South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-02-22
SIX PERCENT WILL
SURVIVE IN FAMINE
Aged Tartar With Mohamedan
Skull Cap Prepares for
Arrival Of Death.
By EDWIN W. HUILNGER.

United Press staff Correspondent.
lIURATALA VILLAGE. Tar Re
public. East Russia.-(By Mau) -
All OF rs IN this room viii be dead
before those SHOWS melt again"
The aged Tartar looked around
the small party Of seven for con
frmadOn His tiny black skull cap
CAIohamedan ethics advise against
displaying ones hair before women
looked out Of keeping with his mas
sive saws and cheek bone. whose
prominence were accentuated by the
sag OF hunger IN hts cheeks.
The "samOvar'' was steaming on
the table. SIS puffs Of vaDor recalling
the days when there were bread and
cakes, real sugar and milk, and not
simply hot water and old tea leaves.
we were sitting. legs crossed Orien-
tai fashion. on the table. a low plat
form 10 inches from the floor which
flied one END OF the room. The Mo-
hamedan house has no chairs. You
sit cross-legged on the floor or on
the table.
The lamp flickered. each little
flare revealing a new object IN the
simple room. There were the re-
liglous notices on the wall. with
their scrawlings IN Tartar (the Tar
tars use the Turkish alphabet).
There was the beautiful coin breast
piece. part OF every good Tartar wo-
mans outfit. now dangling from
tack IN the log wall. The gold and
silver pieces. old Russian. Turkish.
Tartar. reflected occasional beams
Of light as they nestled against
their rich background OF red plush.
Last Four Dead
Two little children and their
Erandmothcr peered down from
their berth on top Of the huge
brick stove. These stoves are the
most conspicuous piece of furniture
iu every peasant home in Russia
Russian or Tartar. Their interiors
serve as ovens during the daytime,
while az night, as much of the FAM
ily as can hnd room sleep ON their
warm surface few feet below the
ceiling.
The old Tartar had spoken quiet
~ but gravely, with that strange inn
personamess and resignation of the
orient. as If speaking of some one
across the sea and not of himself
and his family and friends
Before my mind rose the picture of
q little snowbOund village we had
passed through the day before.
empty, and still under the silence OF
death. IL had been a prosperous set
Element Of 200; The last four Tartars
died from hunger or typhus the day
before we arrived. lit was an ex-
IRENE case, the guide had explained
but 1t represented what a great
many villages would be like sew
eral months hence.
do you mean that this entire
village will die unless food is sent. q"
asked J. Rives Chuds. inspector for
the American Relief Administration
Childs, his interpreter, SkvartzefI
secretary of the communist party IN
the Tartar Republic. and myself had
stopped at the little house ON ChiId's
round of the Tartar Republic where
the A. r. A had opened 1000 kitch-
ems for children. IL was a typical
Tartar house. 1t happened TO be-
long 20 the president of the local
Russo-American children's relief
committee. lie had summoned all
the local authorities upon our arr
rival
Few VIII Survive
Perhaps five or six per cent viii
survive. not more" the presydatel
(president) OF the local soviet, a Rus