Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-02-06 | Page 21 | Fuel Shortage Drives Many to Thievery

FUEL SHORTAGE DRIVES INY TO THIEVERY j Neighbours Look on Enviously When Poor Coal Arrives At Hungarian Home BUDAPEST; Jan. 16. Maps of the poor people of this city are being driv en to wholesale thievery by tho fuel shortage. The recent theft of 26 car- loads of wood from one .raln of 100 carloads as it entered the city shows (the extent to which tlie stealing Is going on. Wood is so scarce that when a wag-onload wag-onload Is driven through the stnets people stop and and gaze alter it UUtll It Is out of sight. Daring small boys are ever on the alert for a stray piece of wood or anything any-thing that will give heat at home. Thej scamper after everi passing wood wagon but are soon frightened awn) 'by long whips In the hands of two women who sit on guard astride the lead. i vvmi : miliums. The operation oi unloading a ton of i Hungary' Interior brown coal before ia house attracts many neighbors who I make a pathetic picture as they watch i basketful after basketiul disappear ilnto the coal bin oi the more fortune . one. Because of the urgency to obtain ifuel, by dishonest means. If honest lones are of no avail, the juvenile courts were never so crowded, with youthful ' offend' a. , The scarcity of fuel arose more acuta : daily as winter advances. The at "eel railway service hns been sharply curtailed cur-tailed and people "alt for hours v.-j v.-j posed to the bitter cold. The WOrsI ,operatcd American streetcar never tolerated tol-erated such crowding. TUR I LIGH Is- IN HOMJ Gas factories are provided with coal for only 2-1 hours at a time and thu Gas is turned on now only at noon and after 6 o'clock. Only one light la pel mltted In a room and not more than I three rooms in a house or single apartment apart-ment may be lighted at the same time. Even at tho most expensive hotels there Is no running hot water. Saturday Satur-day Is bathing day. On other days I baths can oiiry be had at tho public baths f:jr which Budapest Is famous. One of the latest and most drastic steps of the new government la the deportation of undesirable citiSenS, those suspected of Bolshevik tendencies tend-encies or who are known lo be opposed to the present form of government. Hundreds of these have come to Hungary Hun-gary since the outbreak of the war. Now their houses and flats are being commandeered and turned over to homeless refugees from Transylvania and other sections who have been living liv-ing In freight cars . in the railroad v j rd l (S II" UtDl D. Tho majority of the people have parted company with the last of their articles of Jewehry and the dealers I from other lands are not getting many takers of their offers of fabulous prices for gora and sliver. What Is called the Stalo Exchange Bureau, a sort of national pawnshop, has paid I as high as 80,000 crowns for a kilogram kilo-gram tof 2.20 pounds) oi s.rap I , and dealers are offering 120,000 crowns in an effort to coax another kilogram from people who may be hoarding their precious metal. For pure gold 230,000 crowns a kilogram Is offered with no takers. Tho ex-i planatlOO Is that most of the gold has been smuggled lo other v countries where tho money lias more value. COUNTRYMEN JS IMERIOA The Hungarian newspaper print a warning to 150,000 laborers of Hungarian Hun-garian origin in tlie Fnlted States to desist from Lholr reported Intention to return to their native land at this time. The papers says that tho economic crisis In America can never bo as bad as it is here und urged their countrymen country-men not to further embarrass Hun-gay's Hun-gay's unemployment problem. As If the country's cup of misery was not lull It Is now visited by on epidemic of hoof ami mouth disease ami people are prohibited from buying cattle from neighboring states. All frontiers are cb.seiy watched and all I cattle within 30 kilometers of the border bor-der must be registered with the health authorlt ies. oo-