River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-01-22
THE MARCH OF THE RUSSIAN.
South Toward the Sea His steps Are
Trendinfy.

south Toward the Sea His steps Are
Trending.
There is no outlet Cor Russia in the
north to open water, the natural At
Iantic harbor of the Arctic provinces,
Hammerfest, where the water never
freezes, being still in Swedish hands,
and on the south the Turk, though i'm
competent to rule his own dominions,
and only propped on his tottering throne
by foreign support, still holds tho Rus
sian gateway with a barred sword. IT
is toward -hc soIth that the Russian is
ever marching. with persistence which
is rapidly restoring his northern prov
inces to the pine tree and the wolf; it is
the water he is ever seeking, with a
pertinacity which reduces diplomatists
used to every thing but the secular
march of myriads, impeled by ncces-
sity outside themselves, necessity such
as drives the locusts forward to the sea,
to condition of angry despair.
The nations perceive the movement
which at one and the same time threat
ems Sweden, the Balkan peninsula,
Turkey in Asia, Persia, India and China,
and attribute il only to an overreach-
ing ambition which il behooves them to
resist To the death. lest the world be
swallowed mp. The ambition exists,
very possibly in the court, though the
house of Romanoff, we imagine, is grow
ing weary and exhausted with its burden
of a sovereignty too vast and too exact
ing for the human brain, but the march
CT the great Slav people began and pro-
ceeds independent of the Cars, and viii
not stop. SO far as men may judge, until
its objects have been reached and the
race, at length fairly content with its
home, begins its natural life. The Slav
race will break out somewhere. we may
be certain; and we do not think it will
be through either India or China. The
distances are too vast, the territory to
be reached at last too hot, the human
tribes to be conquered too thick on the
ground, and with no place whittier to
retreat. The natural road for the
Russian is through the Balkan
to the Egean--for Constantinople
is only a locked gate. not to
be opened If q maritime power holds
Mitylene and forbids egress, but the
civilized tribes of Europe have maya
zine rifles, and will not allow the march.
Even ants must stop if the path is barred
by flame, and the Russian, therefore,
must either press on by the long route
through Asia Minor 10 the Mediter-
ranean-as he could do tomorrow if
Western Europe were occupied by an
internal war--or break through Persia
to the great Asiatic ocean, as, if he
formed the resolution, he could do now.
Time only can reveal which way he
will choose, though we predict it will
lie through Persia, because that Asiatic
France lies empty and defenseless,
ruined by the tyranny of the Kajar
House, but that the Slav will break
through at some point, we hold to be as
certain as that his people increase their
numbers like the English or Germans.
No race which can win battles, not
even the Tartar, has ever stopped short
of the open water: and the Slavs. be-
fore they halt, will possess a coast with
commerce not to be intercepted by
any land power. and will then find
themselves at last with the conditions
of wealth in their own hands, and also
With a new obligation to keep on terms
with the English-spealxing race. Let
hem reach the open water, and they
will come within the range of the Brit
ish iron-clads. Spectator.