The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1895-01-17
THE PRESS.
Double Dam nation

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES the Wilson
bill was passed theRepublicans set up
haunting chorus that it was,in the IN,
terest of the foreigners, and heaped
dennnciation upon the Democrats tor
such an "un-American' piece OF leg
islation, their ridicule and wrath
reaching the climax when some for
eigncrs dined the gentlemen whose
name the bill bears.
Now that the Wilson Bill has dis
pleased foreigners, the Republicans are
equally as violent in their denuncla
tons of the Dem ocrats for having
passed a law which has displeased
foreigners and caused some of them
to discriminate against some of our
exports.
This is entirely characteristic of
the Republican policy to-day-about
the only policy which a once great
party now has. If the Democrats,
like Catharine, say it is the moon,
they must be damned for not saying
that it's the sun. If they say it is
the sun, they must be damned for not
saying it is the moon.
DEsPoTlc RUSSIA.
(IIarpers weekly.)
When Alexander Ill. died there
was a general lamentation in Europe
over the loss of the Gar whose pow
erful influence had been for peace.
What had happened during his reign
Of thirteen years within Russia was
for the. moment forgotten, and Alex
ander figured in the obituary columns
of European and American ncwspa-
pers as a benefcient ruler whose vast
resources and great army had kept
other nations from flying at each
others throats. The tales of oppres-
sion, of the arbitrary exercise of pow
er, of persecution and tyranny, seem
ed to be forgotten.
The truth is, however,that Alex
ander reigned over country govern
ed by the will of a single man, or by
the fantastic despotism Of a corrupt
bureaucracy existing and acting with
his assent, and not by the law as un-
derstood by citizens of free countries.
The condition of the Russian people
was not ameliorated by the peaceful
Gear. Liberty did not advance. An
idea remained somewhat hostile to
government. The intelligent classes
were under suspicion. The effort of
the government was directed to the
classification Of all its foreign inhabi-
tants. The Jews were driven out.
The Poles who loved their country
were prosecuted. The police shadow
ed every stranger, blaclSmalled him,
or arrested him without explanation.
There was constant procession OF
of the best Russians, and of Innocent
people from other countries, to the
mines of Siberia. Trial and convic
ton in accordance with established
forms were unknown. There was Sc
cret murders by the government po-
lice, with apologies to the yistim's
government if the crime happened TO
be discovered. The preaching of the
gospel by Protestants was vigorously
suppressed.
What Russia was under this peace
full Gear is graphically and stirringly
described by Mr.. Poultney Bigelow
in Gar and Kaiser, recently publish
ed by Harper & Brothers. The book
is partly an account of an attempt
made by the author and Mr.. Frederic
Remington, the artist, to make an in
nocent canoe voyage from Russia to
Germany. They were Americans,
but they were suspected. Every
sketch that Remington made and
every note that Digelow took awaken
the greedy fears of a Russian spy, and
they were finally obliged to quit the
inhospitable land, to whose starving
people America had recently sent
shiploads ofgrain. But they did not
go until they had obtained material
for an interesting and illuminating
book, which verified the sad tales Of
Russian mediavalism set forth in
what have been falsely judged the
partisan narratives of Stepniak and
KEENAN,.
To Investigate Lynching.
The resolution introduced by Gran