Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-08-12
CZAR CAN'T WAIT FOREVER
"Little Father" Needs Russian
MOujik's Cow. Graphic De-
scriptiOn by English Writer of
Tax Collectors Visit.

MOujik's Cow. Graphic De-
scriptiOn by English Writer OF
Tax Collectors Visit.
The Brooklyn Times says: Every.
body who knows anything about
Russia has either read of, or heard oi
the Moujik, the common man of the
czar's land. Percival Gibbon, an
English writer, now in st. Peters,
burg, describes him in graphic Ian
guage. He was like a piece Of
the brown land he stood on-stale
overworked, Improbable. Bowed
somewhat, and covering uncouthly
at the shoulders, with his greasy
garments belted about his middle by
an end of rope, he was hardly q
human figure, scarcely thing to
claim kin with on any plane of phil
anthropy or tolerance. His eyes
glowered duly amid the hair that
sprouted rankly on his face, and
they were the hostile ominous eyes of
an animal, plagued and cornered
beast-never of a man. Even his
walk was less than human, for be
dragged one great foot after another
without alertness or seeming voli-
ton. The dust he was made Of was
only half-translated, there was vet
raw earth in it.
he lurched on, through the sparse
young green of his field, and so
about the clump of dark frs to the
hut that stood at the hub of exis-
tence. He glanced neither to the
right nor left as he went, but drove
onward with dropped head and fore
thrust chin that proclaimed the
whole world his enemy. His great
red hands swung idly athwartships
as he went, crooked to the shape
of the spade-handle they belonged
toi and the little eyes in the fiat,
hairy face glared swiftly and un-
w;nkingly at the narrow path he
traversed. As he rounded the COR
ner of the road he came in site of
his home. There were people about
it. and be went slower, as he gazed
with parted lips, at them. A woman
was there, woman unsexed, worn,
like himself, to the bone with toll,
and mana man in uniform.
What the words hide, the eyes be-
tray. At the bottom of the dull
eyes there grew red speck, q small
angry gleam that lent for moment
life and some quality of terror to the
huge loutish frame of the mouiik.
de had recognized the tax -gatherer,
the publican of the New Testament,
and there awoke in him sudden
old hatred of the authority which
takes the bread of the poor man.
AT that instance he might have been
man; there was devil in HIM, Just
that touch of animal fury blended
with sense of wrong which makes
great demagogues. 1t was murder
that showed through, passionate re-
sentiment, fiery self-protection-any-
thing awful, elemental and irresista-
BILE. And then, as the tide of long
oppression and generations of serf-
dom reasserted itself, he was moujik
again, bestial, obsequious, incoherent,
dropping nervously ceremonial cap
to the smile of the tax-gatherer.
The woman, wife of the mouiik.
turned dull eyes from one to the other
as the tax-gatherer, stretching forth
his legs, talked patronizingly. She,
too, was just beast, the frame of a
woman from which hardship, never
ending toll, sterile hope, abortive de-
slres, had expelled the woman's soul.
tlat-breasted, r armed, she
slouched like weary man and list
ened mechanically to the patter of
the tax-gatherer. She should have
beeL at work, but death and taxes
interrupt business in Russia as else
where.
"ltis the little debt" explained the
tax-gatherer. Not a tax at all.
moujik, but the little debt. Eleven
years now that there has not been
enough to pay the district tax. The
czar, yon know-God keep him
cannot wait forever. There is the
war. and that costs-Lord, you could
never guess how it costs So there
must be money. Xou see the Little
Father must have money"
"God keep him." mumbled the
moujik. "But there is no money
here. None at ALL"
The tax-gatberer pulled down the
cuffs of his long coat.
81 grieye," he SAID lightly.
"Trnly, / grieve. i would rather
take money. But you cannot give it
II yen have none. Still there is al
ways the COW. Now what the devil!'
ne added turning sharply.
1t was only the woman. She had
moaned, strickenly, and now trem-
bled under the officials eyes.
"But-but," the moujik stam-
mered, 81 have only the one, excel
lency. Only the one 10y st. Nicholas
and all the kind saints"
He was putting forward the ex-
treme plea. In Russia they strip you
of your goods down to the COW.
They must leave you the one COW.
- The tax-gatherer joined his finger
tips and shook his head.
"Eleven years." he said deprecat-
lnglv. "apd the tag nevar onca maid