New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-09-13
THE RUSSIAN FAMINE.
A DREADFUL PICTURE OF DIsTREss-BEG-
GING AS A BUSINESS.

GING AS A BUSINESS.
St. Petersburg August %.
Day by day the truth about the famine is be-
| coming known, despite the efforts made by the
Government to prevent the press from publish
Ing the worst facts. The situation is more terrible
than was anticipated No language is too strong to tell
of the distress that prevails in some provinces A
well known clergyman who has been travelling In
Kazan gives this account OF what he has personally
seen. You who live in towns" he says, form
no conception OF the distress among the rural popula
ton. II II is In itself horrible thing to witness
wholesale mortality, how much more dreadful is it
to do so when yon are powerless to afford any as
sistance. i cannot describe all 1 have seen; but
will give you some examples. A few DAYS ago /
visited the village Of Naredey Within the first half
hour met sixteen poor creatures at the last
tremity of woe. Most of them had not touched a
morsel of bread for over week. With distorted
features and glazing eyes they gazed at me- many
of them only Just able to stretch their hands for
the food / offered them. few only had strength
enough TO eat it, They generally die before help
comes.
"The longer l remained in the village the more
misery discovered. Outside the houses in front Of
the church. and in other places there were numbers of
pale emaciated siokly looking e-hunger-srcken
groups-such as are seen only where famine reigns.
Some of them were quite apathedc. They seemed
utterly Indifferent to all that was going on around
them; they evidently resigned 10 their fate.
Others rsved IN their despair moving about gestici-
latng wildly, and crying, Bread, bread do not let us
starve' Mothers whose children have succumbed to
hunger wander through the village weeping aloud for
their lost little ones Everything eaabe has long
since disappeared. While vegetables and berries could
be obtained the people managed to live At last even
that exhausted. The villagers then gath
cred limetree leaves. which they dried, pounded in
mortars and made into pulp. For whole fortnight
they had nothing else to eat; but Of course 1t could
not serve as substitute for bread Little help was
forthcoming and death began to work havoc Mortality
has increased In such alarming proportions that in
locality. ont of 80 families, fortyseve died of
hunger
Some strong words about the famine do appear now
and then in the newspapers one journal declares that
the peasants the valley OF the volga are in state
of the utmost deSttution They have neither clothes
food and wandering about in rags the verge
of starvation. The district swarms with whole families
who have been reduced to begging by the roadside and
the situation of the entire population IS most critical
The Kiewlann.' paper published in Kief, CON
sders the condition Of the peasantry desperate by
next spring the writer anticipates the entire Russian
peasantry will probably be bankrupt Reports from
Warsaw tend to show that the peasants Of Central
sia are emigrating wholesale. Already 500 men have
abandoned their families in order to emigrate In the
meantime disturbances the ryeexport prohibition
continue There have been riots at Orel, Dunaberg,
Gnssa Potook and viebsk Several soppages of large
grain firms have occurred. 1t appears that a consd-
cradle development in the export Of is expected to
take place at Archangel, as reference made to
the ports of the White Sea in the export interdlc
The prevailing distress will doubtless greatly in
crease the amount of mendicancy. which Is always
large in Russia. In no other country is begging
reduced to a science as II IS here and rOwhers else
find a regular end recognized organization OF
prosperous and weltodo begGars like the scIouvai.
These people occupy cluster Of about thirty villages
in VishnegorOdskaya some hundred versts from Mos
COW. They get their name from The famous Counts
SchouvalOf, whose vassals and tenants they have
been for centuries. They not beggars, Of
the indolent, hand-tomouth order With them beg
ging is trade, scientifically organized and artiScay
practised, and they form great limited liability COM
pany for exploiting the benevoence Of Russian
ciety in the same way companies exist for
plotting the national minerals and other Industrial
sources. AS with orthodox departments Of Industry,
the trade Of the Schouvallk has It's regular seasons
for which preparations made with great astute-
ness. During the spring and they remain
on their trim and prosperous homesteads filling the
fields and raising wonderful crops They grow the
finest onions in all Russia and there is not province
in the vast empire where their famous bulbs not
consumed. As the autumn approaches, and the or
binary peasant wraps himself I'm his sheepsins and
prepares for long torpidity, the SchouvalIH make
themselves ready for their begging expeditions. Ar
rayed in their several disguscs they proceed their
allotted circuits, and are soon ruinmaging In every
corner OF the empire, from the Baltic provinces TO
the governments Of Little Russia. The character they
bear with the public at large may be gathered from
popular saying, which afIiims that " there IS no
Russian prison in which Bokordsk thief a Borovsk
begGar is not to be found" And yet they make
very good thing Of their begging expeditions
The origin OF the Schouvalh as a begearGnid dates
back TO the beginning Of the present century. From
time imnem0ral they had been in the habit OF begging
In their individual capacities, but when in 1ol2 their
ham hog4v, .TtH fhav
forced all at time TO throw themselves on public
charity, they found the corporate experiment sue
ceSsiu that they resolved ia future TO undertake Or
gained begging excursions and divide the proceeds
They constituted themselves into a regular society,
with officers and rules, and in the course Of time
developed into the present remarkable organization
Early in the autumn the onion harvest is gathered in
and sold. OF the proceeds certain percentage IS
carried to capital account and another percentage 10
the reserve fund.- and then the remainder is divided
among the members. This business concluded the
plans are drawn up for the next begging campaign by
a council of elders composed Of delegates duly elected
by each Of the thirty communes BY uhe resolutions
and plans of this council every member Of the beSgdr
guild is bound
With the first fall Of snow the Schouvalik villages
become deserted Each mcndicant group Of men
dcants is provided With special heartrcndng story,
proved by abundant documentary and other evidence,
and adapted 10 the peculiar susceptibtieS Of the dis
trctS 10 be visited. a large number of crppleS aro
hired and distributed among the beggars according 10
tho tales of woe they have to relate Here couple
of young furnished with inIm parents there
a widow is supplied with leprous son work Is found
for the MANNED, the blind and the dumb. The most
fortunate occurrence for the hchouvaud IN the winter
season is death in their ranks After short
mourning. the corpse becomes an article of trade Ee-
oorted by a troop OF poverty stricken and wailing
relatives it is carried from farmhouse to farmhouse and
village to village with pteous prayers for assistance
only such lucky accidents. Their enemies charge
them with perpet aIng adj nds OF cFletes to keep up
lie supply Of articles Of trade sometimes they
their own article VI trldcthat Is 10 say, In the way
of cnpples-and they play the parts assigned them
With remarkable vTsiissmbiance. some time ago tho
wire of OF the SchUuvah was trained enact the
role Of a mad woman and wonderfully did she Sus-
tain the character that she deceived educated
persons ana experienced police officers. 4 iavone
trick Is 10 burn larg, holes IN OneS clothes ana paint
scars and clcatrocs hesl IN order to pass for