Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-21

regions have for long time been compet-
ing with those of the United States, and
Russian oil has largely driven us out of the
market of Asia 1t has all sorts of precious
stones and as to its agricultural possibili-
ties these are far greater than those of any
country in the world. Such lands as are
cultivated are farmed after the rudest
methods, and as 1t Is in ordinary seasons
Russia is the greatest grain exporting coun-
try of the world, SURPRISING even the United
States in this regard.
Awaiting the Kiss Of Capital
The bulk of this great wealth OF Russia is
now lying dormant Like the sleeping
princess in the fairy tale, it only waits the
kiss of capital and labor to bring it into
life, and no one can tell how soon these
giants of material progress will gird up
their loins and moisten their lips to kiss
the sleeping maiden. Russia has in her
own territories the labor necessary for the
work and if this were used Alright there
would be no land so rich upon the face of
the earth to-day. Admiral Porter once told
me that at fair estimate every man and
woman in country was worth $500 as one
OF the elements of that country's wealth.
worth $780, 900, 000, 900 to Russia, and when
once walked up to their possibilities they
will make the Russian empire jump as
though it had on the seven-league boots of
modern progress
As it is, however, the peasantry of Russia
e more asleep than Russia's material re-
burces. 1 am impressed more and more as
I go among them of their wonderful work
Ing power and their dormant possibilities.
They are the wonder among the laborers of
the world. Surrounded by the wealth of
CrPsus, endowed with the muscles of Her
cules, born with the germs of mans best
intelligence, they live, labor and die with
out knowing their power or approaching
the fact that they might be better and
richer than they are. Simple and ignorant,
these 100, 900, 600 of strong, able bodied,
well developed people are intellectually
asleep. They are men with the minds
of children, who under a different system
would quickly develop into as intelligent
workers aud as good citizens as our best
Americans
Every Russian lives In a Village
Peasant Russia is by far the most inter-
esting feature of modern Russia TODAY.
The peasants are in fact the Russia of to-
day, and their 500, 900 villages make up, as
1 have said before, this great Russian
empire All of these villages are alike,
and when you have visited one Russian
village you have to great extent seen the
whole Russian empire. The Russian peas
ant never has home outside of a village
He is social animal, and in the thousands
of miles v hich / have travelled through the
different parts of European Russia during
the past few weeks have not seen q single
house standing by itself in the fields In
looking over a Russian landscape you
see no fences marking off the farms as
YOU do in America There are no bank
barns nor stray hay stacks keeping sentinel
watch, as it were, over the fields, and the
lone farm house on the Western prairies of
America, separated by miles from any SINH
lar habitation, is absent You see no one
working alone in the fields without 1t be
here and there a shepherd or a short
skirted maiden watching the cattle The
people work in gangs of from half dozen
to hundred, and their life in the villages
aud fields is q social one. The common in
terest which they have in the lands belong
ing to the village ties them together in
other ways and they are more closely asso-
cIsted with one another than any other
people in the world.
1 have visited many of these villages
within the past month. Let me tell you
how they look. Riding through the coun-
try on the railroad you see scattered over
the landscape what In the distance look like
two rows OF low, oblong hay stacks running
irregularly for mile or more in one direc-
tion. Each of these collections of hay
stacks is Russian village, and when you
get closer to 1t you see that what you sup
posed were hay stocks are thatched huts,
and that the lower part of each stack is
made OF logs, sun-dried bricks or Of wattled
twigs
Picture of Russian Village.
You now note that the wide road along