Evening star., 1940-02-12
Death and Confusion
MingIe in Turkeys
Earthquake Area
Torment Of Fear Grips
Relatives Of Those
In Stricken Towns
BY RICHARD MOwRER,

In Stricken Towns
BY RICHARD MOWRER,
Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
ISTANBUL.-They didn't know.
Their anxious kilograms remained
unanswered The papers had re-
ported that 80 per cent of Erzindjan
had been wiped out by the earth
quake. Beyond that there had been
no news. The train that pulled out
ofsIstanbul that night consisted al
most entirely of people distraught
with worry for their loved ones in
Erzindjan. The torment of waiting
to hear something, and not hearing
1t, had become unbearable. So now
they were going to Erzindjan to find
out.
The young man in our compart-
ment had business in Istanbul.
But in Erzindjan he had a mother
and father and three sisters. He
was very quiet, very pale, hardly
spoke, smoked many cigarettes.
The officer had a family in Err
zindjan; wife, son, daughter. The
papers must be eXaggerating, he
kept insisting as if we were all
arguing about it. But nobody was
saying otherwise. He was arguing
against an inner apprehension
about the family. Nov let's be
logical " he seemed to be say
ing to himself each time. But his
apprehension would not be stilled.
The woman wept. "Erzindjan"
someone explained, nodding in her
direction.
Relief Trains Get Through.
At Ankara, more passengers. "Be
sure to send telegram" said an
old man seeing his son of. People
on the platform handed scraps Of
paper to the passengers leaning out
of the train--names and addresses
of friends and relatives in Erzind-
jan.
At night, Sivas. Men with shovels
stood in groups on the platform.
Twelve hours earlier the first relief
train had got through to Erzindjan,
they said. The snow was cleared A
boy with a glass and tea kettle
wandered up and down the platform
selling tea.
In the morning, Chetinkaya. Here
the wind howled and twirled the
light snow off the drifts on either
side of the tracks. On a siding a
train load of wounded survivors
from Erzindjan was waiting The
people from Istanbul and Ankara
left our train and swarmed through
the other one, scrutinizing the
wounded. Outdoors two men met
unexpectedly and embraced.
Shout for Hospital Aid.
Throughout the gorges of the
Euphrates our train went gingerly
over bridges that might have been
weakened by the shifting earth,
through tunnels and clefts in solid
rock.
At Kemah, an hours stop. In the
small cafe they served tea spiced
with cinnamon. In Kemah So per-
sons had been killed by the quake,
they told us. Here we met Feridun
Kurt, Harvard graduate 80. my
father, mother and two cousins are
in Erzindjan," he said, II have had
no word. 1 am going to look for
them" A few hours later he was to
find his relatives alive and unhurt.
We were So hours from Istanbul
when the train stopped at dimly
lighted station. 1t was New Year
eve.
"I want to go to a hospital! I
want to 60 to a hospital!" voice
shouted out of the darkness.
This was Erzindjan.
The return trip was about to be-
gin. In an hour the train would
start for Ankara with its cargo of
grief and suffering.
"I beg your pardon, but believe
that seat is already taken,' ventured
the person installed by the window
The man swung around from the
baggage rack and seized the as
founded passenger by the throat
People intervened. The man burst
into tears and fled.
Family Lost in Quake.
"You must forgive him." some
body explained. "He has just lost
his wife and two children in the
earthquake. He arrived on last
nights train to look for them and
they are all dead He is nearly crazy
with grief
Fate had denied him the survival
of his family. In his despair the
~f, wi Nf
tain seat in the train was more than
he could bear.
The train pulled out of Erzindjan
station. 1t was leaving behind it
ruins, tents and some of the people
it had brought the night before
There were SO wounded on the
train. Most suffered in silence
Some died.
The old woman in the end COM
partment died before we reached
Sivas. No one saw her die but the
, brown eyed 7-year-old Kurdish girl
sitting on the opposite seat. The
little girl was taken to another COM
partment, uncomprehending, while
they covered the old woman's face
The brown-eyed child was an
earthquake orphan. Both her par
ents had been killed. They were
Kurds and she spoke no Turkish
An army officer engaged in rescue
work at Erzindjan had found her
and adopted her. She was going tc
Ankara.
Death Comes to Youth.
After the old woman it was the
youth who died. Nobody had no.
ticed him particularly. At Divrigi
we had seen him 60 to the station
fountain to fill bottle of water
Seeing him dead in his compart-
ment we remembered that at Div
rigi he had walked half bent for
ward, unnaturally.
At Kayseri they passed him ou,
of the window on a stretcher, the
untouched bottle Of water by his