Vacation Done

Last week the first snow fell in Moscow. It was a signal for hordes of wolflike, grimy orphans to hitchhike back to the capital from their summer "vacation" in the country.

These urchins were orphaned by the War, revolution, famine. Once there were two million of them; now there are said to be only 100,000. They live by theft and the world is their home. Now they are fighting with sticks, stones, fists, knives for the possession of tar boilers for winter shelters.

One urchin, questioned in the street as to how he had managed to acquire a new suit of clothes and as to why he was tearing down posters from a wall, said, grinning: "Don't you see our uniforms? We spent a fortnight at one of these kids' homes and they outfitted us fine. Then, of course, we skipped. So now we are getting sheets to keep us clean in bed."

Soviet philosophy allows no restraint to be put on children. Even in the schools a student studies only those subjects he fancies. These wolflike boys and girls, all about the age of 13 or 14, are thus allowed to prey upon society because they prefer to prey and to roam the country, although homes have been provided for them and some 1,900,000 have thus been taken care of, taught trades, etc. But the homes are evidently not all they are supposed to be, for recently the head of one institution was arrested because he placed iodine on the tongues of boys using bad language, because he turned a hose on a small riot and because he sewed the shirts of two youthful fighters together "like Siamese twins." The punishment of the youngsters seemed to be well merited, considering what thugs they are--but not in the eyes of the Bolsheviki.