The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-13
R USSA.
Canine, Typhus and PRuperlsm -
Brandy the sOause-AppaIling Statt sites
short. Sighted Foley OF the Gov erA-

Brandy the sGaHSs-Appalling Statistics
ment. ..-.
A correspondent of the New York Tribune
writes from st. Petersburg, July 2O as fol-
lows:-
'The abolshment of sertdom has given Rus
sia the possibility TO become European power,
but nevertheless, it is the principal cause of the
great calamity which has befallen the Empire
during the last winter, and from which we shall
have to suffer many year more. Famine and
typhus have welded their scsptre in most
fearful manner all over the country for all these
months, paupersm, famine ana typhus is the
ore dark picture our despairin eyes look upon
for years and years TO come. A bad crop was
generally supposed to be the principal reason of
the almost incredible distress which manifested
itself everywhere among the rural popula-
tion as soon as the hard winter set in At
the same time the Minister of the Interior
was severely blamed by public opinion for not
having toreseen the calamity, SO that he could
have met the most urgent necessities; and at last
it almost seemed as If his negligence aud care
lessness alone had to account for all the deaths
that were recorded by hundreds from the most
afflicted provinces. Indignant at these unjust
accusations the minister resigned his office, and
the Cabinet lost one of its ablest and its most
honorable members. 1t was loss much to be
regretted, but yet, in one respect, the country
derived a very ySuable, @ though most painful
taken the Minister published long and
elaborate official report, from which it be-
came apparent beyond any doubt that the
root of the evil lay much deeper, than any
body had supposed, and thu it was per-
ncious folly TO charge the last crop or the re-
mssness OF any individual with IT. With the
only exception of Finland and the province OF
Archangelsk tho crop has been quite as good as
in any average year. and partly even better.
The export lists of the Southern ports showed
larger ngures than in any former year. Aud
even at the time there was plenty OF every sort
of corn, but those who were most in need of 1T
had not one tarthng left to provide for one
days provision. Many people, no doubt had to
complain of an extremely scanty crop; but 1t
was not the fault of nature. The estates of the
manor owners had yielded a more than suti-
Gent harvest while the surrounding fields of
the freedmen looked almost like fallow ground.
Whose was the fault! Since there was no
possibility TO compel the freedmen to work, they
did not work any more. From the day OF he
abolishment of serfdom they did not till their
fields at ALL or they did 1t so carelessly and in-
sufficiently that tolerable crop would have
been real miracle. "Their time was devoted
20 pleasanter business than ploughing and
narrowing; brandy had been their idol ever SO
long, but now they did not stir from his altars.
To this filthy god they sacrificed all they had;
the bar keepers ere the only bankers OF the
peasantry, they receive good money, and give
in exchange bad brandy; but nowadays
money is greater rarity with peasants than
even temperance; the barkeepers therefore,
have recently become pawnbrokers, and whole
villages have sent their last piece OF furniture,
their last shirt to the tavernn That looks like
! ridiculous eXaggeTation, and yet it Is nothing
! but the plainest truth. We will give a
few figures, taken from official sources, to illus
! tTate this appalling picture, because figures, at
| all events, do not lie nor eXaggerate, and be-
cause they speak for themselves, and we need
not comment upon them with a single word.
In the "great Russian" Provinces the excise
| yielded in 1749 a clear income of l,786 955
Ioubles; in lS49, 49, 5S2 944 roubles, and In 1859
| Nl7lOl5 roubles that is to say, in ten years it
| has been almost doubled, In Prussia the clear
profit of the excise amounts to 6 per cent. of the
total revenue OF the State lin France to percent
! in Austria to 10 per cent. in England and in
| Sweden and Norway to "a per cent. and in Russia
| 10 3S per cent. That was the proportion in 1853;
most likely 1t is different; for il in 1859 the
clear income yielded by the excise amounted to
Hl7l, ,0l5 roubles, 1t was ll5, 600, 900 roubles in
1866; and for 1868 IL is estimated TO be 1850
$40 roubles so 1t has more than tripled within
the last 20 years.
$50 1t is not an accidental calamity origina-
! ting from yesterday, that has befallen the EN-.
| pire. From the day of eman Gipaton the condl-
ton of the peasants grew worse and worse from
duged in their ntemperate propensity for in.
| make their minds up to resume work. The
large enough 10 make up for their shortcomings
during the first years. Everybody borro owsd
most freely from them, until they too were as
empty rs any private barn, and rats and mice
| began 10 emigra'e, without knowing where to
go 10; then-well, then began the famine. then
The bunger-typhus began to show his CHASTITY
face in every village; then agony and despair
were put on the throne; then the poor ignorant