The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-22


what occurred in Russia in homes more
than were ever counted, in homes that
were once as comforta BILE and happy
and bountiful as yours or mine, in
where God is worsh;ped as much
homes as vurtuous as yours or mine,
as in yours or mine. 1t was to do lit
tie something towards beating back
that Archangel of Wretchedness and
Horror that we went, and we have now
to report that, according to the esti-
mate of the Russian famine relief com
mittee, we saved the lives of 125, 900 peo-
pie. AS at the hunger relief stations,
the bread was handed out-for it was
made into loaves and distributed-many
people would halt before taking it and
religiously cross themselves and utter
prayer for the donors. Some of them
would come staggering back and say:
s'Please tell us who sent this bread to
u.s. And when told it came from Amer
lea 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 flour by the ship Leo
Perhaps some of us at our tables rattle
off prayer that may mean moth
ing, although we call it Saying grace"
but l 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 have
some cases may mean nothing but mere
form, believe in most cases it means:
80, 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 that / can learn, there were
several good people before we were
born, and l rather expect there will be
several left after we are dead have
Travelled in many lands, but I tell you
plainly, as 1 told Emperor Alexander
III. in the palace at PeterhoH, that
had never been so impressed with the
fidelity to their religion of any people
as by what had seen in Russia, and es-
pecially among her public men. said
respectfully to a Russian, when saw
him cross himself: ''What do you do that
for?" 60" he said, when do that
/ always say: God have mercy on mel "
I hold in my hand something very sug-
gestive. What does that black and I'M
comedy thing look like? That is what
is called hunger-brea from Russia;
that is what millions of people lived on
for months before help came from En-
gland Scotland, Ireland and America;
that is a mixture which seems to have
in it not one grain of sustenance. 1t is
mixture of pigweed and chaH and the
sweepings of stables. That is some
thing 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 appreciation of what an
attractive and beautiful thing a
good loaf of bread is. 1t is SO
common to us we cannot realize its
Stop and look at it in
bakery window or see it on your family
table, mean an honest loaf of bread,
white as ball of packed snow, with
crust brown as the autumnal woods,
and for keen appetite more aromatic
than fowers-a loaf of bread as you re-
member 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
slice or half slice, but full, round
slice and another and another just
suited to boy always ready to eat and
for the most time hungry, even in
wellsupplied house. l remember and
you remember, if you had healthy
childhood, just how it tasted. My! My!
Plum pudding does not taste as good
now as that plain bread then 1t was
then bread at the table and bread be
tween meals, and bread before break
fast, and bread before going to bed.
Why does not some poet ring canto
on a loaf of bread, or some historian
tell its history? Not like MANY articles
of food, pretentious, and iced all over
like wedding cake, or dotted with fan
tastic ingredients, but that grandest
product of the earth, that richest yield
of the -four mill, that best benediction
of 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 divine mercy
of it, only those know who have seen
famine No wonder Christ put til.
food into the sacrament and said of a
broken loaf of bread: This is My
body" Thank God that ever saw that
transcendant and compact kindness of
the infinite Coda loaf of bread.
And it was our joy this summer
to hand over a shipload of mate
rial for gladdening many thousands Of
Russians with such beatitude. But
have been asked by good people in
Great Britain and America again and
again, why did not the prosperous peo-
pie of Russia stop that suffering them
selves, making it useless for other ma
tons to help? And J. am always glad
when hear the question asked, be-
cause it gives me an opportunity of ex
planning. Have you any idea what it
REQUIRES to feed twenty million peoplef