The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-04
TRANS-CAU AUCASUS M0LOKAINS
OBSERVERS FROM THE GREEK
 CHURCH
Of Whom Much Has Been Written and
 Little Known.

LL w eLS t IiCSc, iiSb iitoiN' N'SN
 breath of air seemed stirring without
 and the low room into which l was
 ushered appeared to me like dry fur
 mace. The heavy wooden shutters had
 been thrown open by MT. H. for here
 after I will call him so) on entering the
 room. At the same time he had taken
 the precaution to pull the curtains, so
 that no one without on the street could
 see the occupants of the room Ills
 extreme care and the quietness with
 which he did everything did not add
 any to my assurance. Each moment
 the room was growing hotter from the
 flame of the lamp he had placed on the
 table between us. Great drops of per-
 spiration ran down my face; and my
 physical discomfort together with the
 stiffness and the unwonted character
 of my visit to this out-of- -theway spot,
 commenced to affect my nerves. It was
 about all I could do to sit there and
 wait, and I am free to confess that over and over again l wished l were we'll out of the whole thing.
 There was a gentle knock on the front door. MT. H. arose quickly, and pass ed out of the room. I could hear some low conversation; and then he re-enter- ed, followed by a large heavy-set man, dressed in an ordinary suit of clothes and wearing high boots. His hair was long, and parted in the middle His beard and mustache were iron-gray, and underneath his abundant eyebrows there twinkled the kindliest of blue eyes. The whole face was unmistakably Russian oV nf tha nj tuna thOnph far more intellectual than is usually seen among the peasantry of middle and nor- thern Russia. MT. H. simply said, s!This is the Melokain elder" and then addressed a few words to the stranger, who shook hands with me heartily, and commenced to inspect me from head to foot as I did him. I presume neither one of us expected to see quite the style of person who was before him. Some how, I had thought of this elder as slight man with perhaps rather fa- natical, or at least resolute, kind of face, and instead here was what looked to be pleasant faced, well-fed farmer. He, I fancy, had in mind some one who would resemble the priests he had known. Instead he saw-well, the aver- age American man, dressed in a modern English suit of light material and look ing very far indeed from the conven- tional preacher.
 As is always the case at the begin- ming, because there were so many things we wanted to say to one another, we really said nothing of importance, our duestions being of that kind which "feeI the ground" and make ready a common base for understanding At length I said to MT. H.: T wish you would ask him one or other of those 10 questions. We'll then get down to of value"
 "All right" he returned; and with | that he commenced Russian conversa- Lion, I listening all the time to see whether I could catch it's drift. Turn ng once again to me, MT. H. said: He tells me there are all told, some 30,000 | in this trans Caucasus reg on. How many more there are in Rusl sia proper, he does not know. Further le wishes you to know that, inspired ,y the success which attended the ooukebar immigration to Canada, there Ire now some 1000 Molokains who would ike to go to America. The Russian au- horities are averse to this exodus. If here is to be any movement of popula- ion, they wish to influence it toward Siberia and the new lands across the Caspian, and not toward the United States. For that reason they are suspi- ious of all Englishmen or Americans vho come among us. If it were known, e is saying, that I, Molokain am here with Protestant minister who has no fficial right to be in our country, the authorities might send me into exile. However, am so old that I do not fear; nd I am glad to give you hearty greet ng for myself and my co-religionists." .Is this true?" I asked in English of Ir. H. Possibly" he replied. we are liv- 1g under military rule here, and there { no telling what. might be done"
 The Molokain elder beginning again ' , speak, MT. H. listened to him, and It hem interpreted as follows; "In the t russian villages no more than two l families to every 800 inhabit- j nts are allowed. The consequence is t lat, though the parents will not go I yer to the orthodox (Greek) faith, yet C number of our children do. We are q ot growing in strength, he says for c lat reason. We are not persecuted, r ut are subjected to many petty annoy c nces. In the Caucasus country there t re now 5000 Molokains and Baptists e ho were banished in Alexander ITS r me- These people are very, very poor. s .ost of them are in the district of t ars. We hold it a sin to beg. Help t
 given only in extreme cases. Even d len great difficulty is experienced in il citing a Molokain to accept charity il "Where do you get your money?" I a ,ked through MT. H. t- "We get it by volutary contributions, r ough in the poorer places the sum G llected is distributed to the needy. k ne calls upon our communal safes have zen so large and so continuous, owing N
 bad crops, famine, and the help we fl i've rendered to the banished ones that II ere is now no commune having over s' 12 in it's safe" u I had to wait for some time, MT. H. 1T udying my paper of questions and a king to the elder. At last he said:- la "To your seventh question the elder o shes me to tell you that some com m unes have now regular meeting houses si churches, They are in those places al 1ere the authorities are lenient In al her villages where there is no build W r the people congregate at the best tt