Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-04-17
Russian Crueltiea.


the following readable letter from Gen.
eral c. NJ Clay, in defense Of Russia
and the Russians:
In your journal of a recent date is
paper which is type of the malignant
calumnies of the anii-Russian press for
century or more. lived in st. Pet
ersburg for near nine years. and made
Russian life a study. mingling with all
classes for that purpose. dined with
the Emperor and imperial family, and
took cabbage and soup and black bread
with the wOodmen who came from the
interior on boats and RATS. Perhaps
there is no American, living or dead,
who can speak with more authority
than | can on the real character of
Russia. l believe there is no more
charitable or humane nation on earth
than Russia. give the proofs. There
are no deaths by absolute poverty in
Russia, as in the great cities of Paris,
London, New York and other European
cities. Besides the charitable associa-
tions established BY law. the first mobiles
in Russia. men and women, yearly, by
organized societies. collect funds by
gifts, needle work, and other methods,
'or clothes, soup-houses and bread,
which are distributed all winter in St
Petersburg; and such methods are pur-
sued in other cities. The infants that
are drowned and thrown into sewers in
Europe and America are taken at a
day old, if need be. and brought up at
the public expense in st. Petersburg,
Moscow, and other cities. These child
rem, when grown up to suitable age,
are put to service, and may make
generous living. Russia liberated her
slaves, not by war, and gave them
lands. America did neither.
1 dined with the nephew of Prince
Dolgorouky, Governor General of Mos
COW (Vlceroy), and liberated serf or
slave was at the table as a guest, and
made the best dinner speech on the oc-
casion. The Russians open all their
pleasure-grounds beside the public
parks to the whole people. They never
bar the gates and close the doors
against the ''rabble," as in England
and America. In summer the yards
are open and the windows without
blinds, that the humblest peasant may
see and hear the music. On all great
occasions of private nature all the
poor are feasted or otherwise enter
tanned by suitable means. In England
and America even house servants are
treated with contempt, and my own
family demonstrated on my return be-
cause l said good morning, as was my
habit in Russia, to them. The Russian
noblemen speak kindly always to their
interiors; the Englishmen and Ameri-
cans out of the south rarely ever The
Russian Empire is large and sparsely
populated. so that the means of sub
sistence do not at all press upon the
increase of population. In the large
cities, as I said. no absolute suffering
for the neccssaries Of life is possible.
Now, as to prisons. There was at
no time while l was in Russia, so far
as know and believe, one equal in its
infamy to the Kentucky Penitentiary.
And Governor Blackburn deserves not
denunciation, but eternal honor, for
his manhood and philanthrophy, against
the barbarian clamors of the press,
for his reform. When I was in St.
Petersburg the cholera was several
times in that city of 600. 900, and there
was no more sensation than if the
measles or whooping-oough prevailed.
Every subject of the disease was taken
at once to wholesome hospitals, well
attended, and then, when GONZALES
cent, returned without charge to their
homes.
The streets Of St. Petersburg were a
hundred times cleaner than the streets,
alleys and back-yards of Richmond.
They never burned down the pest
houses in Russia, as they did the other
day in Madison county, when small
pox prevailed. As to prisons and ST.
IBERIA, am glad to have an opportuni-
ty to refute some of the worldwide
oalumnies of the anti-Russian press.
Siberia is not so vile country as the
French penal colony of Cayenne, nor
the original Australia OF England.
Three Siberian-born ladies married
mobiles in St. Petersburg; one the
Prince Suwarrow, the grandson of the
Prince Suwarrow Of Napoleon's times;
the other sisters married well, one an
officer on the staff of the Emperor. 1
have heard them speak of the Father
land" as would German. And these
were the descendants of Siberian exiles.
do not hesitate to say that of all the
people | ever knew the Russians are
the most genial and hospitable. 1t is
true the ranks in Russia are very dis
tinct and marked. but the humane
spirit of Russia thaws all coldness,
breaks all conventional barriers, and
fuses the whole into one national feel
ing as in no other land. That is the
reason of the invincible courage of the
Russian army. What calumniators
call ''stolidity" is mistaken and heroic
patriotism. 1 could fill q book of SINH.
lar proof, but hold:
"Oh wad gonna ,,owor fbe ojftip ria rs