The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-05-19
THE NEW SIBERIA
Russian Peasants ia Great NumbsEa Are
Settling in the Country.

b4Du % tue OlDefldu railway was
opened, from Cheliabinsk to Ku1gan,
immigration has been flowing into the
country in a constantly increasing
stream. Now that the great rivers
and steppes are crossed by through
trains all the way from Moscow to
Irkutsk, the movement is v e more
rapid, and already the vast areas Of
Siberia are less lonesome than they
we're a few years ago. The Russian
peasant is displaying the same sort
Of -restlessness that induced the set
Element of our own western states
and territories from the more ttfhiickk}}y
populated regions Of the east. In
deed, the Russian peasant always has
shown a willingness to support the
expansion policy of his government
by moving OIL into the newly annexed
lands and subduing them to his own
civilization and manner of develop
ment, crude though that might be.
It is time to dismiss the idea that
The Russian peasant is altogether a
slod. He has shared too well the la
bors Of. the Russian advance across
Asia.
An observant Egnlish traveller
writing recently of his journey in
these lands has complimented the 81
berian and the American in the same
breath at the same time that he has
phrased an important observation.
IF we exclude the more recent peas
ant immigration" he says, the orig
inal Russian population of Siberia
may be said to comprise the following
three classes: The Cossacks, who
first conquered the country; exiles,
political and criminal; ~dissenters
from the Greek church, who were
either banished to Siberia or went
there of their own accord. That is
to say, the original Russian popula-
ton of Siberia consists of men and
women who were in some way intel
~lectually or physically more active
or more earnest than their fellow
c%ountrymen and women who re-
manned in European Russia. The re-
suit is that to-day the average ST.
berian is a more vigorous and intel
ligent man than the average Russian.
He picks up a thing more quickly;
his life is richer, brighter. Historians
tell us that on December 20, 1920, a
small body Of saddened but deter
mined men-dissenters, too-landed
from the Mayhower upon the New
England coast, and from that
Plymouth colony Of pilgrim fathers
and other like-minded individuals
who followed them in later years has
sprung much of what is best in the
America of our time. The delicate
nervous activity and quickness that
ismore common in the American than
in the Englishman-that added drop
Of nervous fluid, which, as a certain
American writer has it, was bestowed
by the Creator upon the descendants
Of English stock when the final i'm
provement upon it had to be made
is also found in a lesser degree to be
distinctive Of the Siberian, as com
pared with the European Russian"
The Siberian-born citizens of the
country do not fail to realize these
differences. Already 1 have learned
that they want to be called Siberians
rather than Russians, and that to
them the latter name seems no more
correct than to call the descendants
of colonists in the United States Eng
ishmen instead of Americans. Al
ready evidences have appeared hat
siberian for the Siberians" is not
an unknown sentiment, and that
there r those who hope some day
to see the Asiatie portion of the en-
pire stand on an equality with Russia
itself, if, indeed, it does not stand
alone, These things help to make
the great undeveloped country even
more interesting to an American,
however impossible or PARKWAY it
seems to think Of separation and an
other nation facing the Pacific coast.
-Trumbull White, in Chicago Rec
ord.
Confessions Of a Judge.