Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-11-24
TRUTHABOUT RUSSIA
TIE SITUATION AS VIEWED BY THE
REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

Regarding Cruelty, the Cars merei-
Iessness. the Horrors of Siberia and the
OmeiaI Use of the Knout.
BROOKLYN. Nov 20.-Rev. DR. Talmage
today fulfilled his promise that he would
again speak of his visit to Russia and cor
rect many wrong impressions concerning
that empire and its ruler. After an EXPOSE
ton of Scripture and congregational sing
ing he took for his text Ii Peter il, 10,
"Presumptuous are they, self willed; they
are not afraid TO speak evil of dignities:"
Amid most reprehensible crew Peter
here paints by one stroke the portrait of
those who delight to slash at people in au-
thority. Now we all have a right to criti-
else evil behavior, whether in high places
or low, but the fact that one is high up Is
no proof that he ought to be brought down
IL is a bad streak of human nature now, as
it was in the time of the text bad streak
of human nature, that success Of any kind
excites the jealous antipathy of those who
cannot climb the same steep There never
was David on the throne that there was
not some Absalom who wanted to get it,
There never was Christ but the world
had saw and hammer ready to fashion
cross ON which to assassinate him.
Out of this evil spirit grow not only in
dividual but national and international
defamation. To no country has more in
Justice been done than to our own in days
that are past. Long before Martin ChuZ-
zlewit" was printed the literature of the
world scoffed at everything American.
Victor Hugo, as honest as he was I'M
equaled in literary power, was so misin-
formed concerning America that he wrote:
"1he most singular thing is the need of
whiting, with which all Americans are
possessed 1t is such that ON Sunday they
give the sailors little bits of wood, because
if they did not they would whittle the ship.
in court, at the most critical moment, the
judge, whiting, says, Prisoner, are you
guiltyg and the accused TRANQUILITY re-
spends, whiting, i am not guilty."
Lord John Russell called us "a bubble
bursting nationality" But our country
has at last recovered from such caricature
and there is not street in any city of Eu-
rope or Asia where the word America"
will not win Difference. But there is a sis
ter nation on the other side of the sea now
going through the process of international
defamation. There is no country on earth
so misunderstood as Russia, and no mon
arch more misrepresented than its em-
peror. Will it not be in the cause of justice
if / try to set right the minds of those who
compose this august assemblage and the
minds of those to whom, on both sides of
the ocean, these words shall Gomez Ii the
Islander of one person is wicked, then the
SANDER of one hundred and twelve million
people is one hundred and twelve million
times more wicked.
In the name of righteousness, and in be-
half of civilization, and for the encourage
- all r,1 Il. ,x~I.s. I,.r.
been disheartened by the standardization of
Russia, | now speak But Russia is so
vast a subject that to treat it in one dis
course is like attempting TO run Niagara
falls over one mill wheel. Do not think
that the very marked courtesies extended
me last summer by the emperor and en-
press and crown prince of Russia have
complimented me into the advocacy of that
empire, for | shall present you authenti-
Gated facts that will reverse your opinions,
if they have been antagonistic, as mine
were reversed.
] went last summer to Russia with as
many baletul prejudices as would make an
avalanche from ths mountain of fabrica-
ton which has for years been heaped up
against that empire. You ask how is it
possible that such appalling misrepresen-
tations of Russia could stands / account
for it by the fact that the Russian Ian
guage is TO most an impossible wall. Ma
Ign the United States or malign Great
Britain or Germany or France, and by the
next cablegram the falsehood is exposed,
for we all understand English, and many
of orr people are familiar with German
and French, But the Russian language,
beautiful and easy to those born to speak
it, is to most vocal organs an unpronounc-
able tongue, and il at st. Petersburg or
Moscow any anti-Russian calumny We're
denied the most of the world outside of
Russia would never see or hear the denial
DISCUSSING MISREPRESENTATION.
What are the motives for misrepresenta-
ton? Commercial interests and interna-
tional jealousy. Russia is as large as all
the rest of Europe put together. Remem
Der that nation is only man or a woman
on big scale. Go into any neighborhood
of America and ask the physician who has
a small practice what he thinks of the
physician who has large practice. Ask
a lawyer who has no briefs what he thinks
of the lawyer who has three rooms filed
with clerks trying in vain to transact the
superabundannt business that comes to
him Ask the minister who has very
limited audience what he thinks of the
minister who has overlooking audiences.
Why does not Europe like Russias Be-
cause she has enough acreage to swallow
all Europe and feel she had only half
meal. Russia is as long as North and
South America put together. But, says
some one, "do you mean to charge the
authors and the lecturers who have written
or spoken against Russia with falsehoodg"
BY no means. You can find in any city or
nation evils innumerable if you wish to
discourse about them.
l said at St. Petersburg to the most emil
nenl lady of Russia outside of the imperial
family, Are those stories of cruelty and
outrage that have heard and read about
trues" She replied mo doubt some Of
them are true, but do you not in America
ever have officers of the law cruel and out
rageous in their treatment of offendersg
Do YOU not have instances where the police
have dubbed innocent personsy Have you
nofnstances where people in brief author