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Show GREAT DISTRESS I OFTffi RUSSIANS Daughter of Diplomat Writes of Hopelessness and Chaos Which Overwhelms People. NEW YORK, .June 3. - The distress, hopelessness and chaos which over vrhelnied 'be well to do and official classes in the Russian revolution are vividly portrayed from the standpoint of a Russian woman in a letter re-Ceived re-Ceived by her former classmate in this country The writer is a daughter of a Russian diplomat who was connected v iih i he Russian embassy in Washington Washing-ton about twenty years ago and a wid ow of an officer in tho Russian army who was killed early in the war. Russia, crushed by exterior and interior in-terior enemies. Justlj despised and abhorred ab-horred by the sreat countries that once trusted her, is ruined and disappearing," disap-pearing," she wrote "My country is ceasing to exist It was bad enough before the March revolution, when our unhappy, half-witted emperor, under un-der the influence of his German wife, seemed to do everything possible to make people lose patience. We have a thousand anonymous potentates, thp top ones paid by Germany, and ihe lower ones lured into supporting them by money, money and money. All Laws Abolished. "The presenl government has abolished abol-ished all laws.' all courts, the police, land ownership, all private real estate in towns, all distinction of castos and grades in the army and navy. They have seized all (he banks, are opening all the private safes and confiscating all gold and silver found therein thouRh it had never been said before that it was criminal to have It. "Of course errything they 'decree' Is BO mad that it is quite sure not to last. foreer, but the chaos they make will take centuries to forget The country is going back to a savage state And we will not live to wait for better, times. Grave the Only Way Out. "Ml Russia is suffocating everyday every-day brings new surprises that show-that show-that there is but one way out of it the grave On the ground of liberty they abolish all laws, judges, attorneys and substitute for it 'people's courts of justice with only soldiers, work men or peasants, often quite illiterate and always without the slightest knowledge of court proceedings, taking tak-ing the places of the former judiciary. "On the samo ground they abolish all police, let loose all the criminals from the prisons, arm them, constituting constitut-ing from their number together with workmen, deserters and hooligans, a 'red guard' and will jhe prisons to their utmost with all those, who crave for order and will not work together i with them towards the total ruin of the country "On the pretense of equality thev abolish all grades m the army and navy and make all posts elective by the simple soldiers In most places it is understood as complete extermination, extermi-nation, hncbing of the officers, who, for being better educated, are under suspicion of being 'counter-revolution tr.' The highest posts are occupied occu-pied by elected soldiers who very often oft-en can hardly sign their names, and the former officers are made simple soldiers with a soldier's pay of $3 60 a month and ordered to the lowest tasks; cleaning of the barracks, cooking cook-ing food, taking care of the horses. D.-f.-f r u r . riivi vndui nciy no. "Our great country could only exist when all the wheels of the government were working in harmony. Now every- thing is a perfect chaos. Everybody was willing to throw over the czar-I czar-I istic government, but not in order to change it for this one, of loot, anar-Chy anar-Chy and treason toward our allies. Oh, the hanip, the disgrace and the folly I of it! The army which now consists of young boys (the regular one is long J ago killed) without any sense of duty, morals and discipline, so their acquired ac-quired "freedom" In the freedom to go home when they wan to. And so all the trains, all the stations, aro attacked attack-ed and destroyed by this horde of sav-ages, sav-ages, who kill engineers. If It seems to them the train goes too slowly, who martyrize the railway agents who tell them of ihe impossibility of starting start-ing their train for there is another one coming towards them in the same time. As this human flood goes home without organization everything Is looted and destroyed. 'Some months ago I was believing in . self to be quite well off. I have a house In Petrograd. Last spring Iwas offered $125,000 for it. but was advised not to sell and go over to America to have my littlo become a happ American school girl Npw I have on hand about $2000 and no other reourc-es; reourc-es; the house, like other prhate property prop-erty is being confiscated, the revenue goes to the government, that is to say-to say-to the private pockets of the usurpers. The government bonds annulated (repudiated) and even if I had not more money believe me there is nothing noth-ing to buy People Will Die of Hunger. "Petrograd will begin to die from hunger one of these days And these who are the authors of it are sure to escape at the last moment abroad and live happily afterwards with the millions mil-lions they will have robbed, and leave the country to its dreadful fate. "Life in Petrograd is horrible all the criminals all the workmen and demoralized de-moralized soldiers rob the few cars that still bring some kind of products In the very heart of the city, in daytime, day-time, you have your clothes taken off our back literally Just think, there is no police, nobody to call for help, for those who would like to help have bad their firearms confiscated, even the officers, even the highest generals. All the soldiers, etc . are armed and have become highwaymen. At any moment, mo-ment, you can expect a number of them coming into your private lodging and. under the pretense of 'perjuisi tion' take away all your money and valuables. "And as the government declares that in a real socialistic state no crime against private property will be considered as such, for the biggest of all crimes is just 'the crime of private ownership,' so you see there is nowhere no-where to ook for help Russia Is Bankrupt. "Our money is not accepted anywhere any-where abroad. Russia is bankrupt, so that it is impossible to escape All my friends and rclat"" sre in the same awful position Everybody lives on their last money, even those who were quite rich. Their money was in fiovemment or private bonds, and as they are declared void where v,i you get money from? My poor mind can not grasp tho whole thins, i' i- too great a madness 'I hope with all my heart that my dear American friends are happy it is some relief to think that there are people not suffering what we have to. "My only chance to save my little girl's life and my own would be M rPt away from her- and i" the United States. If you can think of any wa to bring this about please write to me at once i vsould do any kind of work and if I came to starve there, it would he to have my little one escape from this madhouse. Here, if we do not die in the next months, we will be slaves, regular slaves, of our lowest classes So you see that anything in free America would surely be a thousand thou-sand times better than what we must expert here." oo |