Show tai FLOYD GIBBONS Adventurers Adventurers' r er Club ClubA t is isZ Z r A Grave in Russia By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter T THIS HIS is the story of why Donia of Bronx N. N Y J- J came to Amer America It is also the story of why Donia is is afraid of snow That's a funny sort of fear especially as Donia came here from Russia where they have plenty of that cold white stuff that powders the earth in winter But then if you'd gone through what Donia did over there therein in the little village of near the city of Kiev well maybe well maybe yond you'd be afraid of ot snow too I know that If It It bad had happened to me Id I'd move dOll on the Equator where Id I'd never even have to think of ot the doggone stun stuff In the winter of 1919 Donia lived In that little village of that I 1 just mentioned She lived there alone with herr her r mother for her father had been killed In t the e World war The Times Were Hard Even for Russia Those were bad times Jn In Russia The CzarIst government had fallen and there was little real law In the land No much order either Roving bands pillage the country Bandits were everywhere And worst of ot all were the Cossacks those half halt sa savage age soldiers of ot the former czar Wherever they went they robbed and terrorized Especially they terrorized the Jews wherever they found them That of course was nothing new Even under the czars there had been Jewish anti riots most of them Instigated and carried on by these same Cossacks Now though they were even less restrained than they had been In the old days of the monarchy Jews were robbed beaten tortured and killed They have a name for those slaughters over there They call th them m pogroms The uThe Cossacks Are Coming Was Bad News Donia Donla and her mother lived in constant fear of ot these pogroms They were the only Jewish family In the the neighborhood the only one within a 8 radius of 01 five miles mUes about their little village And one night as ns Donia i lay lay In be bed with a high fever there came an ominous knocking at the door when When Donias Donia's mother opened It she saw sawa a peasant shaking with fear tear who cried out the dreaded warning The Cossacks are coming Donias Donia's mother became pale with terror Donia Donla started to cry She was only six years old then not not much more tl than nn a baby But the Cossacks didn't spare even children when they were out on their sava savage e eto to forays rays Fever or no fever Donia Donla was taken out of bed Her mother wrapped her in some blankets and dragging her by the hand started for the house of a Christian neighbor where they could hide until the Cossacks had gone It was a bitter cold night It had been snowing steadily for da days sIt s It It was hard going through the drifts and the neighbors neighbor's house was a mile mUe away away But Donias Donia's mother hurried on going as fast as ns the drifts would let her and dragging little Donia Donla along by the hand They Seek Refuge in the Frozen They had almost reached their destination when they heard the bent beat bentor of or horses' horses hoofs far up the road The Cossacks were on them 1 There wasn't time to reach the house boose where they were to find shelter Hardly T f 4 r r J Mother and Child Fled Through the Snow time for an anything at all Donias Donia's mother looked around for a place to hide The bare treeless landscape stretched stretched away awa awny bleak and There was no place to hide but one one and and that might mean death for little stricken fever Donia There wasn't any choice Better an easy death than the tho tortures of the Cossacks Better a death from pneumonia than the fiendish cruelty of the horsemen who were riding toward them Donias Donia's mother got down on her knees and began scoopIng scoopIng scoop scoop- Ing a hole in the snowdrift at the side of the road She tore cloth from her skirt and put it over their faces so they could breathe Then she put Donia In the hole she had scooped out lay down beside her and began covering them both with with snow They Hide Under the Cossacks' Cossacks Very Eyes They had no sooner finished than the Cossacks rode up They came right up to the spot where Donia and aud her mother ta lay burled In t the e snow and and stopped I Mother and daughter held their breaths Had the they been discovered Had the sharp c ryes es of 01 the Cossacks rea read the marks and und prints In the snow But no The Cossacks It seems hadn't noticed their hI hiding dint place They had bad just stopped to talk tatk For endless minutes they chattered while white Donia and her mother wondered how bow long lung they'd have bave to He lie there motionless motionless mo tuo- under that cold blanket et of snow Time dragged on Donias Donia's mother felt that she was freezing Donia long cince since had stiffened and lost consciousness at her mothers mother's side Then at last the Cossacks climbed back on their horses rattled off down the road The Cossacks had gone but gone but It seemed to Donias Donia's mother that they had gone too late Inte Her little tittle girl all stiff and blue lay motionless In inthe the snow bank She picked her up and carried her to the neighbors neighbor's h house honse convinced that she was dead lead But Dut Donia Donin wn wasn't nt dead She lived to tell us her story And soon after that escape she and her mother carne came to America They didn't want any more experiences like that that that-no no more adventures with Cossacks and with the cold snows of or Russia O w e-w u |