Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-07-01
Tells of War Ridden Europe

/
basement of his home and put the
clothes in a large wine barrel and
covered the barrel up with earth.
Wool was even taken out of the
mattresses used in the beds. Every
thing was taken in the churches:
there are two large and two small
churches in the village where my
parents come from, and they say
there is only one bell left, and this
is cracked and of no value to them.
The Italian soldiers were guarding
this part of the country and terror
ling the people. They would go
into anyone's house and eat every
thing they found, and if there was
liquor they would get drunk and
become cruel and mischievious. My
mother told me that one night she
was nearly frightened to death
when some Italian soldiers threw a
bomb near her house which is a
three-story, solid stone building,
and most of the village ran down
to see if the house was ruined, but
the building was only slightly dam
aged.
There was not single soldier
who returned home in perfect
health; some of them were she'll
shocked or paralyzed, but all of
them were hurt more or less, some
of them so badly that their fam
lilies have to take care of them for
the rest of their lives.
On account of the shortage of
food and no ways or means to get
food into the country, most of the
children were shipped to the inter-
Tor and sent to some large city
where they were made to sleep in
tents, and the Red Cross caring for
some of them. My mother said
that when they went to the city
once they saw these children all
wet and in the water, because the
tent was located in such a position
that the water drained there. After
the Armistice was signed the Jugo-
Slavia government was established,
but conditions were not much bet
ter for the reason that the new
government did not have any
money. They are trying now to
improve the country by building
new roads, schools and other public
buildings and are taxing the people
very high. The people are not able
to keep up their taxes or obliga-
tions to the government and this is
making conditions terrible among
them, and for this reason they are
not in favor of the Jugo-Slavia
government. Most of the politi-
clans and educated people are. try
ing to form new parties and organ
ize a republic similar to the repub-
lie of our United States, but the
Serbian government of Beograd is
using all their police force and
army to keep their kingdom in
power. There are no rules or laws
at all. The people are fighting all
the time and killing one another.
l was very much surprised at one
thing, and that is, that my parents
did not know very much about the
Great War. They did not know
what was happening because they
were cut off from communication,
but they did know quite bit
about the late President Wilson.
They looked up to him as the only
man who was able to save them.
On account of so much suffering
the people in the old country have
changed very much. My parents
changed more in the last five years
than they did in the twenty-five
years before that.
The general conditions in Jugo-
Slavia and in all Europe seem to be
just as bad as right after the war,
in fact some parts of the country
are getting worse. All the condi-
tions seem to indicate that new
war might break out again at any
time. My parents are in this coun-
try only five days, and in coming
from New York to Eagle River,
America seems something like a
land of dreams to them, and
heaven Of which our religion
speaks. They cannot really believe
that America is so prosperous and