Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-10-17


wing over the best parts Of America il
the years 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891 ant
1892, and finally all our families wer'
put on small allowance and we all hat
! risen from the table hungry, and aftel
awhile the children only had quartet
enough, and after awhile only one mea
a day, and after awhile no good food al
ali, but q mixture Of wheat and chat
and bark Of trees, and then three of the
children down with hunger typhns, and
then all the family unable to walk, and
then crawling ON hands and knees, and
then one dead in each room, and neigh
bors, not quite so exhausted, coming il
to bury them, and afterward the house
becoming the tomb, with none to carry
the dead to more appropriate sepulchel
whole families blotted out. That was
what occurred in Russia in homes more
than were ever counted, in homes that
were once as comfortable and happy and
bountiful as yours or mine, in homes
rs virtuous as yours or mine, in homes
where God is worshiped as much as in
| yours or mine. 1t was to do little some.
thing toward beating back that arch
angel of wretchedness and horror that
we went, and we have now to report
that, according to the estimate of the
Russian famine relief committee, we
saved the lives of 1875, 900 people.
A RELIGIOUS PEAsANTRY.
As at the hunger relief stations the
bread was handed out--for it was made
into loaves and distributed peo.
pie would halt before taking it and re.
ligiously cross themselves and utter a
prayer for the donors. Some of them
would come staggering back and say,
please tell us who sent this bread to
u.s." And when told it came from
America they would say: "What part
OF America? Please give us the names
Of those who sent it." All, God only
knows the names of those who sent it,
but he certainly does know, and many a
prayer is going up, warrant you, day
by day, for those who sent -four by the
ship Leo. Perhaps some of us at our
tables rattle off a prayer that may mean
nothing, although we call it ''saying
grace but warrant when those people
who received the bread which saved
their lives ''said grace" it meant some
thing. Our religion may not demand
that we "cross ourselves" but l have
learned that while crossing ones self in
some cases may mean nothing but mere
form l believe in most cases it means:
"Oh. thou of the suffering cross of Cal
vary, have mercy on me and accept my
gratitude" Prefer your own form of
religion by all means, but do not depre-
ciate the religious forms Of others. From
all can learn there were several good
people before we were born, and rather
expect there will be several left after we
are dead. | have travelled in many
lands, but l tell you plainly, as I told
Emperor Alexander III in the palace at
Peterhoff, that had never been no i'm
pressed with the fidelity to their religion
Of any people as by what / had seen In
Russia, and especially among her public
men.
said respectfully to Russian when
l saw him cross himself, What do you
do that forP" "Oh," he said, "when
do that always say, "'God have mercy
on mep" l hold in my hand something
very suggestive. What does that black
and uncomely thing look likea That is
what is called hunger bread from Rus
sia; that is what millions of people lived
on for months before help came from
England, Scotland, Ireland and Amer
lea; that Is mixture which seems to
have in 1t not one grain Of sustenance. It
Is mixture Of pig weed and chaff and
the sweepings of stables. That is some-
thing which II dropped in the street
your dog or cat might sniff at, but would
not eat That was the only food on
which millions of men and women lived.
You must look at that hunger bread of
Russia before you can get proper appre-
citation Of what an attractive and beau
tiful thing good loaf of bread is. 1t Is
80 common to us we cannot realize its
meaning. Stop and look at it in bak-
cry window or see it on your family Ia
ble--I mean an honest loaf of bread,
white as bail of packed snow, with
crust brown as the autumnal woods, and
for keen appetite more aromatic than
fiowers-a loaf of bread as you remem-
ber 1t in childhood, when the knife in
the hand of your father or mother cut
clean through from crust to crust and
put before you, not quarter of slice
or half slice, but full round slice
and another and another just suited to
a boy always ready to eat and for the
most time hungry, even in a well sup
piled house. / remember and you re-
IL you had a healthy childhood,
just how 1t tasted. My! Myi Plum
pudding does not taste as good now az
that plain bread then. II was then |
bread ut the table and bread between
meals, and bread before breakfast and |
bread before going to bed.
THE POETRY OF BREAD.
Why does not some poet ring canto |
On u loaf OF bread, or some modern Ra-
phael paint 1t, or some historian tell its
history? Not like many articles of food,
and iced all over like we'd
ling cake, OF dotted with fantastic In
gradients, bat that grandest product of
Ihe earth, that richest yield of the flour
mill, that best benediction OF hot oven,
! God given loaf Of bread. But the
rhythm OF IL, the luxury Of ii. the mean
ng OF IL, the benediction of II. the divine
mercy of II, only those know who have
een famine. No wonder Christ put
his food into the sacrament and said Of
! broken loaf OF bread. "This is my
'ody." Thank God that ever saw that
and compact kindness of
no infinite Coda Loaf Of bread. And
was our joy this summer 10 hand over
shipload OF material for gladdenfng
many thousands Of Russians with such
beatitude. But I have been asked