The Way of the Cross (Doroshevich)/XI
XI
HELP
THE Society of "Northern-Help" works very energetically.
The Municipal Alliance has given over a number of its points to the superintendence of Poles.
And they have done well.
The great majority of the fugitives speak Russian badly.
They understand nothing.
But at the relief stations people speak Polish with them.
The Poles work in a business-like fashion.
They know the ways of the people.
At the relief points where the Russians are working, I ask:
—What are you cooking?
—Borshtch.[1] Shtchee.[2] Soup.
But the Poles are cooking Polish dishes.
—We cook as they cook for the labourers on the large farms, explains a Polish official, simply.
And the fugitives from Polish provinces like these relief points better.
At the relief points they give:
—According to the certificates.
It is necessary to show the certificate of the head man of the village:
—In such and such a family so many souls; so many grown-ups, so many children.
—And if the certificate is wanting?
A young Polish sister in a white kerchief and leather jacket answers—We also give, even when there's no certificate.
There are no better words on such an occasion, in human tongue.
At the relief points all is arranged well and economically.
They wage war on the contractors.
Disease gives birth to parasites.
The village prepares black bread quite honestly.
But near the relief points have sprung up contractors.
The local:
—Enterprising people.
In the matter of supplying white bread:
—For children and sick persons.
And you will only hear one thing said, wherever you go:
—Half-baked bread again.
—I shall refuse that contractor after this.
—And will another turn out to be better?
And the position of the fugitives is hopeless.
At the relief points they:
—Complain.
The flood of people is such that they do not succeed in making sufficient soup.
They frequently have to give out soup that has not been properly boiled.
And the people get ill.
Or they give out provisions to the fugitives when the latter have no means of cooking them.
Only the means of heating them at the bonfire-side, eating them half-raw, and getting ill.
Though you give out money there is nowhere and nothing to buy.
All is dear, nothing within reach.
All along this way of affliction, in the villages and on the high-road, you may see white notices displayed:
—Hay for fugitives.
—Oats.
At seven pounds a horse.
—Wood for fugitives.
—Milk for children.
—Boiled water for fugitives.
—Boiling water for fugitives.
—Tea for fugitives.
—Food relief point.
—Medical point.
—Isolation point.
All is at the disposal of the fugitives.
But go into the medical point and you will find:
—That of medicine to stop dysentery there is none whatever.
Or go into the tea shop and they will tell you:
—The fugitives give the sugar to their children as a treat. So to prevent this we boil the sugar with the tea. It is better than that they should drink unboiled water.
Businesslike.
But the next establishment of that kind is sixty versts off.
Once in three days a man is able to drink sweet tea.
A great help!
You stop at a place where a notice hangs out.
—Milk for children.
The woman doctor is fairly off her feet with work.
—You give milk to children?
—Only to children.
—And how much milk do you receive per day?
—A bucket and a half.
You approach another milk point a hundred versts farther on.
—You give out milk?
—No. We boil semolina pudding. In milk half and half with water.
—How much milk do you receive in a day?
—Two buckets.
Truly:
—A drop of milk.