The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-01-05

been prosecutions of other religions
in Russia?" No doubt, just az
in other times in New England
we burned witches and as we
killed Quakers and as the Jews in
America have been outrageously treat
ed ever since can remember, and the
Chinese in our land have been pelted,
and their stores torn down, and their
way from the steamer wharf to their
destined quarters tracked with their
blood. The devil of persecution is in
every land and in all ages Some Of us
in the different denominations of Chris
tians in America have felt the thrust of
persecution. because we thought diff
ferently or did things differently from
those who would, if they had
the power, put us in a furnace
eight times heated-one more degree
of caloric than Nebuchadnezzar's
Prosecutions in all lands, but the en-
peror of Russia sanctions none of them.
had a most satisfactory talk with the
emperor about the religions of the
world. and he thinks and feels as you
and do-that religion is something be-
tween a man and his God, and no one
has right to interfere with it. You
may go right up to St. Petersburg and
Moscow with your Episcopal liturgy, or
your Presbyterian catechism, or your
Congregationalist's liberalism, or your
immersionists Baptistry, or any other
religion, and if you mind your own
affairs and let others mind theirs, you
will not be molested.
Calumny the fourth: Russia is so
very grasping of territory and she
seems to want the world. But what
are the facts? During the last century
and quarter, the United States have
taken possession of everything between
the thirteen Colonies and the Pacific
ocean, and England, during the same
length of time, has taken possession Of
nearly three million square miles, and
by the extent of her domain has added
two hundred and fifty million popula-
ton, while Russia has added during
that time only one-half the number Of
square miles and about eighteen mil
lion popula advance OF
domain by two hundred and fifty mil
lion against Russias advance of domain
by eighteen million. What paltry
Russian advance of domain by eighteen
million as compared with the English
advance of domain by two hundred and
fifty million. The United States and
England had better keep still about
extravagant and extortionate enlarge
ment of domain.
Calumny the fifth: Siberia is den of
horrors, and to-day people are driven
like dumb cattle; no trial is afforded to
the suspended ones; they are put into
quicksilver mines, where they are
whipped and starved and some day find
themselves going around without any
head. Some of them do not get so far
as Siberia. Women, after being tied to
stakes in the streets, are disrobed and
whipped to death in the presence of
bowling mobs. Offenders hear their
own flesh siss under the hot irons.
But what are the facts? There are
no kinder people on the earth than the
Russians, and to most of them cruelty
is an impossibility. | hold in my hand
a card. You see on it that red circle.
That is the governments seal of q card
giving me permission to visit all the
prisons of st. Petersburg, as I had ex-
pressed wish in that direction. AS
the messenger handed this card to me
he told me that q carriage was at the
door for my disposal in visiting the
prisons. 1t. so happened, however,
that l was crowded with en-
gagements and I could not make
the visitation. But do you sup
pose such cheerful permission and n
carriage to boot would have been af-
forded me if the prisons of Russia are
such bells on earth as they have been
described to be? / asked an eminent
and distinguished American: ''Have
you visited the prisons of St. Peters
burg, and how do they differ from
American prisons?' He replied: Il
have visited them and they are as well
ventilated and as well conditioned in
every respect as the majority of the
prisons in America" Are women whip
ped in the street? No; that statement
comes from the mandatory of ia brica-
ton, a mandatory that runs day and
night, SO that the supply may meet the
demand.
The merciful character of the present
emperor was well illustrated in the
following occurrence: The man who
supervised the assassination of the
father of the present emperor, stand
ing in the snow that awful day, when
the dynamite scattered to pieces the
legs of Alexander the Sccond-I say
the man who supervised all this fed
from st. Petersburg and quit Russia.
But after awhile the man repented
of his crime, and wrote to
the emperor asking for forgive
ness for the murder of his father
and promising to be good citizen,
and asking if he might come back to
Russia. The emperor pardoned the
murderer of his father, and the forgiven
assassin is now living in Russia, unless
recently deceased. When I talked to
the empress concerning the sympathy
felt in America concerning the suffer
ings Of the drought-struck regions of
Russia, she evinced an absorbing inter-
est and compassion and an emotikn
of manner and speech such as Nc
men can hardly realize because III,