New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-01-27
THE pL1GIE ~ RTSNTI

Russia Is still bleeding from the cXlalStln3
efforts which she made in battling with the
Turk The waste of war and corruption goes
on the military outlay is not pared down !;
deficit follows deficit; and the National
finances are in incXtricabe confusion,
and apparently on the verge of utter
collapse. The hoarSe muttcIings of dis
content are heard in every town. while
from the network ST revolutionary COM
mIttecs that are joined together in impen-
ctrabe secrecy comes the shril cry. Reforms
must he from above if they are not wanted
L" from below" And now the shadow of a
great pesiilence falls upon the Northern
State. The plague has spread from the Cas-
plan along the Volga until it has rayaged the
provinces of Astrakhan and Salatolf. and, as
the rumor goes, is now within few hours
march OF Moscow.
This is the scourge of the Middle Ages, the
BLACK Death of the fourteenth century,
the blight which fell upon London in 1868,
and destroyed nearly half of the population of
Marseilcs i'll 1920. Since that dread vista
ton i'm Southern France it has not returned to
Western Europe save in 1915, when it
crossed the threshold Of Naples. In 1771
Moscow was under the curse, and sew
eral times during the present century
has the plague passed over the Danube
to lead dance of death in Southern
Russia. During the terrible Winter of
lS2S-'29, before Diebitsch led an army of
invalids across the Balkan, and through sheer
audacity dictated the Peace of AdrianOple,
the plague swept over ROumania until two
thousand villages were infected and 1900
Russian soldiers were lost in the hospitals.
From May, 1928, to February, 1929, the
sick list comprised over 100000 names, and
inasmuch as Won Motkc. the historian of the
campaign, estimates that the whole strength
of the army could not have been over 100
600 men, every soldier, on the average, was
twice in the hospital. As early as May, 1929,
the plague broke out on the right bank
of the Danube, and before the Winter
set in the victorious army was almost
wholly destroyed, for not more than
10000 men recroSScd the Pruth, and many
of these were recruits This time Pcstilcnce
has not kept pace with War; but has stalkcd
upon the scene not long way behind. Two
regiment, of tO-sacks, in returning from the
s,nt of war have carried with them the
germ. of infection, and, unless the accounts
given by the Austrian and British medical
journals are grossly exaggerated. the disease
is of most malignant type, and is spread
ing rapidly.
If seems almost iucOnccivablc that the NOR
tally can bc 20 great a. one of the Vienna
journals represents. for the rayJgcS of the dis
ease have generally been checked by cold
weather, and the present Winter has been I'M
usually severe throughout Europe. On the other
hand the great body of agricultural laborcIs
which form. the bulk of the population
of the Empire is Ill prepared 10 resist
the scourgc. The country is impoverished;
famine is sore in many quarters; I'M
cleanliness and lntcmpcrancc are prevailing
wees among the cntIanchiscd peasants; and
the Ignorance of the MASSES l. dense. Like the
freedmen in our own Southern States, those
who were once scriS have not yet learned how
to take care of their bodies, much less TO read
on write There is only one school for every
800 inhabitants of European Russia. and the
proportion OF children who receive the most