The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-26
PICTURE OF RUSSIA TO-DAY.
LEO TOLsTOI's ACCOUNT AN EXPLA-
NATION OF THE "FAMINE."
PeRsantry without MOrPIe-Men and
Women Like starved Cattle, and
Treated So - The GOVernment
Rreolxs the paonIess Spirif

Breaks the Peoples Spirit.
From the London Times.
The scarcity of food which this year pre-
walls among the Russian peasantry has
formed the subject of two articles by Leo
Tolstoi.
In the first paper, which gives an ac-
| count of his own experience, he relates
how, owing to the publication of two let
tiers describing the destitute condition of
the peasantry. considerable sums of money
were sent TO him for distribution. As he
continued to receive these contributors,
he felt it incumbent upon him to proceed
himself to the most impoverished districts
in order personally to superintend the dis
| tribution of provisions.
Some idea of the destitution of the peas
| antry may be gathered from the fact that
on one occasion when Tolstoi wished to
change rubles (6s) there was not single
ruble to be found in the village.
Tolstofs second paper could not be pub
lshed in Russia In its original form, ow-
ing TO the plain-spoken and truthful way
in which the author criticises the conduct
of the government. A distorted version of
this article with all the essential parts ex-
Guided did appear in one of the Russian
daily papers, which had on this account
TO undergo a severe penalty.
The following is a translation of this
characteristic article:
/ will now endeavor to reply to certain
general questions called forth by our I'M
dertaking-question which, judging by the
newspapers, have been occupying the
minds of others also
These questions are as follows:
Is there OF is there not a famine this
year?
How is 1t that distress among the people
so frequently occurs?
And what can be done to prevent this
distress in future as well as to avoid the
necessity for special measures for its al
deviation?
To the first question reply that stalls
| teal researches have brought TO light the
fact that altogether the Russian people
consume 30 per cent. less than the normal
amount of food necessary for the mantle
nance of health. Moreover, there are facts
which show that the young men of the
| Blackearth region have during the last
| twenty years, been constantly failing to
| satisfy the conditions of a good constitu-
ton required for the military service. The
general census has also shown that the
| rate. of increase of population, having
| been twenty years ago at its height in
| the agricultural region, has since then
steadily decreased until 1t has now come
down to naught. But it is not even neces-
sary to study statistics. We have only
to compare the average agricultural peas
| ant as he is, thin and spare, with un-
! healthy complexion, with one of those same
peasants who happens to have become
| a house porter or a coachman and con-
! sequently lives well, to compare also the
I -
man and the amount of work he is able TO
accomplish with the movements and the
! work of the peasant living at home, in
| order to realize the extent TO which the
peasant has been weakened by insufficient
| cy of nourishment.
/ When-as was formerly the practice, end
/ is still with unthrifty farmers-cattale are
kept only for the sake of their manure,
and are fed anyhow, in the cold yard
| simply that they may not perish, the Ie-
suit is that only those escape injury TO
their organisms which are in possession
of their full vigor; while the old animals,
the weak, and the very young either per-
| ishl or if they survive, it is to the detri-
ment of their health and breed, and in the
case of the young ones of their size and
constitution.
This is just the position in which the
Russian peasantry of the Blackearth zone
find themselves. IT, therefore, by the word
| famine. is meant such insufficiency of
food as would Immediately cause disease
| and death, (as, according to the reports
was recently the case in India), such a
! famine there neither was in 1891 nor is in
| this year.
If. however by famine" is understood
| an insuficiency of nourishment-not such
| as to cause immediate death, but such as
| allows men TO linger for a time, dying
4 l., a.,
multiply and degenerating-then such a
famine has existed now for twenty years
among the majority of the people of the
| Blackearth region, and this year is es
| pecially acute.
Such is my reply to the first question.
To the second as to the cause of this
famine, | would reply that it is of spir-
| itual, not of a material nature.
Military men well know what is meant
by the spirit of the army" they know
| that this intangible element is the first
and principal condition of success; that its
| absence renders all else Intellectual Sol
diers may be well fed and well equipped,
| they may occupy a most advantageous
| position but the battle will nevertheless
| be lost if that intangible spirit called the
spirit of the army be wanting. And 1t
| is the same in the conflict with nature.
! AS soon as there is lacking among the
hope of ever greater and greater improve
ment in their condition, and they have, on
the contrary, a consciousness of the futh-
ity Of their efforts and are cast down, the
people instead Of resisting nature are
overcome by it, And this Is, al the pres
ent time, just the condition of our entire
rural population, and especially Of those
of the agricultural center A peasant feels
that his position as an agriculturist is bad,
but he believes that it cannot be improv
ed; and, consequently, adapting himself
TO this hopeless position, he no longer
fights against it, bus lives and acts only
in so far as he is stirred by the instinct
Of self-preservation. Moreover the very
wretchedness of the condition to which he
has fallen increases still more his depres-
sion of spirit The lower the economic
condition of a population sinks-like
weight on a leyer-the more difficult u be-
comes for it to be raised again; and the
peasants feel this, and, as il were, throw
ha nat hgt nv