The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-05-11

fighting aaginst the Austrians. She
did not hear from them, and all
these years she has been wondering
what became of them. She has
sometimes got scraps of Information
from home and one paper they got
told of the bolsheviki coming into
their old home n~eighborhood in re-
peated fraging trips to take from the
people all their animals and food,
and at last took their seeds and their
clothing. They would make people
strip off and hand over what was be-
ing worn, and leave them naked re-
CARELESS of the eason. Many Of
them would skirmish around and
find an old sack or something for
a breech clout, and women, when
they could, would get something to
fasten over their shoulders and
lungs. In those foraging trips it was
a %favorite pastime for the bolsheviki
to shoot the men and set fire to the
buildings and set the women afoot
hiking off across the country.
Mrs. Lock sat cutting up seed po-
tatoes as she related her experiences
and the things she had read in
papers and letters from home. She
| speaks German and is learning Eng
talked she occasionally paused to
say, "You understand me?" or you
get me?" do I say it right" She
talked of the things the editor
showed an interest in, and ques-
toned her about, and at one point
in her talk she said to her little son,
go bring the letters for him to
see," and when the letters came they
were covered all over with postage
stamps on the front and the address
was written on the back. Her story
ran like this: .
Big Postage Bills
'This letter is from my sister
Elnora. You e it has Russian
postage stamps on it, six of them for
1000 roubles each, and eight stamps
of $50 roubles each, it takes 5000
roubles of their no-account Russian
money to carry one letter to
America. This letter came on Good
Friday, you know about Good Fri
day, just this spring? Can you
read it? 1t is in German. 1t has
bad news. 1t says that my two
sisters and my mother all died the
same day from starving. You know
how people starve, they get so they
cannot stand it and they eat any
thing they can swallow. The paper
we have in the house, it came from
home and it tells about a woman
there that went, what do you call
it," and she rotated her hand in
front Of her forehead, till we said,
"Crazy?" then she continued, Eyes,
she ate the waste from a horses
body and went crazy, then she killed
her baby that was starving and. ate
it. But u mother kept telling our
little sisters that maybe bread would
come from America, and they
waited. Each day when they cried
for bread and asked about the ship
from America she would try to COM
fort them and tell them that maybe
tomorrow the ship would come with
-four from America. Finally the
mother became like the children and
she cried for bread and asked them
if she could not have some bread,
just a little bit, and the little girls
told her that maybe a great ship
would come from America and bring
flour to make bread, and to wait and
maybe tomorrow there would be
bread. Then when the mother would
rouse up and cry for bread and ask
them if she could not have just a
little bit of bread, they would tell
her that bread was coming in a ship
from America and maybe tomorrow
it would come and she could have
some bread. One morning she was
dead and the two little girls died be-
fore night.
The other letter bore stamps in,
dicating 5000 roubles, and 7 cents OF
American postage which Mr.. Lock
had to put on to get it out of the
post office at Blackfoot. It., was
from his brother and it came about
ten days after the other letter from
Elnora. He said he had much tc
tell, but was afraid the letter would
be opened or would not reach them
and that if they got it and it had not
been opened and read, he would
venture to tell more in the next let
ter. He and all the others that were
alive were in need of food and
clothes and if they could cable the
price Of food via New York they
might live thru.
Prisoner of War .
One of the letters mentioned thai
one of her brothers had been in the
commissary department Of the army
and had lived thru and was still
alive; the other had been captured
where they were retreatng across &
bridge, and had been all these years
a prisoner Of war, but at last &C
counts hoped to be exchanged yet
The sister Elnora had one daughter