Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1899-02-22
ODD SECT FLEES HITLER.
RUSSIAN SPIRIT WRESTLERS TO COL
ONlZE IN THE SOUTHWEST.

About 10000 Seek America-After Ban
ishment in Siberia and Rovings in Rus
sia They Long for Peace - Their Creed
One Of the Strangest-The Sect Growing.
Interested in the plan Of bringing
to the United States for colonization
a strange Russian sect are William
Dean Howells, Bolton Hall, Ernest
FL. Crosby and Isaac N. Seligman of
New York, Jane Addams of Chicago,
William Lloyd Garrison of Boston,
George Dana Boardman, D. D., CT
Philadelphia and N. 0. Nelson of St.
Louis.
Behind them allis Tolstoi, the great
Russian writer and social reformer.
His personal friend and representa-
tive in the colonization matter, Mr..
Mode, an Englishmsn, arrived recent
" from the other side and went to
Rhinebeck as a guest of Mr.. Crosby.
1t is hundred years of persecution
that these Russians are anxious to flee
from before they are entirely wiped
off the face of that country.
They are the Dhoukhoborsti, or
spirit wrestlers. The sect was found
ed in 1850, and of all creeds theirs is
one of the strangest.
They do not believe in God of one
person, or in the Trinity, but believe
that God dwells in each soul. Their
trinity is composed of Memory, Rea-
son and Will.
They accept the fall of Adam, but
believe it was his own individual fall,
not that of the human race. They be-
lieve that Christians are given to idol
airy. Their tenets read.
'The church is composed of all
those called from among the worldly
and ordained to walk in the path of
light. The chosen ones cannot be
recognized by any outward sign
The Dhoukhoborsti has members Of
all nations, races and tongues. Many
Americans belong to the sect without
knowing it. 1t does not believe in
hell ar paradise, resurrection of the
body OF destruction of the visible
world. 1t believes that physical Ma
ture sill last forever.
Tie millennium will come when the
righteous overcome the sinners.
Those who are then dead will not par
take in the millennium.
This sect claims that child, newly
born is a piece of soulless matter.
The soul enters the body between the
sixth and fifteenth year.
The Russian government is the
abomiration OF the Dhoukhoborsti,
but the believers are far from being
revolutionary. They are said ta be
the most peaceable people in Russia,
abhor force, will not fight, pay their
taxes and never complain about the
amount. They use no harsh Ian
guage.
The Russian police discovered the
sect in 1850, but it was not until 1899
that persecution set in. Gar Paul I
in that year issued ii ukase against
the believers. They then numbered
15, 900, The ukase read:
"All adherents and members of this
pernicious sect, unworthy of any Glenn
ency, should be banished to the ST.
berian mines for life, and set to the
hardest work. They should never
have the chains removed from their
| arms and legs, in order that they who
deny the supreme authority of earthly
potentates enthroned by the will of
God should feel sharply en- their own
t.G1-----l,---- l,------.---ai---~----
earth established by God for the de-
fence of the good and the chastise-
ment of villains like themselves.
The ukase was, of course, carried
out, but under Alexander I the perse-
cution-ceased and the people were al
lowed to have their own farms in ST.
IBERIA. In 1892 Nicholas I ordered
thot all believers should be enrolled
in the army, and those unqualified
should go to the mines of Nerchincki.
The military order was the worst
thing that could happen to the Dhouk-
hoborsti. When face to face with the
enemy they refused to fight, as it was
against their consciences. All were
ordered to the mines.
In spite of all the sect grew, and
between 1S4O and 1860 there were
25, 900 members. In 1860 they were
allowed to return to the eastern from
tier of Russia. Since then they have
not been permitted to remain in any
one place longer than six months.
They have been reduced to 10000.
Tolstoi became interested in these
| nomads five years ago. Six weeks
ago a prominent New Yorker received
| q letter from him saying that he hac
received permission from the Russian
government for these people to emf,
CRATE. The time is limited to two
years.
The idea is to colonize them in the
southwest. They. are farmers. Tc
get them ont of Russia in time it may
be necessary TO. move them to the
island of Cyprus first.
The Last Man to Leave the Maine.
| n L.