing a mob Of US.
1t was impossible to secure other
rooms in the village for the town of
10000 now houses $1,000 and some
parts OF II are ruined since the Deni-
Kin campaign went across this dis
trict. The upstairs room where the
six men Of the unit live had to be
evacuated and their belongings taken
TO the dining room. We hated to do
II IN their absence: but we rolled up
their bedding and effects and planted
them at intervals around the dining
room. BY nightfall Nancy was in
stalled in the room and some of the
men moved back into the car. as
the floor of the dining room was all
taken up by the table where we ate
in shifts OF ten.
The rest of the week has gone
to moving US back and collecting the
stun to go with US to our two units
in the east and also to the making
ready for the supplies and personnel
10 accompany the two units to the
west. They moved out on wednes-
day night and We expected our
eighteen food-trucks from Samara to
come in the next day. Thursday
night sixteen of them arrived, having
taken seven days for the eight-hour
run. Norowsky went out at once by
the Tashkent- Moscow express to get
TWO of the cars which had ,broken
down and he Just came in now with
Time; so the men will lead the work
with clothing and chocolate in the
morning and we hope to pull out by
night.
Death All About.
BY contrast with home we lead
Spartan life is rigorous, but it is a
luxury to the type of life which we
see all about us. Scarcely a day
goes by but one may see at least a
dead body lying along the way or
In the market place and three days
ago father and mother and two
children dropped in the snow to-
gether. At night one can hear the
cries and pleading of the crowds at
the station entrances trying to seek
a Dit OF warmth: but no one may
go into that crowded mass excep.
those really waiting for trains. and
so every morning the human bodies
which have frozen to death must be
carried away from the entrances.
Even from among those who have
been all night in the station, heated
only by human warmth. bodies are
taken Of those who have died of
starvation or cold. The cemetery
itself Is a CHASTITY place where
bodies are piled UP in trenches like
SO much cord-wood and the naked
bones of the bodies makes the simiIe
all the truer. The pile is now Wis
ible quarter mile away. The CLOTH
ing Is always stripped from the
bodies, for 1t is too precious to be
lost.
But worse even than the dead
bodies left sometimes for days
frozen in the snow, are the walking
skeletons who totter about from.
house to house hoping to find
enough to live on for another day.
The children show bare skin as they
trot on. weeping with the cold.
Ihere are not crowds of these, but
Just Few here and there looking
almost like stragglers from an