The crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1877-1878, 1878-01-03
CHRISTIAN RUSSIA.
The Government OF Poland n Record Of
Cruelty and Oppression.

IHe VI q bsN'"s" " W.
Cruelty and Oppression.
Pail Mall Gazette.
Sentimental admirers of Russian poll
cy would be much assisted in forming a
conclusion as to the happiness that
awaits any Eastern provinces which the
holy empire may conquer if they would
first visit Russian Poland. Russian
cruelty has only been seen dimly
through haze, because Poland is fur
off and the means of collecting informa-
ton there are few and precarious.
There is no independent Polish press.
A Pole who should write letters from
Warsaw to Western newspapers would
soon be detected and sent to Siberia.
If an Englishman visits Poland as a
tourist, he finds the natives fearful to
speak the truth, for they well know
what it might cost them to do so
whence he falls back for his facts upon
the polite Russian officials who are
always communicative about things to
their own advantage, and perhaps he
goes away with the impression that,
since the Poles continue to buy and
sell and are not hogged in the streets,
they cannot be so wretched after all.
Nevertheless, books full of fearful re-
cords have been published by Polish
gentlemen of unimpeachable good faith,
and the extoller of Russian chivalry
might learn the truth from them il he
pleased. He might also learn it from
Polish refugees, who are not scarce in
England or France, and whose tales of
atrocities are by no means things to
smile on.
After the crushing of the Polish re-
bellion of 1S63-4- which the Russians
had fomcnted for some years with
view to more thoroughly crushing it
the policy inaugurated by the conquer
ors was that of totally eradicating the
national element in the country. Ev-
cry land owner who had not taken m
active part against tho insurgents had
his property confiscated and was eXiled;
all who had personally joined in the e.
bellion, and could be caught, were trans
ported to Siberia, and are there still, If
alive. Women and girls shared the fate OF
the men, so did boys. Insome disaffscted
districts whole villages were transported,
and by refinement of cruelty, the rule
which allows ordinary criminal convicts
to correspond at intervals with their
friends was not applied to these political
offenders, so that the poorer among
them, who could not bribe itinerant
Jew merchants to carry letters for them
and bring back replies, have been en-
tirely cut off from the outer world. To
this day Polish refugees in England
who write to the Russian Government
to inquire whether their fathers, moth
ers, or brothers are living obtain no an
swers, nor is it of the slightest use for
them to send money in hopes that it
will reach Siberia. Once Poland had
been cleared of its rebel population,
German and Russian immigrants had
put into the vacant peasant holdings,
the larger estates were given to court
favorites who seldom reside on them
but leave the management to their
agents. The next thing was to prohib-
it the use of the Polish language in
schools and its use in commercial trans
actions, in public documents and even
in churces. In 1867 the attempt made
against the Cars life in Paris, by Bez-
ezowski, induced the government to dis
miss all French teachers from the
schools, and now French is not taught.
The Pole is bound to learn Russian.
He could not get on without it, for ev-
cry official, from the highest to the pet
tiest, insists upon being addressed in
that tongue. The publication of books
or newspapers in Polish has been made
a penal offense, and the Polish works
accumulated in private libraries have
long ago been seized. The press cenor-
ship may be evaded in Russia, but not
in Poland, where information is only
allowed to penetrate through the med
ium of the official journals and works
which received the imprimatur of the
Public instruction Department Mt st.
Petersburg. Strangers on arriving in
the country are stripped not only of
their books and periodicals, but even of
such scraps of newspapers as they may
have used to wrap up their boots, and
these are only restored to them when
they recross the frontier. Polish boys
are educated out of Russian histories,
which treat Of their country with con-
tempt, and at the university they have
to sit still while professors demonstrate
to them that their patriot fathers were
brigands. Public spirit has been
stamped out by this implacable tyran-
ny; but resignation offers no defense
against the ill treatment of officials, for
it is part of the government system to
make the Poles feel the yoke constantly
on their necks. A Pole who is molest-
ed by a Russian brings his case before
Russian judges, and can not get redress.
If Russian is molested by Pole, man
or woman, the latter is thrown into
prison, and fogged. Polish women
have been forbidden to wear mourning,
because they used to attire themselves
in black on national anniversaries.
They also come to trouble if their cos
tunes show any assortment of scarlet
and white, which are the national colors
All the professions, even the medical
have been closed to Poles who refuse to
take an oath which would make them
renegades to their country's cause and
to their religion, for the first pledge
exacted of Christian Pole "who sub
mits," as the term goes, is that he shal
embrace the Russian orthodox faith
Failing this, he can not open shop il
his own name, nor buy land, nor becom,
school teacher. When he has served
his term OF ten years in the army (anC
no money can buy his exemption) h
: may come back and till the soil, o
> work as q merchantile clerk, or ente
: into secret partnership with Je'
Q trader.
+ Married to n Nobleman.
c San Francisco Call.
7 One of Lydia Thompson,s burlesqu
III