Evening star., 1941-11-05
Ninth OF a Series.)
BY RALPH INGERSOLL.

BY RALPH INGERSOLL.
The only map of Russia 1 had
been able to find before 1 left San
Francisco was in Rand-McNally
two-bit. world atlas. Steele and l
translated the Russian alphabet on
the station signs, hunted through
the atlas to find out where we were.
We conferred with every one we
could buttonhole on the train about
when we might get to Moscow. No
one knew We were running on no
schedule, waiting at each siding for
orders to proceed to the next. AS
we'll as We could chart our progress
we figured we were making only 200
to 300 miles a day. We identified
Aktyubinsk, on the Ural River, one
morning just after dawn 1t is
directly south of the Ural Noun
tains, Just over the unmarked
boundary between Asiatic and Euro
pean Russia. We could feel the
change coming in the landscape.
Beyond Aktyubinsk, the high roll
ing grass plains seemed to become
more prolific. For the first time l
saw a big American-type complne
at work. The fields were enormous.
Orenberg. over the border, was
definitely European city. Its great
crowded square behind the station
bewildered us. We felt like country
bows. 1t also shocked us. City
poor looked poorer than country
poor. We saw our first beegars:
There was a blind boy who followed
the sound of our footsteps to gulde
himself across the square. he
seemed without resources or help
and no one paid the slightest at
tention to his obvious plight. People
waiting for trains jammed barred
entrance way to the station, guaroeu
by police. They sat OF leaned
against rolls of bedding, pots ana
pans and all manner OF personal
equipment and they looked tired
and hopeless. We thought they
were refugees. People told us no,
the war had not changed this.
There were only a few hundred OF
them: had they been refugees there
would have been thousands.
Moaning at Each Station.
Beyond Orenberg the war was
never to leave us, for our train
began picking up recruits, new men
being called to the colors. l re-
member the first station in which
1t happened. AS We slowed down to
come into it We could hear moan
Ing far down the track. We dldn t
know what it was. 1t rose and fell.
AS we came into the station with
our heads out the window we saw 1t:
a great pushing mass of several
hundred people from which there
rose sound of earthly misery.
Around each man who was to board
our train hung his women. HIS
wife. his grandmother, her grand
mother. his aunt. mixed IN were ms
children. 1t was the older women S
wailing that we had heard. There
were oficers chaperoning the flock.
AS the train stopped they Shooed 1t
past us toward the cars at the rear.
The Younger women began to cry.
They all seemed to want to reach out
and touch their man for the last
time. They reached over each
others shoulders to pat him. When
the note became hysterical the men
began to break. First one cried and
then another. An old grandmother
collapsed. An officer stopped and
knelt down by her to comfort her.
The soldiers who were travelling
in the train with us leaned out the
windows and were scornful. One or
two of them jeered The new re-
cruits seemed sissies to them. Many
of the young wives carried babies IN
their arms and their husbands kissed
the babies passionately with tears
streaming down their cheeks. The
Wailing had become almost chant.
An Oft Repeated Story.
Steel and I got out of the car and
followed the struggling. stumbling
tripping mass down the platform
] felt as if I were doing something
indecent. One by one the men
were separated from their women,
climbed onto the train. They tried
TO stop on the steps and call back,
but they were pulled or pushed in
The uniformed soldiers already in
the train continued to be contemp-
tuous. A bald little old man with
beard, who had travelled with us
from Tashkent, was furious with
this unpatriotic display of emotion
He began to deliver a lecture in a
loud voice. No one listened to it
The officers behaved very decently
They seemed good men. They
worked hard at reasSuring the un-
happy ones, at keeping some sense
of order
When it made me too unhappy
walked back up the platform ano
vent into the station restaurant
The grandmother who had collapsed
was in a corner An officer hac
brought her a glass of tea and was
feeding it to her. She had just be-
gun to smile when it all came back
to her and she broke down again
The officer threw up his hands II
stage gesture of despair, got uF
and went to his duties. The grand
mother went on crying all alone
We must have taken on so or 81
men at this first stop. For the next
four days at almost every station
some variation of this scene wa.
scted out again. We became cal.
ioused to it. Sometimes we did no
even get up to look out the window
Always it was the same: The moan
ing as we drew into the station, thu
rising wall, the mass hysteria tina
the stronger caught from the weak
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