The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-01
THE "sPIRIT wREsTLERs."
Who and What They Really Are.


 So much inaccurate information has been supplied to the New York press with regard to the Doukhohor move ment that I beg leave to put before your readers a brief summary oi the real facts of the case.
 The origin of the sect is unknown, hut they certainly existed hundred and fifty years ago. Alexander l., in a ukase at the beginning of the present century, mentioned that thirty years of severe persecution had not destroyed the sect. He repudiated persecution as a means of upholding the orthodox Doukhobors to settle not far from Cri- mea at the Milky Waters.
 Nicholas I. banished them to the Wet mountains, in ttc Caucasus, where the wild tribes learned to respect 1id pro tect them, and the Mahometans deci- ded that these people were certainly not Christians, for they had never known Christians who led such a sober and peaceable life. In 1887 universal military conscripton was introduced in the Caucasts, and the Doukhobo S troubles began again. They wou d not kill their fellow men, and ultimate y i decided that they would not even learn the art of human slaughter, l. e., they refused military service altogether. For this they were severely rersecuted. Many have heen sent to Siberia, many have died of physical i'll treatment and many have perished from disease and want after their homes had been broken up.
 They prefer to call themselves uni VeIsal Brotherhood Chr sli ns, tellsv- 1 ing that we are all sons of one Fath- CT. They are very simple, kindly folk who have given no literary or d ,gn.atic expression to their views, which may, i however be summed up simply. They I regard Christ as being the saviour of 1 the world, and believe that we should l all strive to do the things that he said 1 One of their leading men, when on his way into exile, replied to an inquiry as 1 to their faith: Tt consists of two c.,rli- mandments to love Cod and to love our neehbors as ourselves.
 Like the Quakers they hold that all men may recognize God working in them through their reason and their conscience. On this account they obey the commandment, Swear not at all | but let your yea be yea" etc, fo, they say if we swear always to obey some i one, what shall we do if he orders US to act in way that our reason and our conscience show us to be wrongp Like the Quakers, the Mennonites, the Nag arenes and other worthy SEC s, they at | tach importance to the text. Res st not him that is evil" and disapprove of all violence done by man to man. l The Doukhobors are simple and for the most part iliterate people, good ag- | riculturists, skillful at all kinds of vil- l lase handieraft, frugal, but willing 10 show hospitality and to help others. They are total abstainers, vegetar ans and do not smoke. They are careful in educating ther children, both in reli- gious and moral questions, and also in politeness and usefulness, but they re- gard book learning as being of second ary importance. In their family life the Doukhobors are remarkably pure They do not jeer at ''old maids'' (as we sometimes dol but consider that i, any | one remains single Gas Christ dd) he has done we'll The bright, happy and | intelligent appearance of their children | anu liie hluuiy SlIUplclly OL lne auultS strike every one who meets them
 They do all their agricultural work communnally not dividing their land into separate pieces for each family.
 Their migration was allowed by the Czar in deci ee published last Februa. ry. In August eleven hundred of them moved temporarily to the island of Cy- prus. Two families are now in Canada and the rest of the sect are still in the l Caucasus. The total number of those who still, after all the persecution, hold fast to their faith and have permission
 to leave Russia, and wish to do so, is l about seven thousand five hundred 1 Besides these, there are at least some | hundreds more in Siberia, in prison, ol
 scattered and lost in exile in the Cau. 1 casus. No attempt has been made tc l bring these people to the United States it is untrue that options on land have | been obtained here, or that the Wash. ington government has been obtained l here, or that the Washington govern, ment has been approached on the sub. ject. Two families of Doukhobors came