Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-11-12
STRANGE RELIGIOUS SECT.
The Peculiarities of the Doukhobours
Whose Eccentric Manners
Interest the Northwest.
Russian Sect, Who Have Started On
a Pilgrimage in Search of Per-
sonal Saviour.

Suffering That May Ensue if a Biz
card Should Sweep Over the
Canadian Plains.
A tragedy in real Life pathetic in the
extreme is being enacted on the tran
quill, snow-clad prairies of western
Canada, where the strangest army that
ever marched, composed of the victims
CT mistaken ideals of right, is dragging
its weary length across the rolling ex-
ranse in Il mad, fanatical search for
a visible, reincarnated Savior. The
.loldiers are the Dukhoborsti, a sect of
Russian Quakers. spirit-wrestlels, or
<'milk-drinkers," as they are variously
designated, tneir crusade being an eff
fort to proselytize the world to their
strange, incomprehensible belief.
Having been raised in an atmosphere
Of persecution under the uplifted
knouts and u~nsheathed swords of the
brutal Cossacks, the Dukhobors are
densely ignorant and susceptible to new
ideas or superstitions ~propagated by
their leaders. They have also come
to regard the restraints of all temporal
laws as an evil to be endured, and its
agents with suspicion. Recognizing
these facts, the Canadian authorities
were exceptionally lenient where the
laws con1icted with the Dukhobor
ideas of land tenure, free love and
their opposition to registration of vital
statistics.
This l%eniency was a mistaken kind
ness, the means of the undoing of the
Dukhoborsti; for last May a fanatical
spirit and false teacher came among
them in the person of an A~mericanized
Russian, who preyed upon their litter
acy and superstitions. At first he
preached a mild form of anarchy, but
made little progress. Then he changed
his tactics and announced that the Mes
siah would shortly reveal himself to
them and they would receive a heaven
~ inspiration or new life" and become
his, chosen people, by whom the world
would be evangelical.
In conjunction with. the new-life
theory the demagogue who preached it
promulgated the idea that it was wrong
to use dumb animals to cultivate the
SOIL, OF subject them to human will,
He based this peculiar doctrine IN
Romans, viii, p and %, Because the
creature itself also shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we knew that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth together until
now" =
Being a vegetarian people the false
teachings more readily found accept
ance. and, although the proselyte was
promptly expelled from the colonies by
the Dominion government, the fatal
seeds had been sown. Extremist lead
ers like llbroff and Duetroff chung ten
aclously to the new faith and preached
1t with unfaltering fervor and industry,
visiting the different villages and COL
ONES n making converts everywhere.
mus the new propaganda spread like
a scourge among the simple people un-
I'll 1t became a frenzy-a religions
Notwithstanding on dementia. It
was fed and watered by an indiscrim-
mate circulation among them of the
Revolutionary works of Count Tolstoy
which urge a spirit of self-denial and
sacrlflce peculiarly coinciding with the
tenets OF their strange faith.
Then the wheels of progress were
stayed and a large percentage of this
peaceful, pastoral people forsook their
fields and growing crops and became
an aggregation of religious fanatics
listening to no arguments but the men
tai alterations of their leaders. Their
cattle were turned out and their sheen
became the prey of wolves until the
herds and focks were sold by the gov
eminent and the money deposited to a
trust account which is now being used
to feed the unfortunate women and
children.
AS the feryor increased the primary
idea was carried nearer and nearer to
a logical conclusion until a climax was
reached when the converts refused to
wear clothing made from the products
of the herds on f1ocks. Wooden APP
parel, their sheep skin coats, leather
boots, the leather peaks off their caps
and in fact every article Of clothing
having dts origin in animal life was
discarded. In the pace OF these they
wore rubber boots, sandals made from
plated binder Irvine laced upon wooden
soles and linen and cotton goods. They
reverted to the most primitive clIadtorns