East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1904-11-12
Fonaticism Of
Doukhobors

rpr several weeks past the Douk-
hobors have been giving the Royal
Northwest mounted police of Manito-
ba considerable trouble. Every few
days band OF them has started on
search for Jesus, and no sooner do
the police get one band safely settled
back in their homes than another
starts out on the rampage. Twice in
the last month did large number
OF them go out on a pilgrimage, an
noying the English speaking people
and terrorizing the women and chill
dren.
Several fanatics are responsible
for these raids and have excited their
fellows to wild acts by prophesying
that the second coming of the Mes
| siah is ut hand. Many of these ia
natics have been studying their BIZ
bles night and day of late, and each
one has selected different date for
the second coming of the Saviour,
and on each date a pilgrimage has
started, its size having been govern
ed by the popularity of the prophet.
When these pilgrims start on
rampage they first turn loose all their
cattle and sheep, and then spend the
night in prayer. When the first
streaks of gray appear in the East
they leave their village headed by the
prophet who has proclaimed the
coming of the Messiah.
They march along in an aimless
sort nf 10,
particular, and as they march they
chant some doleful song. Their
clothing they cast away, because they
think that it has been made by the
assistance of animal labor, and they
consider all beasts of burden unclean
and cursed by God.
OF late a few of them have begun
to use horses, but the more fanatical
of them still hitch their wives and
daughters to the plows and wagons
Several times these pilgrimages have
numbered nearly a thousand men,
women and children, who march
along without stitch of clothing to
cover their bodies.
Some of the weaker women and
young children are placed in wagons,
which are drawn by the women, while
the men attend to the chanting. At
such times they refuse all kinds of
food except that which they can gath
er by the wayside. When these pill
grimages are started in the winter,
the plight of the wandering Doukho-
bors soon becomes pitiable from want
of clothing and food several of them
having died on the first trek they
made in this country.
When Lord Minto, the governor
general of Canada, made his great
overland ride of inspection last
month, these people again started
out, his coming being coincident with
a prophecy that the Saviour was on
| His way to the Doukhobor colonies
However, their trek was soon headed
off by the mounted police, the lead
ers put in irons and taken to Regina
Jail and the pilgrims taken back to
their farms.
When the decree of the czar went
forth that these people could no
longer live in Russia after their own
fashion, the Canadian government Of
fered them inducements to come to
Canada, and gave them large tracts
of fertile land in the Northwest ter
ritoriese.
Apart from these lapses into fanat-
icism, they have shown that they are
good settlers and a welcome addition
to the sparsely settled regions Of the
Canadian Northwest.
Peter Veregin, whom the Doukho-
bors look upon as a leader, has been
in this country only two years, after
spending 20 years of his life I'm the
mines of Siberia, where he suffered
the greatest cruelties at the hands
of the guards and jailers. Since his
arrival here he has altered the char
acter of the community, has changed
its modes of agriculture, gradually
introducing modern methods, and has
built up organization out of chaos.
Several thousand acres of land
have been broken in the Doukhobor
colonies, and the land under culti-
walton next year will be at least dou-
BILE the crop area of the present year.
| Last year the Doukhobors expended
more than $4,000 in the purchase of
land and machinery. The latest i'm
plement secured by them is a steam
pillow, and 1t is the first in that part
of Canada. At the present time II
steam engines are used in the COM
munity.
These engines run flour mills, saw
mills, flax mills, etc. During the
times that the Doukhobors have had
these engines they have not been idle
for single day, excepting Sundays
When one village has no use for them
another has, SO that they are always
being moved around to where they