The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-26

itoba winter present problem of the
most curious difficulty. Nothing that is
said to them seems to have. any effect.
There are probably not ilunatic asylums
enough. in Manitoba to hold them, and if
there were, they would not be fit places
of refuge for them. Many of them will
doubtless die, and after a while the rest
VIII probable conclude that they have
mistaken their mission. Nothing quite
like these Doukhobors was ever seen be-
fore on this continent. We had Coxey
and his army but that was a summer
excursion, and a good deal of a joke.
jocular about it. 1t is not quite unpre-
cedented, but it is very much out of
date. Such things happened in Europe
in the Middle Ages, sometimes on a
had fellow feeling for the Doukhobors
but they seem amazing wights to us.
The Canadian Doukhobors have unin-
tentlonally shed a new and remarkable
llght on the question of the dissenting
scots in Russia, making it clear that the
russian Orthodox Church may not be
so entirely in the wrong so intolerant
and unreasonable in it's attitude towards
them as it's critics would have US be-
lieve. The Doukhobors or spirit wrest-
lers. of the Northwest provinces re-
Gently made themselves conspicuous by
turning loose all their domestic animals,
on the ground that they, too, had inn
mortal souls, and must not be condemned
to servitude-which, at least shows a
gentle spirit. Then they declined to pro-
vide against the severity of the Northern
winter, saying that this would betray
trust in Providence, who provided even
for the sparrows, ana now they have
left their settlements in body, to the
number of 1.600, announcing that they
are sent forth to preach peace, and de-
claring that they hope to march on till
they meet the Redeemer in the flesh.
There is something heroic, and at the
same time most pitiful, in the doings
OF these fanatics; 1t is said that at
setting out all provided themselves with
warm winter clothes. taking wagons for
the weak and children, which, as they
had no beasts of burden, they had to
drag themselves; but they soon wearied
of the heavy carts, and left them by
the wayside, carrying their sick on litters
of poplar branches with blankets tied
between. Then wave of enthusiasm and
fear swept over them, and they cast
away their warm clothes, many going
barefoot and bareheaded, chanting, pray
ing and crying out as they went Night
came them while they were ont in
the wilderness, and they lay down on
the bare ground to sleep, close to a rail-
road track, or passed the night in prayer
and exhortation, all meanwhile keeping
a solemn fast. They marched onwards
under increasing hardsnips till they
reached Salt Coats, where many of the
women and children broke down and had
to be lodged in outhouses and barns
several hundred under a single roof. AL
We're in misery, and many were evidently
crazed. They had no definite idea OF
goal. and, if allowed. would certainly
march on through the wilds. until ali
were frozen or dead of starvation. These
fanatics will probably be detained OH
a charge of VagranCy until their craze
wears Off; but we can now better under
stand why it is that Russia sternly dis
courages these phases Of religious lib.
erty, which lead the fanatical Slavs Ia
self-mutilation and sometimes even to
wholesale suicide.