Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-13
RUSSIAN CRUEI.TIEs.

What Gen. Cassius NJ. Clay Has to Say
About the Widespread Belief Con-
cernIng Them.
The Richmond, Ky, Herald prints the
following readable letter from Gen. c.
NJ. Clay in defense of Russia and the Rus
slams:
E'ln your journal Of December - is a
paper which is a type OF the malignant
calumnies Of the anti Russian press for a
century or more. | lived in st. Petersburg
for near nine years, and made Russian
life a study, mingiing with all classes for
that purpose. / dined with the Emperor
and imperial family, and took cabbage
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. / believe there is no more
charitable and humane nation on earth
than Russia. give the proofs. There are
no deaths by absolute poverty in Russia,
as III the great cities of Paris, London,
New York, and other European cities.
Besides the charitable associations estab-
Iished by law the first mobiles in Russia.
men and women, yearly, by organized
societies, collect funds by gifts, needle
work, and other methods, for clothes,
soup houses and bread, which are dis
trlDuted all winter III st. Petersburg: and
such methods are pursued in other cities.
The infants that are drowned and thrown
INTO sewers IN Europe and America
are taken at day old, if need be.
ana brought up at the public expense
an st. Petersburg, Moscow, and other
cites. These children when grown uD to
suitable age are put TO service ana NAV
make generous living. Russia liberated
her slaves not by war and gave them
lands. America did neither. | dined with
the nephew of Prince DOlgorOukv, Cover
nor-Geueral of Moscow CVicerov). and
- 81" ~'"'-0 voc .at The table as
1IUct dUou BUIL VI
q guest, and made the best dinner speech
on the occasion. 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 hum
blest peasant may see and hear the
music. On all great occasions of a
private nature all the poor are Toasted
or otherwise entertained by suitable
means. In England and America even
house servants are treated with contempt,
and my own family demonstrated on my
return because l said good morning, as
was my habit in Russia to them. The
Russian nOblemen speak Kindly always to
their interiors; the Englishmen and Amer
leans out of the South rarely ever. The
Russian Empire IS large and sparsely
populated, so that the means of subsist-
ence do not at all press upon the increase
of population. In the large cities, as l
SAID, no absolute suffering for the neces-
saries OF life is possible.
Now as to prisons. There was at no
time while | was in Russia, so far as l
know and believe, one equal in its infamy
to the Kentucky penitentiary. And
f1oz-or, Blackburn deserves not denun-
citation. but eterpr, honor for his man
hood and philanthropy, against The ra,-
barian clamOrS of the press, for his re-
form. When l was in st. Petersburg the
cholera was several times in that city Of
100000, and there was no more sensation
than If the measles or whOOping-cOugh
prevailed. Every subject of the disease
was taken at once to wholesome hospitals,
we'll attended, and then, when GONZALES
cent, returned without charge to
their homes. The streets of
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 smallpox prevailed. AS to
prisons, and Siberia, l am glad to have an
opportunity to refute some of the world
wide calumnies of the anti-Russian press.
Siberia is not so vile a 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 mar
ried well, one an officer in the staff of the
Emperor. i have heard them speak Of the
'Fatherland" as would a German. And
fiese were the descendants of Siberian ex-
lies. l do not hesitate to say that Of all the
people l ever knew the Russians are the
most genial and hOspitable. 1t is true
the ranks in Russia are yerrv distinct and
marked, but the humane spirit of Russia
thaws all coldness, breaks all conyen-
tiOnal barriers, and fuses the whole into
one national feeling as IN nc other land.
That is the reason that Russians never
emigrate. That is the reason of the in
vIncible courage of the Russian army.
What calumniatOTs call "stolidity" is
mistaken and heroic patriotism. l could
fill a book of similar proof, but hold:
"Oh, wad come power the giftie gle us,
To see oursels rs ithers SCI us"
Whitehall, Ia. en-. CLAY.
Held by Brigands for over a Month.
Naples Correspondence London Standard.
The Duke of CalvinO, who was captured
by bTIgandS on the evening of the 4th Of
November in the neighboThOod of Trapani,
has been released by his captOTs on pay
ment of ransom OF 10000 francs by his
family. who never expected to see him
alive again, he being very obese, advanced
in age, and afflicted with nervous mala-
DIV. He had passed thiIty-tive days with
the brigands, and, strange To say, the
treatment he had received, though by no
means pleasant, has had the effect of com
pletely curing him.
T r.; lube rAlates that ia the night when
he was taken he was put on horseback
and made to ride till next morning, when
the brigands stopped at a kind Of ware
house There he renamed the first day,
and wrote, at his captOrs' dctatiOn, a
letter to his family, asking them to send
the abOye-named ransom. In the evening
the journey was resumed, and as the ram
was falling in torrents the Duke was clad
in some tarpaulin, and a sack was placed
over his head to protect him. The second
night the party reached an abandoned
shed, where the Duke was left, with
guard outside the door. The
third night the journey was con-
tinued, and ended at the place
destined beforehand for the Dukes cOu-
cealment. He had to enter this retreat on
hands and knees, through a narrow open.
ond hole into a subterranean grOtto. Here
he remained for thirty days without any
light, lying On a bundle of straw which
was never changed. His food consisted
of bread and cheese and water. The
brigands left him alone, only returning
to bring food. By the light of lamp
which was lowered from above, they
forced him to write other pressing letter.
to his family and dictated what he should
say.
His family, to obtain his release, uset
their utmost influence to prevent the mill
tary authorities from pursuing the bri
gands until the ransom had been safel,
paid and received. The band liberate'
their victim after having conducted hin
on foot for a considerable distance to tn
Territory of Castellamare, where peas
ants house had been indicated to hin
whence he would be conducted by the IN
mates to Trapani, about twenty miles dis
tant.
Advice to Mothers.
MRS. WINsLOw's SOOTHING SYRU
should always be used when Children ar
cutting tooth II relieves the little Su