The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-11-28
B0NDAREFFS LABOR.
A BOOK THE czAR SUPPRESSED AND
ToLSTol BROUGHT OUT.

| S@A-%sy aCAAONAAsCU OROA fAu8kA IN gkat
Garden of Eden, ''In the Sweat of Tn,
/ Face Shalt Thou Knead Bread"
While all the heavy weight economist.
and profound scientists have been food.
ing us with pamphlets, paper backs an6
two volume cloth bounds on the labol
question during the past few years, il
has been left to q Russian peasant tt
give the most unique and startling con
tribution to the subject. ssLabor, Ac
cording to the Bible," by Timothy Mi
chailovitch Bondareff, has recently beer
translated, and is now found on the
book stands. In its simple pea green pa.
per cover it attracts little attention, but
beneath this unassuming outside is an
arrayof charges against the present sys-
tenn and arguments in favor Of the au.
thor's proposals which hold the atten-
ton if they do not in every case con-
| vince.
Labor" as is stated above, was writ
ten by a Russian peasant, Bondareff,
who was 65 years Of age before he knew
how to read or write. When he had
| finished his work he submitted a copy OF
| it to the czar, who ordered it suppressed,
| presumably because Of its arraignment
| of the ruling class in Russia. Count
Lyof Tolstoi, who knew Bondareff, es-
| poused the cause of the untutored prophet
and author, and under the direction and
protection of the great novelist and scien-
tist the book was published, but only to
be again interdicted by the ruler over
all the Russias. 1t was then placed in
the hands of Amedee Pages, who brought
it out in French, from which language
it has been translated into English by
Miss Mary Cruger. All this has taken
place within q very short time, as it is
chronicled that Tolstoi had no knowl-
edge of Bondareff prior to the year 1885.
Bondaref belongs to the sect of Sab
batists and is devoted believer in the
Bible, which he read through carefully
several times, though at first scarcely
able to spell. When he wrote ssLabor''
he was still very illiterate, as Count Toll
stoi says that while he made no change
in the thoughts set down, yet he had to
substitute for Bondareff's peculiar or
biography one more generally used in
books. The peasant believes that he
has found in the Bible solution of all
social questions, and Tolstoi in "What
Is My Life" "What Should Be Done
and "Anna Karenina' shows that he
imbibed pretty generally the theories of
Bondareff, while he introduced into his
own life the reform that the peasant ad-
vocates; he set himself to work with his
hands, a fact well known to those who
have read much of the matter concern
ing the author of ssThe Kreutzer Sonata. !"
recently printed.
But what does -Bondareff advocate?
you ask. That each man should earn
his own bread and that of his wife and
children by the actual labor of his own
hands, by cultivating the soil. He says
the first law of God given to Adam Is,
"ln the sweat Of thy face shalt thou
knead Bread" not seat" bread, as it is
generally translated. This law was
given to Adam as punishment for tax
ing the fruits of others labor. At the
same time God said to Eve, "In sorrow
shalt thou bring forth children" Bon
daref very pertinently asks why man is
allowed to escape while from woman Is
exacted strict obedience to the law. Toll
stoi disagrees with BondareR in the lat
ter's doctrine that the law of labor is the
effect Of a divine malediction, holding
that labor is pleasure and not curse.
But Tolstoi agrees that tilling the
ground is the duty of every man, and
that all other tasks are secondary and
should not be engaged in until he has
worked in the ground for forty days.
This Is the time which Is allotted for
man to provide the years bread. It is
held that physical labor does not inter-
fere with intellectual activity, but on
the contrary increases the power and
dignity Of the mind, and both the phil
osophic novelist and the peasant declare
that he who does not perform the labor
in tilling the soil necessary to provide
his bread robs those who do till of Just
so much. I'VE must work with our
hands because life consists in battle
with nature for the means of existence,
and physical labor is the law of life."
cannot do better than to quote some
of the more striking portions of this
wonderful little book. The opening
pages are from the pen of Tolstoi, and to
show the similarity Of his and Bonda-
refs views q few thoughts are taken
therefrom. Says the philosopher: "All
human misfortunes, direct violence ex-
cepted, result on the one hand from
hunger and privation of all sorts, and
from encouragement in labor. and on
the other from riches. idleness and the
vices they engender. Ought we not to
endeavor to destroy this inequality by
which some are plunged into the evils of
misery and want, and others into those
which belong to the temptations Of
wealth." This can be done only by
obeying the law which commands each
man to earn his bread with his own
hands.
I'VE have invented SO many COM
mandments in announcing, as Isaiah
says, 1ine upon line, precept upon pre-
eept,' pne rule for this, another for that,
that we have lost all clear perception Of
good and evil. One says mass. another
recruits for the army or collects taxes,
third is Judge, q fourth is a student.
o fifth cures disorders, sixth teaches;
all, in fine, by these or similar pretexts
evade the law of labor, leaving it for
others, and forgetting that there are
~. IT,. ~