Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-08-13

blocks. One OF the best streets In Moscow n
owned almost altogether by the monasteries,
who hold on to their investments - ths Catholic
Church does 10 that which II owns In some Of
our cities and who undsrstand how TO get good
rents and good proAts from their estates
NATION OF PEAsANrs.
Ruais, however, il . nation Of peannts. We
hear Of this country only - tie land Of The
car % % the possessions Of the sutocrat Of I'll
the Russias, and until this year few people have
looked upon II - much else than On ordinary
European country hIled with an oppressed and
rather turbulent people. It was supposed and
largely 10 supposed today to be filed With peas
any Who are plotting against their government
1t is known - the land Of nihilism and II il
thought BY many that the peasants are among
the nihiltsss. This ID mistake. Such nihilistic
elements q exist do not belong 10 the peasantry
ct al and the nihilists, the officials and the no
bhity form hnt drop in the bucket Of this
city people number but few millions and The
great bulk Of the people live In little villages.
These Villages constitute the real Russia and
the Russia out OF which 10 to come the Russia
OF the future. OF the 40 900 900 subjects Of
- car less than %, 000. 900 live in towns, and
T we towns OF Russia are numbered BY hundreds.
81. Petersburg is a. big as Philadsiphia, Mos
COW IL about the size of Boston, Wsrsaw = as
big as st. Louis and Odessa is . little bigger
than Cleveland. In addition TO these there sre
. few cities Of 100000 each and then about
S0o cities ranging from 10000 mp to
from so 900 TO 100. 900 in size. There are. how
evey, more than half q million peasant villages,
and these villages contain the vast peasant pop
u!ation Of Russia. which forms nearly one-tenth
OF the population Of the globe. This immense
number OF people impresses me more and more
every day, and I begin to realize what these
numbers may mean TO us. II all the men,
women and children on this big round earth
could be collected together one In every ten Of
the land upon the earth they own and are scat
tered over one-seventh Of 1t. Only small pro-
portion Of these many millions live outside Of
Russia, and the village system and customs are
very much the same the whole empire over.
Every Russian village Is little Russia in itself,
and BY the study Of these people and by look
at one Of their villages you get fair idea Of the
whole empire and Of this great Russian people
OF course there are Asiatie tribes, and some Of
the new territories, as Finland and Poland, are
to certain extent different from the pure Rus
slams. but the great Russia Is village, Russia
and the Russians as q nation are the peasanta
RUSSIAN VILLAGE.
Twas surprised during call which I made on
e1-Minister to Russia Lothrop at his home in
Detroit to hear him say that Russia was the
most republican country in the world and that
its people, to large extent, governed them
selves. l find this to be true. Each of the
500, 900 villages is little npubic. Its iuhati.
tants elect their own officers by vote and it's
courts. for all ordinary offenses, are managed
by judges elected by it. Every village has q
little assembly of its own made up of one MEM
Der to every five houses, and these men manage