Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

uffs (balanced rations) to the value of ($500.00) Five Hundred Dollars. REFERENCE EURELCON SALE Number 1092. Ca- ble London Black 331. Please rush for Christmas delivery. AMERICAN MENNONITE RELIEF Alvin J. Miller. Johann Dyck, who had come to Moscow to ask for help for this community had been made the Chairman of the Committee. He was to take with him from Moscow the A.R.A. delivery order to the District Supervisor at Saratov so that the food might be received at the Saratov or Pokrovsk warehouses without delay. But as the A.R.A. Supply Division was overcrowded with work, Dyck could not wait in Moscow for the preparation of the or- der. Such orders were regularly sent from Moscow by weekly couriers to the districts. But to wait for the next courier would delay the delivery too long. Winter already held the plains in its icy grasp. The snow was steadily piling up, making hauling more and more difficult every day. Blizzards were to be expected any time. Besides, it was almost Christmas and the Koeppenthal Committee was very anxious to make the first food distribution be- fore that day as a Christmas gift of love from the Amer- ican Mennonites. The order was telegraphed from Moscow to the A.R.A. office at Saratov. Dyck telegraphed also to his 188 FEEDING THE HUNGRY community for sleds to be sent to Pokrovsk, for the food. He returned to Saratov by train. Arriving there he found that the teams had come to haul the food but the telegram from the A.R.A., Moscow had not traveled as fast as the train, hindered though it was by snow. No instructions to deliver the food had been received. But Dyck had the A.M.R. authorization papers, and the District Supervisor was fortunately of a friendly disposition. The food was delivered. Not only white flour for bread; but also sugar, which, next to bread, was their greatest necessity; and evaporated milk, rice, lard, and cocoa. The sleds made their way with the precious load across miles of snow-clad prairie, a vast expanse of white, with only a few houses or huts along the entire distance. Meanwhile Klassen had returned from his extended tour of inspection in the three other settlements in the Volga regions, telling the gruesome story of famine and death in the Samara Gubernia (state). Villages entirely deserted, the thatched straw roofs of stables and houses taken down to feed the cow or the horse, flight from the village with the refugees dying in large numbers along the roadside. ‘The starving people clinging desperately to life, prolonging their miserable existence by eating the seeds of weeds, the bark of trees, chaff or straw, gophers, rats, crows, cats, dogs, the carcasses of animals starved to death—anything to sustain life. Multitudes of refugees straggling along the roadways begging at each house for a morsel of bread. Bread! BREAD! in God’s name Bread! When Klassen arrived at the Old Samara settlement he found some in very great ne