The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-15
INDIFFERENCE or IGNORANCE.
These Two Characterize the Russians
 Concerning the War.

These Two CharacteTize the Russians
 Concerning the War.
 I spoke yesterday with Russian ed itor whose knowIedgetof his own people is beyond the ordinary, and asked him Ito tell me what the peasants knew of the cause of the war. They know nothing" he replied 'sThey sare using up the old tales that have descended to them from the Heldenzeit. In a vii-, lage that know of they believe that we are at war because the Cossacks stole a child from the emperor of Japan and won't give 1t back" It Is hard 10 credit, but so 1t is. There was a day, when Coccacks rode into Asia and in augurated personal wars with Khans and kings, stole beautiful women and gained for themselves the tradition with which the mujik still invest them Myth and history combine to shape his conception of events. and he imagines Implicitly that they are at work in the far east to-day just as picturesquely and with the same heroic lawlessness as iIp the past, whenneither khan nor kai- ser could hold or bind them. He has not learned that the age of chivalry is dead and brave men crawl to battle on their bellies. ..,..:s
 Tt is this tradition that tcarries Rus sia on and makes up the sum of popu- lar patriotism The priest ably seconds the old mems tales and holds the posi- tion which western countries, under the same circumstances, allot to Red Cross organizationsat home and societies for promoting the comfort of soldiers. Thees corporations enable the public It. self to take a personal share in the war, and often a valuable and considerable one. but since such activities are not possible on any great scale in Russia, measures are taken to associate every mans somewhat prominent religion with the national cause. Prayers in the churches do not suffice; they are con- ventional; but each mulik Is impressed with the fact that his own constant supplication for victory has a value and virtue.
 "He wears his religion as he wears his beardIt is a part of him, inherent in his personality, fills the half of his thoughts and stands him in the stead of an ideal. To blend the war with his worship Is thus to command patriotism at least more convincing than any po- litical partisanship could inculcate, and 1t is none the less efficient as conducive to the maintenance of order and the cheerful paying of taxes. because 1t is a little vaguely ethical and ignorant. Yet it should be untrue to say that any sec tion of the community concerns itself gravely with the war. The mujik, after all, does not disturb himself; he prays and talks and works and drinks just the same. If Port Arthur fell to-mor- row it would not touch him closely. He is not up in the subject of Port Arthur, and knows nothing of it's significance.
 And in the towns it is rather. the summer which carries off the richer people to their country seats than the news from the front which deadens bus mess and closes the theaters. The gar- dens of St. Petersburg, where a band competes with a luncheon bar, fill eve- ry evening, and no one would guess from the demeanor of the happy people who take their cheap pleasure with such healthy gusto, that Russia was daily losing ground in war to the death. The news of calamitous de- feat is circulated at eight o'clock in the evening, and rumor adds a naught or two to the tale of the killed and wound ed; yet at ten the folk are drinking and fooling as though nothing had hap pened. And nothing has happened to matter. It is the peculiar property of a class to which they do, not belong. Let that class, then, look to it"--London Mail