Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-01-05

IDc lnCcluplebeneSS OF nAuOn4l reform
Is always proportioned 10 Its violence, and
few favorite abuses ere wont to linger
long after the rest have vanished. More
especially Is this the case with Russia.
Nine tenIhs of the abuses swept away By
the great tide Of reform thai flowed un-
checked from 1851 to 1870 affected not the
bulk Of the Russian people, but merely
The limited section of 1t compressed into
the large towns The popular belief that
the Cars decree Of February, 1851, turned
2S 600, 600 slaves into freemen Is a griev-
GUS error. ALI that it did was to substitute
for the capriclous tyranny Of master the
organized tyranny of system. Ia some
respects, no doubt. the Russian ''moujik"
has profted by the change. He can no
longer be scourged, tortured or killed with
impuuity. His term of military service has
been vastly abridged and hghtened, and
he has become, to some extent at least, u
land holder and citizen But he is as
far from being free as in the savage old
days when Russia was q wilderness in
Tested with certain beasts Of prey called
mobiles, who alternated between tearing
each other and devouring the beasts of
burden called peasants. He has been
changed from a well-fed slave to a half.
starved freeman. Though no longer
rooted like tree to the soil on which he
was born, he is so hampered by official re-
strictions on one side and adverse circum-
stances on the other as to have practically
just as little freedom of action as ever
Thanks TO his llljudged haste IN borrowing
Rloney 10 purchase land, his ignorance of
farming and mis- utter want of thrift, he
has passed from the power of a master,
whose interest il was to take good care Of
him, only to fall into that or a rapacious
insurer, whose interest il Is to suck his
blood 10 the last drop. In word, his so
called ''hberty" is merely that of convict,
who has been allowed the run of the pris-
on courtyard.
Such are The conditions under which o.
600, 900 ss'ans-2S, 900, 900 freed serfs
and %, 600, 600 free peasants-are now liY-
Ing ard have been living for years. Nat
urally sluggish and .fatalisuc, and hindered
from seeking better fortune elsewhere, the
moujik makes no effort to devise remedy
for his troubles, but vegetables on his un-
productive land in state of helpless resig-
nation, without fear and without hope
Moreover, to the evils of compulsory resi-
dence are no. unfreouently added those of
compulsory migration. 1t Is the greatest
curse of despotism that, while resisting all
moderate and rational changes, it is sub
iect to a periodical mania for enforcing
other changes of the most violent and alb
normal kind, as If to assert its own superb
ority over the very laws of nature. When
any district of the Russian empire seems
toe thinly peopled its rulers meet the diff
Guilty by simply decanting 90 maLy souls
from Que province to another, wholly ig-
norlug such trlfles as difference of soil and
climate, insufficient transport. physical
weakness or want of supplies. ANY trav-
eler W no has encountered one of these dis
NAL caravans on the great plains of Siberia
or Central Asia will not easily forget the
sight. Men plodding through the burning
sand with bare and bleeding feet; 5aggard,
fever-stricken women tossing restlessly
among the sacks aud chests of an unshel
tered wagon, beneath vertical sun; half
clad children, their eyes red and swollen
from want of sleep, their lips cracked and
bllstered with thirst, their poor little faces
black with dust and flies, looking Wistfully
up as if wondering why no one tried to
help and comfort them worn-out suffer-
ers dropping down on the march to die
and be buried IN the drifting sand, only to
be dragged forth again and torn piece meal
by vultures almost before their comrades
are out of sight, and all these horrors GO
ing on day after day. and week after week
through journey of several thousand
miles.