The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-06-29


phus patients averaged twenty a
week.
The last link of her journey be-
tween Vitebsk and Moscow-a sc
hour ride-Mrs. Harrison made in a
box car in charge of red guard. A
very vivid idea of the Soviet descrip-
ton of the accommodations. Our
quarters in the staff car" she writes,
were close, to say the least, but we
were lucky, it seemed, to have those.
A compartment for two was reserved
for four of us, and there, with the ex-
ception of "a few venturesome visits
to the toilet, we spent the next thirty
six hours. I occupied the lower
berth, the doctor "a Jewish woman)
and the commissioners wife the up
per berth, and the soldier slept on
the floor. Standing in the corridor
was impossible, because it was filled
with solid mass of soldiers, who in
sisted in defiance of discipline on oc-
cupying it. They made it almost i'm
possible for us to open the door and
our escort had to fight his way out to
get hot water to make our tea from
the samover machines that are in
operation at each station. The rest
of the train, which was entirely COM
posed of box cars, was packed, people
even, sitting on the roofs and bump
ers, and there were fights at every
station between persons trying to get
on and off,
Shadowed by the ''Checka."
Arrived in Moscow, an unwelcome
guest, she went through the usual
forms of search and inquisitorial in
vestigation and was finally allowed by
Checherin, head of the foreign Office,
to remain, at first for few weeks in
apparently unchecked freedom, later
to become conscious of the fact that
wherever she went the lurking shad-
ows of the checka-the secret police
bureau of the Soviet-were dogging
her footsteps and watching her every
action. Her first glimpses, of Lenine,
and Trotsky were obtained at an open
Soviet meeting at the opera house,
arranged with dramatic offects-gar-
landed portraits of Lenine, Trotsky
and Marx were everywhere. Red flags
draped from the galleries and around
the stage, multitudes of banners in
evidence displaying the matter of the
red republic, "Polietriat of the
World, Unite" Lenine delivered an
address on the governments policy
of reconstruction.
"When I saw him come out on the
STAGE" writes Mrs. Harrison, "my
first feeling was one of disappoint-
ment. He. is a short, thick set, un-
imposing looking little man, with
colorless hair and complexion, a
small pointed beard, piercing gray
blue eyes, and a quiet, Unconditional,
almost monotonous manner of deliv-
cry. After few words, however, I,
like every one else, began to listen at
tentiveIy. 1t was not magnetic elo-
quence that held me, it was the i'm
preston of tremendous sincerity, ut
ter self confidence and quiet power.
He is absolutely sure, of
and his idea and
when he speaks to the people
he has a talent for picking out the
simplest possible words to express
his meaning. Trotsky, while Lenine
was speaking, sat with his head bent
scribbling industriously on a pad--a
broad shouldered man of middle
height slightly inclined to stoutness,
but erect and military in his bearing.
The line of his mouth was hard, cyni-
cal, almost forbidding, until he began
10 speak, and then l suddenly realized
that there was something compelling
about the mans personality. There
was something almost exultant in his
expression as his eyes swept the enor-
nous crowd in front of him and it
seemed to me that subconsciously it
was mingling with certain radical
pride. could almost imagine him as
saying, For the first time since the
days of the Maccabees, I, Jew, am
the head of a great army -
Naturally interested from a wo-
mans standpoint in the position OF
women in the Soviet scheme and the
much mooted question of sex rela-
tions, Mrs. Harrison called upon
Kolontai, "the only great woman pub
licist among the Communists and
found her a Bolshevik de luxe, living
in luxury at the National hotel. "She
was wearing an exquisite bOudOlr