During the many years of sojourn in a foreign country, there have happened so many tragedies among the members of the Russian colony that if all these occurrences would have been recorded with all details, these records would have grown into whole volumes.

Especially numerous are the tragedies arising out of love and jealousy.

Here is the story of a woman,which has been related to me by that woman herself:

- I am the mother of three children, so she told me. My husband left me penniless, without any support. He went away and I have not heard from him since then. He does not even want to know how his children are getting along. Because he is dissatisfied with 2me he takes vengeance on the children. And I did not do him any wrong at that... When he was leaving me he declared that he had gotten tired of life with me..."I am tired of you," he said, "and I cannot stand life with you any longer.." And he went away...And now I have to bring up the children...

Another woman told me a similar story.

- I have been married, so she told me, fifteen years; we were wed still in the old country. Since the very first year of our married life, I had many painful experiences. My husband left for America, and for a long time I had to live alone. Later the war broke out and I had to suffer from hunger, to be in constant fear and to witness the horrors of war.

- At last my husband wrote to me telling me that he wanted me to 3join him in America and helped me to do so. Thus I was rescued from all the horrors of life in Europe. When I came here after all these horrible experiences, it seemed to me that I was in heaven. In the beginning life was pleasant. Two children were born. My husband was very happy; he would never get tired of admiring the babies, and he treated me kindly and was very considerate towards me. But all this happy life was shattered as if some devil had invaded our peaceful home. A certain fop destroyed it all. This fop came to live in our house, having in his mind a base purpose. In the beginning he behaved like a decent, quiet man. After having lived thus for a short time he began to make love to me. Being weak-willed I listened to his professions of love, believed him to be sincere and forgot my duty, my husband, my children. And there is where I ruined my life. After a short time, having heartlessly dishonored me, this fop disappeared and never came back. After this had happened where could I go? Return to my husband? But he was not a fool, he did not want to play a part in the comedy of reconciliation and did not want to keep me. He took one of the children and showed 4me the door. Since that time my life has been a perpetual misery. And I do not try to palm off the guilt on somebody else. It is all my own fault.

And here is the case of a man.

He has burdened his soul with a grievous sin. He has a wife and two children in his native country.

He has forgotten them. He married again, and meanwhile his first wife and his children, with the help of some friends, are trying to find out where he is. They beg him to answer them. They call him dear, darling; and he has here a wife and three children. The first wife and her children do not know that.

One more case.

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The wife was unfaithful to a Russian immigrant. That may not have been such a terrible thing; but this makes it worse: the husband loved her dearly and still loves her and cannot forget her. She has found some other man and has forgotten her husband, has evidently cast him entirely out of her memory. And he is tortured, he suffers having been abandoned. Financially he is a wreck; he has taken to drinking. And there are many similar cases in our colony.

This is only a small part of them.

A particle of tragic human experiences worthy of the pen of some noted writer.

J. Osipik.