The Denver Jewish news., 1924-04-24

Of dirty clothing and of unrcashed
bodies II turns one sick
Along the whole length of the room
are Two long rows of beds. or rather
| boards placed on. supports which serve
as beds There are dirty, Iorn pillows,
sacks af straw rotting cottonwood
auiliG. old clothes, rags. hut nowhere
Is there a sign of bcdclothcs There
Is not u sheet anywhere, no pillowslips
or blanket. Beneath each bed stands
the occnpier's whole worldly wealth,
saucepan, tin ieapot. plates. shoes.
| etc.
The beds are placed 80 close to each
other. that each row practically forms
one long bed. swarming with rharoas
third plague.
There is noi a table or chair in
! the whole room. Tho inhabitants eat
standing mp al the counter, which has
been left, IL relic of Jhc becrhouse which
| the building once housed or else sitting
on their beds.
in the middle Of the room * n pri
radintcs about four inches around. but
! its smoke fills the whole room. \
heavy cloud of smoke hangs over tit'.
whole place and brings the tears To the
eyes and eats ont the lungs.
And this cold. damp, filihy stable,
| in.o which Il decent man would not
| turn his cattle. is the home of ninety
miserable souls mostly widows and
orphans.
The men have died. the women eN-
plain and the explanation is made in
Il tone of voice as IL they were saying
The men folk had gone out for II walk.
If an epidemic comes into this place.
one of the women tells me- IL cleans il
ont thoroughly. About twenty she says,
have died Of typhoid. You see those
s.x children in The corner says an
other they are orphans. 10th their
parents died in one week. They have
an aunt who is looking after them.
Typhoid is not the only epidemic
which has come into the refugec-homc
and cleaned things. There are also
tuberculosis and dyscntcry Eczema is
"A disease from which not one of the
refugees is free.
Here are the victims of Eczema. One
is about forty years of age. His face
is one big running sore, The second Is
n boy of about seventeen with the face
of an idiot. His ncse is an open wound.
IL of
the women bitterly.
In the other rcfugcc-homcs things
are II little cleaner, but not much.
There too. men. women and children
are hcrded together in one room.
How do yom undrcss? How dc you
dress - .'Oh. nobody look ut you. they
j answer. The only comparatively clean
refugee home is the one in which the
3. wounded ex-soldicrs live with the old.
the crippled, the incapacitatcd. Here
there is servant whose duty II IL I"
keep the place tidy, But what sort
Of tidincss can there he in II place
where. next to n shell-shockcd soldier
is II syphilitic Young man. n consump-
tive girl, IL parayZcd old woman, n
woman without feet. scrofulatic. all
crowded into two small rooms which
are not even divided by n door.
This living together this dressing
and undressing and doing all the things
of life in front of everybody else, is
degrading. And worst of all. is the
t..I.l
The children grow up without cdu-
cation. without discipline. Chcdorm
are prohibited. In most cases, the
parents will not send the children to
school some because they believe they
are only staying for another day or
two. and will send their children to
school when they have settled down
tucain in their own homes, and some
bccal,c they prefer to send their chill
ttrcn to work, or worse still, to beg.
If n refugcc-home is the school ci
the child. the street is his university
He becomes acquainted with the chill
tlrcn of the streets. with the scum oil
the city, with the piclipockets. win rne
underworld of Moscow.
Some parents would like to send theii
children to school but the environment
is stronger than they. They have IA
home pound Of brend day and {;
meal at midday. Children under -FOUR
teen get white bread. milk, cocoa. suSai
and oats. and with the midday meal
one can live through the day. Besides
the food one needs II bar of soap. Il
shirt and II suit of clothes of some SORT
p and for these things attempts are made
to find money somehow
f The refugees may he divided int
tbrpe clnssps-thOSc who consider this