Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1892-10-22

! tNtt. aSCoEuiHS 10 the tStllllltc oI the
Russian famine relief committee. we
saved the lives of 10000 people.
\ RELIGIOUS PEASANTRY.
| As at the hunger relief stations the
bread was handed out-for it was made
into loaves and observation-disclosures peo-
pie would halt before taking it and re-
ligionsly 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 10
us. 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 vino sent flour bv the
ship Leo. Perhaps some of us mt our
tables rattle off 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" il meant some
thing. Our religion may not demand
that we 'cross ourselves" but | have
learned that while crossing ones self in
some eases may mean nothing but mere
| form | believe in most eases il means:
| ''Oh. thou of the suffering cross Of Cal
vary, have mercy on me and accept INV
gratitude" Prefer Your own form of
religion by all means, but do not depre-
ciate the religions 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 tell You plainly. as told
Emperor Alexander iii in the palace at
Peterhoff. that had never been so i'm
pressed with the fidelity to their religion
of any people rs by what had seen in
Russia. and especially among her public
men.
said 80 ;tfully to u Russian when
| saw him t:pss himself, What do YOU
do that for:'' oh" he said, when ]
do that always say. God have mercy
on me- hold in my hand something
very suggestive. What does that black
and nncomely thing look like: 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 Il mixture which seems To
have in it not one grain of sustenance Ii
Is "a mixture of pig weed and chaff and
the swcepinss of stables That is some
thing which if dropped in the s;~-ei
your dog or cat might sniff Gt but woEld
not eat. That WAS the only food on
which millions of men and women lived.
I luu must look al 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. Ii is
| so common to MS we cannot realize its
meaning. Stop and look at it in bak-
cry window or see ii on your family ta-
ble-l mean an honest loaf of bread,
white aS a ball of packed snow, with a
crust brown as the autumnal woods. and
for keen appetite more aromatic than
| fiowers-a loaf of bread as you remem-
Der il 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 IA quarter of a slice
or half a slice. but full round slice
and another and another just suited 10
boy always ready to eat and for the
most time hungry. even in well sup
piled house. | remember and You re-
member. if you had a healthy childhood,
just how it tasted. My. Ny! Plum
pudding does not taste as good now as
that plain bread then. Ii was then
bread 1T the table and bread between
meals. and bread before breakfast and
bread before going TO bed.
TIE POETRY OF BREAD.
Why does not some poet ring canto
on a loaf of bread. or some modern Ra-
phael paint ii, or some historian tell its
history: Not like many articles of food,
pretentious. and iced all over like we'd
ding cake. or dotted with fantastic in
gradients. hut that grandest product of
the earth. that richest yield of the -four
mill. that best bcnediction of 4 hot oven,
God given loaf of bread But the
rhythm of il. the luxury Of it. the mean
/ ing of it, the lenetiiciion of il, the divine
mercy of il. only those know who have
secn Il famine No wonder Christ put
this food into the sacrament and said of
- broken loaf Of bread. This is my
body" Thank God that ever saw that
transcendent and compact kindness Of
the infinite Coda loaf of bread And
it WAS our JOY this summer to hand over
shipload of material for gladdening
many thousands of Russians with such
u bcatitude But have been asked
| by good people in Great Britain and
America again and again. Why did not
the prosperous peoplc Of Russia stop that
suffering themselves. making it useless
for other nations To help: And | am
always glad when | hear the question
asked, because it gives me an opporiu-
nifty of explaining. Have you any idea
what il requires To feed twenty million
people? There is only one being in the
universe who can do il. and that is the
Being who this morning breakfast,d d
sixteen hundred million Of the human
race. The nobility of Russia have not
only contributed most laviShly, but
many Of them went down and S:aid for
months amid the ghastlineSs and the
horror and the typhus fever and the
smallpox that they might administer To
the suffering. sat ut the dinner table
in the house of one Of our American rep
rcscniaiives beside Il baroness who ha'!
not only impoverished hr estates by her
contributions To the suffering. but who
left her own home and went down in
to the worst of the misery until pros
trated with fever. then reviving and
toiling on until prosiratcd by the small
pox She had come home To get Il little
strength. and in few days she was
going down again To- the suffering dis
tricts. and she commissioned me 10 exc
cute in America Il literary enterprise 10y
which she expects with her pen more
money. all of which is to go for bread
to those who lack it. Then there are
the Bobrinsl:ics. They are Of the nobil.
ity not only the nobility of earth. but
the nobility of heaven.
THE NOBILITY 4 KINDNESS