The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-29
Terrible Sufferings of the Hun
cry Peasantry.
PERIsHINe BY THE HUNDRED.
Famished People Too Weak to Eat
Bread When Given to Them.
Pitched Battle Between Soldiers and the
Wretched serfs. who Seek to Forbid
Export of Grain-Men DESERVING Their
Families and Fleeing the Country.

vienna, Aug. pa Russian eccIeTastic
who has just returned from n tourney
through the districts of the Russian prov
ince of Kszari, gives heartreuding &C
count of the incidents of his trip. At Mar
ody the people. who had not touched bread
for a long time, were so weak that
when he offered them some they
lacked strength TO eat il.
In ali the public places of the villages were
to be found famine-stricken groups of peo.
pie. some in the last stages of apathy and
others raging for bread The traveller was
told that the only food for the people for a
fortnight consisted of lime cakes pounded
into pulp. Out of $50 families which had
inhabited village forty-seven had died of
hunger. In other districts the population
had been decimated by starvation.
BERLIy, Aug. 25.--Russian newspapers
entirely confirm the recent reports of terri
bic distress among peasants in the Volga
valley. The people are in a condition of
the utmost destitution, without clothes or
food. Swarms of families have been
reported begging on the roadside.
The Kirnidjn, published in Kieff,
considers the condition of peasants
desperate. Already immersed in poverty
which they are unable to pay. accumulate,
by next spring the entire Russian peas
antry viii probably be bankrupt Reports
from Warsaw show that the peasants of
Central Russia are emigrating by the
wholesale. Five hundred men have al
ready abandoned their families in order to
emigrate.
The Tossische Zeitung says Russia is
undergoing periodical famine, which
becomes more serious with each occur
renee, owing to her primitive husbandry
and the Indebtedness of her peasants.
The Cologne Gazette says 10000 barrels
of rye have been imported from Russia at
exorbitant prices, when one-haif the
amount would have been sufficient. The
Gazette demands that the government re-
turn all rye imports to Russia.
LONDON. Aug. 2s.-Telegrams from all
pats of England and Ireland state that the
result of the continuous heavy rains have
been distressing. The crops are all under
water and will certainly be spoiled unless
saved by sunshine soon. In several sec
tions potato disease has appeared.
ST. PETERSBURG, Aug. 28.-Details Of the
rioting at Vitebsk, the capital of the gov
eminent of that name. in Western Russia,
occasioned by the people protesting against
the expectation of rye, show that the dis
turbance was of a serious nature. The
governor reports that there is evidence
that general revolt Of the peasantry had
been planned. The peasants attacked the
railroad officials, claiming that no more rye
should leave Vitebsk, and severely beat the
Jewish grain dealers, who are blamed for the
whole trouble. The peasantry also plum
dered the residences of these grain deal
ers, and finally combined in an attack
upon the railroad station. The railroad
officials sent for the assistance of the mill
tary, and the latter tried to dislodge the
rioters from their positions in and about
the station. The rioters resisted stubbornly,
and their supporters outside the railroad
station made a fierce attack upon the SOL
diers, severely injuring many of them.
Finally the officers in command of the
troops, after repeatedly threatening the
crowds, gave the order to fire upon the
rioters. The soldiers then fired volley,
killing three peasants and wounding a
number of others. The rioters soon after
dispersed. Other and somewhat similar
disturbances are reported from Dunaberg
and other places, but no details have yet
I been made public.