San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-05

ooneu cniluren-aDand0neu nor oy
cruelty Of their parents but By their
love, because they could not bear t.
see their little ones waiting over empty
platters. I went into q number Of
them. and they were all alike in gen.
eral character. In one Of them were
1900 children, naked, or merely clothed
in little ragged shirts. Their clothes
had been burnt because of the lice in
them, which spread typhus fever.
There were no other clothes to replace
their ragged old sheepskins and WOODEN
garments. There was no heat in the
rooms, for lack of fuel. There was
no furniture. On the bare boards they ,
huddled together, these little wizened
things, with deep. sunken eyes, and
tight-drawn skin, like little bald-headed
monkeys. There were many homes
like that, and worse than that, because
many of the children were dying, and
the rooms reeked with their fever, and
the very doorposts crawled with lice.
| / went into the hospitals, and they
were dreadful. Because there was no
fuel for heat, these people, stricken
with typhus, dysentery, all manner Of
hunger diseases, were huddled together
in unventilated wards for human
warmth. Many of the beds had been
burnt for fuel, and most Of them lay
on mattresses or the bare boards.
Those who had beds lay four together,
two one way and two the other. There
were no medicines, no anaesthetics, po
soap, no dressings. The nurses were
starving and dying Of the diseases they
could not cure. They came clamoring
round the doctor of the A. R. A., with
whom l went, begging for food in a
wild animal way which made his heart
60 sick.
But there was an opera, even in
Kazan, 1t was true that the stencil Of
it was pretty bad, and that its audi
cnce frightened their belts from time to
time in lieu of supper, but Madam
Butterfly" delighted them, they thrilled
to the Carmen" of a Persian prima
donna.
The last boat to 60 down the volsa
before the ice came was put under COM
mand of the press representative OF !
the A. X. A., my good friend Murphy,
most kind and generous-hearted soul
Spray and were the only passengers
| We three explored the ship before sh
left the quayside. She had been.
rescue ship for the fugitives from fsf
| inc, and was in noisome state.
dared not lingcr in the sleeping cabi
The very washbasins were crawl
That night Murphy and l slept on
table in the dining saloon-the 81
place. Spray gave himself up for'
and curled up on the floor, where
tossed all night. / was cook on
voyage. and did rather we'll with boi,ez'~
beans and a mess of pottage. We went
down to Tetiushi, and found ourselves
among the people of famine.
After two droughts in successive
years, there was no harvest of any ac-
count. The Red soldiers had requisi-
toned the peasants reserves of grain
for rationing the citeis. Without re-
serves they had no means of life. The
Soviet government had supplied them
with seed grain for the next harvest,
and they had sown it, not expecting to
reap il. They had also sent, lately,
some barges OF potatoes. but they lay
there rotting. To carry them to the
villages, horses were needed. for the
sledges, but there was no fodder. and
| the horses WtTt Wy luc. Va ucau. Nv We
discovered the state of Tetiushi.
BY a message from the prime minis
ter of the Tartar republic. four horses
were found for us, and two sledges,
! after many hours of waiting, and We
set out across the snow to the village.
They were very silent when We en-
tered. They seemed abandoned. Bur
we saw in one or two of their TIM
bered houses little wizened faces star
ing at us from the windows. They
were faces like those l had seen in
the homes for abandoned chldrens
monkey-like. We went into the cot
tages and found there peasant fami-
lies waiting for visitor who tarrieds
which was Death.
They showed us the last food they
had-if,they had any left. 1t was =
brownish powder. made or ieavee
ground up and mixed with the musk
of grain. Others showed US bits Of
hard stuff like lead. 1t was q blush
clay dug from a hillside called Bitter !
jsk. 1t had some nutritive value, but
it swelled when eaten. and was me
cause of dreadful agony to Children.
| Peasant women, weeping very quietiys
showed us their naked children. with
| listened stomachs, the sig. of starva<
ton in its last stage. From other cot
tages they came TO where we sto04
crossing themselves at the doorwayss
the Russian way, and then lament-
ing.
Handsome Russian peasants, with
blue eyes and straw-colored boards
struck their breasts with gesture O.
absolute despair, and said-we had a.
Russian with us who spoke English---
that death coull not be long delayed
for all of them. The last cows had
been killed for lack OF fodder. There
was no milk for the children, as for Z
long time there had been no bread
Here and there a woman walled loud
ly. or grasped my wrist with her
skinny hand and spoke fiercely. as
though l denied her food. / remember
one cottage in which a whole family
lay dying. and nearly dead. Ii was
the famine.
1 will not write more about the hor-
rors here. In many articles. and in
my novel. 'sThe Middle of the Road
have given the picture OF it, and the
agony of it.
1t is said that two million OF these
people died. That is NanSen's figures
That twenty million did net die IS due
TO the magnificent work of tie A. Il
A. and the Save the Children Fund
who. against all political prejudice ana
; for humanity's sake. achieved q Erea.
rescue Of these stricken folk. As
have said, the A. II. A. alone fed Ten
million people day in the fsmine