The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-08
RUSSIA UNDER A CLOUD.
TIE PROSPECT FOR NEXT YEAR A
DISMAL ONE.

Danger That Food VIII Be Scarcer
Than Ever Next Year.
ST. PETERSBURG, Jan. IA corresponds
ent making atour Of RiaEan writes as fol-
lows: Absolute starvation is rare, but a
majority OF the peasants are verging on
that condition. The local gentry find it
difficult to estimate the real condition Of the
peasants, owing TO their complete want Of
touch with them. Officials declare that
the peasants, knowing that relief is
| coming conceal their stores and
fabricate stories of distress. An assistant
| OF Count TOlstoi refers 10 sham starvation ,
| Nevertheless. widespread misery exists and
relief is urgently needed. The distress is
| rapidly becoming worse. Some say: We
expect to be pillaged and to have our build
lngs burned down before spring by people
rendered desperate by the famine. Count
houses, where he has fed the people at
shillings each per month, giving them
cabbage SOUP good bread and occasionally
| eggs, but never meat. Count Tolstoi has
limited himself and his assistants to the
same diet. He and his helpers are erecting
huts of refuge for the peasants, many Of
whom have burned their own barns and
homesteads piece-meal in order to keep
warm, before starting TO tramp. Count
| Tolstoi has kept open village schools and
children look bright and healthy"
THE RESULT OF BAD MANAGEMENT.
Moscow. jan. TN an interview on the
famine with an eminent Russian official,
one of tho most remarkable meu In the em-
plre, he said, after pledging the corre-
| spondent TO secrecy regarding his name:
| The present famine is not a bolt from the
sky-a siugle phenomenon that has come
suddenly and will as suddenly depart. 1t
is a natural consequences of thirty years of
bad management and will become chronic
IL it had not occurred this year, it would
have occurred some othe- year. 1t Is an
inevitable result OF series of causes. The
peasants may be relieved; we may buy corn
| for them and feed them, but how are we Co
| give them back their horses and cattle 2
They have already killed half of them. This
is one consideration. There Is still another
NEXT YEARS OUTLOOK.
"These sixteen or seventeen provinces
which are now suffering from want, are
| not the only ones which will be in need Of
help next spring. Fifty, not sixteen, provin-
ces will be in state Of starvation then
| Those governments which have had good
harvests are not self-supporting ones.
They have generally to import
corn in the winter and early spring for
! themselves. This year their state is much
worse seeing that they have exported all the
corn they could spare TO the famine4itricken
districts What their condition will be in
the spring you may imagine.
CONDITION OF THE PEAsANTRY.
"The state of the peasAntry is extremely
unsatisfactory. They are at once apathetic
and desperate. They are prortrate in the
face of fhe terrible calamity that has befal-
len them. But their apathy cannot last
Risings may be expected. The peasants
believe 1t to be the cars duty to feed
them. l have heard them talk
as follows: The cZar must feed us, and If
he does not we must choose another What
| is society to do in the face of such feelinRsl
| How are we to prevent a cetaclysml The
little influence and energy which our 30
| ciety possesses the government endeavors
to take from it.
| HOW THE EMPIRE is HELD TOGETHER.
"There are only two forces which keep
| the state together, the church and the army
| and the present regime has made for it.
self entmies in both-not small, insiRniii-
cant enemies, but powerful and In
| fuential ones. | will not mention
names for fear of drawing attention
to them, but / think it is very improba-
BILE that the soldiers and their comrades
if called from the Polish frontiers to shoot
down their starving fathers and brothers
would be likely to obey their orders. But
I
troops and the country be generally dis
turbed, l cannot conceive that Austria and
| Germany would look on quietly and nob
make an effort TO render harmless for a
time the power which they have learned to
regard as their greatest aud most dangerous
| foe.
RUssIA'S ENEMIES
1--WE have made e1emies, not only
amongst our neighbors but in our own
house. The inhabitants Of the Baltic prov
| inces, once our most loyal subjects, are now
our enemies. We have not only the Ger
man question there; we are creating an
| Esthonian, Lithuanian, Lsttish and num-
ber of other questions. Findand we have
| also stirred MP against us. Bat not content
| with these achievements, we are now elab-
Grating Tartar and an Armenian question.
"Of Poland / need not speak. You have
| heard how that country regards the czGr.
| They have no notion of legitimacy. One
, czar is as good as another. They obey the
| Institution; they do not understand the
| legitimacy Of succession. AS 1t happens the
| present government has had tae misfortune
to make an enemy who may become very use
full in the hands Of the Rgitators / mean the
young grand duke, Michael Michelovitch.
He Is very popular.
TERRIBLE TIMES.
1--WE are living in terrible times Our
society is sunk in materialism and cares for
nothing but tdeir enjoyment. and the peas
| ant has ceased to be the thoughtless cZar
worshiper OF sthe past. Besides there ap-
pears to be party at the head Of affairs
which is composed of nihilists In disguise
They are nihilists only. They have altered
their methods and they are leading the
country to ruin and disaster in the most
| loyal fashion in the world. | regard this
famine as a blessing in disguise; it may
rouse US and show US the pitfalls into which
we are going"
It would cause great surprise wes the
name Of this gentleman known to the pub
lie. His official views and his private
opinion, however. are so directly in con-
fiict that be will run great risk If his
Identity was revealed TO the government
THE ACCIDENT OF 1888.
BERLIN, JAN THE Kreuz ZeittnQ
publishes an account OF the manner In which
it is alleged the accident" to the czer's
train at Boerki, Oct II, 1888, really origi-
mated. The account states that kitchen
boy who was employed on the imperial
train, and was supposed to have been killed
in the accident, escaped death, and that he
was recently arrested on suspicion
of being nihilist, and handed over to the
Russian police. According to the Kreus
Zeitung, this youth, since his arrest, has
confessed that he placed an Internal clock
in a compartment next to the imperial
dining saloon, and fearing that it would
explode too soon, turned it the wrong way,
with tbe result that it exploded In a down
ward direction, causing the accident.
Snow In Great Britain.