Trapped In
"Black Russia"
Letters
JUNE-NOVEMBER 1915
BY RUTH PIERCE
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1918
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY RUTH PHINNEY PIERCE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published February 1918
TRAPPED IN "BLACK RUSSIA"
CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| I. | June-July, 1915 | 1 |
| II. | July-August, 1915 | 42 |
| III. | August-September, 1915 | 66 |
| IV. | September-October, 1915 | 93 |
| V. | October, 1915 | 122 |
| VI. | October-November, 1915 | 130 |
"Black Russia"
I
Dearest Mother and Dad:—
There is no reason why this letter should ever reach you if you considerthat it's war-time and that I am in Russia. Still, the censor may besleeping when it comes along, or I may find a way to slip it over theborder under his very nose. I always have a blind faith that my wordswill reach you somehow.
I am in Russia—without Peter. Don't be frightened, dearests. I camewith Marie, and we will go back to Bucharest together in a week. Only aweek in Russia. Oh, if the top of my head could be lifted off and letout everything I want to tell you.
We had no difficulty in crossing the frontier. The little Roumaniantrain took us over a river, and all at once we were out of themake-believe country where the stage always seems set for opéra-bouffe[Pg 2]There were no more pretty Tziganes, with disheveled hair and dirty,bare breasts, to offer you baskets of roses and white lilies. There wereno Turks in red fezes squatting in the dust, hunting among their ragsfor fleas, and there were no more slender peasants in tight white-wooltrousers and beautiful embroidered shirts. Everything, just by crossinga riv