RUSSIA: Not Shoes, Not Bread

Of all the shortage tales which have come out of the U. S. S. R., one which came last week was most calculated to wring the hearts of Old Russians. The Moscow bimonthly Bolshevik reported a shortage not of shoes, not of black bread or tractors or clothes, not of roofs to sleep under—but of samovars. There is only one shop in all Moscow, said the Bolshevik, which will make, resurface or solder samovars. So busy are that shop’s tinkers that they can accept orders only for 150 on the 13th day of each month.