The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-06-04
THE CONDITION OF THE RUSSIAN
PEASANTRY.


Misfortunes never come single handed,
is an old adage, but in our day and genera
ton great calamities come swift upon the
heels of each other, and they are no re-
specter of persons or places. The cOrO-
nation of the tsar of Russia could not be
completed without a world wide exhibi-
ton of the character of the Russian peo-
pie. On the Khodijonskje plain, where
Napoleon marshalled his French legions to
march triumphantly into the capital of
Russia, Moscow, which proved Gene
terry to his hopes, feast had been pre-
pared for 100000 people. The hungry
peasants of that land of tyranny camped
upon the ground, and as soon as there was
daylight enough for them to see the prepa-
rations for the feast, like wild beasts the
mighty mass of hungry men rushed over
those preparing the feast, crushing each
other into a mass of flesh and bones as
they strove to satisfy their appetites.
Such scene could only have been wit
messed among a people who had no higher
hope than that of merely keeping soul
and body together, Il people who have not
a single emotion of ambition higher than
that to satisfy their daily wants. The
Russian people may be thought to be a
civilized people, but such scene as that
would not be enacted by any other than
Il barbarous people. 1t is true the higher
classes of the Russian people are edu
Gated and refined, but Russia has no mid
die classes the bone and sinew of Il coun-
try. The middle classes of any people are
the greatest blessing any country can pos
sess. They fix the standard to which the
most humble and ignorant are invited to
attain, and while they raise up those be-
low them they uplift themselves to the
higher class.
Russia has no such rallying line for its
semi-civilized ignorant and depraved pop
ulation. There are but two classes in all
that broad domain, the titled and wealthy
aristocracy of the land and the men and
women, hardly human, who are the beasts
of burden or the hewers of wood and draw
ers of water for the aristocracy. There
is no hope for such a nation. There is
not sufficient intelligence or sufficient APP
probation of the dignity of manhood in
the lower class to throw off the burden
they bear, which their masters would not
touch with their dainty fingers. With the
exception of Tolstoi and Il few other phi
lanthropists, there is not even Il tcacher,and
certainly not a Moses, to lead them out of
the land of slavery and crown them with
an independent manhood that, when God
made man in His own image, He intended
that the whole human race should enjoy.
Hunger and thirst and bodily WEAKNESS
are the only things thought of by the Rus
sian peasantry. What must be the gen
eral condition of people if those living
near such great city rs the ancient CAPT
tai, Moscow, are impelled to madness by
the sudden opportunity of obtaining one
all-satisfying meal. These people, who
trampled down women and children and
weak old men in their rage for food, could
not have resided very far from Moscow,
with its civilizing influences, and if on oc,
casion these people demonstrated such
brutality, what must be the condition of
those who dwell at distance from the
centers of refining influences, and never in
all their lives know what it is to satisfy
their appetite for food. The condition of
the peasantry of Russia has been conceal
ed from the knowledge of the nations of
the earth, but this exhibition near Mos
COW will reveal to all the world the real
condition of the Russian peasants and con-
firm the representations of Tolstoi as to
their ignorance and degradation.
In contemplating this connection cit-
zen of this free country is more impressed
by contrast with the blessings that our
fathers obtained and beQueathed us of
government where every citizen not only
enjoys equal rights but equal opportuui-
ties with all others. and these rights alRi
opportunities superior to those of all other
nations, without a single exception. Such
reflections should teach us to guard our
country and its institutions as we guard
the life and honor of our families.