Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-30
TAXING THE HUNGRY.
Collectors Use the Kn0ut,an. Rssia's
Starving Peasantry.
EATING BREAD MADE OFAOFFBL,
Wheat FURNISHED for Seed Is Eaten While
Farms Lie Fallow.
FIRES. SWELL TIE LIST OF HORRORS

LONDON, Sept. 29.--Every day adds to
the horror of the famine which is nowtknaw.
ing at the vitals of some of the provinces Of
Russia. A circular has been issued by the
Minister of the Interior, who cites Is gov
ernments inwhichthe people'are completely
famine-stricken, and eight inswhich Ia par
tial famine prevails.
The great fair which is annually held at
Niini-N Novgorod, and which is attended by
merchants and dealers from all parts of
Russia, was failure this year. This was
due to the enormous number of banHupts
and the consequent withdrawal ofNtrade. In
many villages the peasants have nailed up
their huts and have left their comnnunes to
scour the country in search of work. Hun
dreds of them have failed in the search and
are begging along the roadsides. In nzmer-
GUS cases the seed corn which was furnished
the peasants by the Government has been
eaten instead of being planted, .and:thesland
is lying fallow.
ONLY DEATH AND TAXES SURE.
Notwithstanding the,terrible condition of
the peasantry, taxes continue to be extorted
from the starving people. Everything is
taken from them to satisfy the demands of
the tax-gatherers. Where the peasants dis
play any unwillingness to pay over their
taxes, the collectors resort to physical
means to extort the money from them. The
knout is extensively employed by the Off
cials of the tax-collecting department of
Russia.
The peasant boards have sent petitions to
the Ministry, praying that the taxes and
arrears of taxes be wiped out. The petit
tioners declare that the Government will be
obliged to maintain the impoverished peo-
pie for months, and that it will be utterly
impossible for them to pay the taxes.
What little food it is possible for the
the peasants to obtain is of the vilest de-
scription, but so sharp are the pangs of
hunger that they glady eat food that at
other times they would not touch. In
many cases their only food is the sweepings
and refuse from the -four mills. In Saratoff
the land owners found this refuse so injuri-
Gus to their cattle that they would not feed
it to them. But, though it was not fit for
the cattle, the land owners made bread of it
and sold it to thetpeasants.
BREAD oFnsTRAw AND BRAN.
Rread made of'fnely chopped straw and
bran, mixed with very small quantity of
rye, is considered god send. In many
districts the starving peasantry are not able
to secure even these miserable substitutes
for nourishing food and are reduced to the
most dire straits to procure anything that
will prolong life. Inthese districts the starv-
ing population are keeping themselves
alive by making what they call ''hunger
bread" 1t is hardly to be believed that
human beings could be in such dire neces-
sity and live upon such a compound as this
so-called "hunger bread" yet it is stated
as fact that the Ingredients entering into
the composition of this bread are dried offal,
the powdered bark, of trees and ground peas
and goose-foot, plant more commonly
known as pig weed. This mess is greedily
eaten by the famished people.
Heavy rains have fallen and the ground
is soaked with water that potatoes are rot
ting. The price of potatoes has already
doubled and is still rising.
In addition to the scarcity of food, the
distress has been intensified by the enor-
nous number of unusually disastrous fires
that have occurred Throughout the famine
stricken district. In many of the districts
entire villages have been destroyed. The
inhabitants of the burning villages, weak
from lack of food and with no prospect of
their condition, made no attempt
to check the progress of the flames, but stood
and watched their dwellings, burn.
EMBEZZLEMENTs BROUGHT TO LIGHT.
A cable dispatch from Berlin says: The
Cologne Gazette prints letter in which the
following incident is related in connection
with the famine in the province of Saratoff:
A Marshal of nobility quarreled with the
President of the Zemstec, and the Presi-
dent boxed his ears The Marshal chal-
lenged the President to a duel, and the
challenge was accepted on the condition
that the Marshal account for the expendi-
ture of 20, 900 roubles of the famine fund
AS result the Marshal was forced to re-
Sirn and innnirias into further official rob