Milford chronicle., 1892-10-21

tainiy does know, and many a prayer i
going up, warrant you, day by day, fol
those who sent flour by the ship Leo. Per
haps some Of us at our tables rattle off Z
prayer that may mean nothing, although
we cell it Saying grace" but I warrant
I when those people who received the bread
which saved their lives "said grace" il
meant something.
Our religion may not demand that We
"cross ourselves, bu5 have learned that
/ while crossing one's self in some cases may
mean nothing but mere form / believe in
most cases it means, "Oh, thou of the suf-
fering cross Of Calvary, have mercy on me
and accept my gratitude" Prefer your
/ own form Of religion b. all means, but do
not depreciate the religious forms OF others.
/ From all / can learn there were several
I 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 EN-
peror Alexander III in the palace at Peter
hoff, that had never been so impressed
with the fidelity to their religion Of any
people as by what had seen In Russia,
and especially among her public men.
l said respectfully to a Russian when I
saw him cross himself What do You DO
that forY" oh" he said, ''when do that
l always say, God have mercy on met -
/ hold in my hand something very suggest
i've. What does that black and uncomely
thing look likep That is what is called
hunger bread from Russia; that is what
millions Of people lived ON for months be-
fore help came from England, Scotland,
Ireland and America; that is mixture
which seems TO have in it not one grain of
Il Is fv-fr .f r,fer 4
and chaf and the sweepings OF stables.
That is something which, if 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 apprecia-
tion of what an attractive and beautiful
thing a good loaf Of bread is. It is so com
mon to us we cannot realize its meaning
Stop and look at it in bakery window or
see it on your family table, mean an hon
est loaf Of bread, white as n ball OF packed
snow, with crust brown as the autuInnal
woods, and for a keen appetite more arc
matte than fiOwers-a loaf of bread as You
remember it 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 a slice ora |
half a slice, but full, round slice, and an
other and another, just suited to boy al |
ways ready to eat and for the most time /
hungry, even in a well supplied house. / |
and you remember, if you had a /
healthy childhood, just how it tasted. Ny! /
Ny! Plum pudding docs not taste as good 1
now as that plain bread then. It was then /
bread at the table, and bread between
meals, and bread before breakfast, and
bread before going to bed.
THE STAFF OF LIFE.
Why does not some poet ring cantO on
a loaf Of bread, or some modern Raphael
paint it, or some historian tell its history?
Noticed all over like wedding cake or dot
ted like many articles of food, pretentious
and with fantastic ingredients, but that
srandest prOduct of the earth; that richest
Weld of the flour mill; that best benediction
If hot oven-a God given loaf Of bread.
But the rhythm Of it, the luxury of it, the
meaning of it, the benediction of it, the
livine mercy Of it, only those know who
lave seen a famine. No wonder Christ
lut This food into the sacrament and said
# a broken loaf Of bread, '"rhis is my
,ody." Thank God that I ever saw that
and compact Kindness of the
infinite Coda loaf of bread And it was
lur Joy this summer to hand over a ship !
oad of material for gladdening many thou.
ands Of Russians with such a beattuGe.
But have been asked by good people in
Great Britain and America, again and
gain, Why did not the prosperous people
f Russia stop that suffering themselves, ,
making it useless for other nations to help, |
md l am always glad when l hear the
uestion asked, because it gives me an op
. Tnss !
lea what it requires to feed twenty mil /
on people2 There is only one being in !
be universe who can do it. and that is the /
icing who this morning breakfasted six
cen hundred million of the human race
he nobility of Russia have not only con- =
.ibuted most lavishly but many Of them /
ent down and staid for months amid the
hastliness and the horror, and the typhus [
yer, and the smallpox that they might Z
minister to the suffering. /
sat at the dining table in the house Of +
le of cur American representatives be- I
de baroness who had not ouly impoy- +
'ished her estates by her contributions to q
le suffering, but who left her own home +
I'd went down into the worst Of the mis- o
y, until prOstrated with fever, then re- Il
wing and tOiling on until prostrated by h
Ie smallpox She had come home to get 1,
little strength, and in few days she was
ling down again to the suffering districts, Z,
I'd she commissioned me to execute in +,
merica a literary enterprise by which she ,,
.pects with her pen more money, all of n
hich is to go for bread to those who lack ot
Then there are the Bobrinskies They n
q of the nobility-not only the nobility OF h
rth, but the nobility Of heaven. You N
low we have in America certain names m
hich are synonyms for benevolence- ii
.orge Peabody, James Lenox, William E. q
1dge, Mr.. Slater and so on. What their o.
mes mean in America Bobrinski means n
Russia. al
The emperor has made larger contribu- ta
ms toward this relief fund than any M
Onarch ever made for any cause since
G world Stood and the superb Kindness =,
.itten all over the faces Of emperor and y
lpress and crown prince is demonstrated N
what they have already done and are ~
ing for the sufferers in their own coun- !;
r When few days ago / read in the =,
pers that the emperor and empress =;
airing an explosion, stopped the royal =
] train to find out what accident had y,
,urred, and the empress knelt down by u
: side CT a wounded laborer and held his y,
nd until pillows and blankets could be ~ ~
lQHnlt anu AAAc tNu MOuAAlHA hANu were 80
t upon the royal train to be carried to a =, ~
ICE where they could be better cared for, - -
aid to my wife, ''Just like her" -
Theu saw few days ago in the papers - -
It the emperor and empress had walked ~
rough the wards Of the most Viruleni ne
Olera. talking with the patients, shaking an
nds with them and cheering them up it
IS no surprise to me, for said to myself vi
hat is just like them" Any one who lis
s ever seen the royal family will believe th
ythiDg in the way Of kindness ascribed 70
them, and will join me in the execratioa ba
that too prevalent opinion that a tyran; tn
on the throne Of Russia. II God spares tri
I life l will yet show by facts beyon ce
pute that the most slandered and sys- W,
lied about nation ON earth is nj
ssia, and that DO ruler ever lived more
the elevation of Lis people in education ch
/ morals an. religion than Alexander ap
J Third. So put sll the three prayers ma
save the president of the ca