Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-16
CAUSE MUCH TROUBLE
Fanatical Outbreaks Of the
Doukhobors.
REFUGEES FROM RUSSIA
MASS OF THEM SENSIBLE AND
LAW-ABIDING.
Disturbance Created by Their Pilgrim
ages-Rule and Influence Of
Peter Verigin.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.


Record Herald.
WINNIPEG, Canada, October s, 1905.
The benevolence of the dominion govern
ment has led it into a serious dilemma in
connection with the Doukhobors, a sect of
religious fanatics, no were offered an
| asylum in western Canada a few years ago
| from the prosecutions they had been suffer-
| ing for many years in Russia. They have
such unconventional notions that they cam
not be treated like ordinary mortals. 1t is
the testimony of all who are familiar with
their colonies that the mass of the Douk-
hobors are sensible, Industrious, honest and
| law-abiding people; but several hundred of
them are SO fanatical that they cannot be
controlled AwO or three times year
there is an outbreak of lanaticism, which
creates a great deal of trouble lor the po-
lice and other officials. One of their pecu-
liarities is that the use of animals as
i beasts of burden is unscriptural; SO, to save
their souls, whenever there is a religious
revival, they turn loose their stock over
the prairies and drive it away from their
farms and village Another notion is that
they must work with their hands alone, as
Jesus and His disciples do; labor-saving
machinery and implements are modern in
ventions of the devil In their eyes There
fore, every now and then when the mania
strikes Them they collect all the moving
machines, reaDers, threshers and other
agricultural machinery and burn LIEN in
the field. When the religious craze becomes
acute they will eat nothing but raw veg
etables and fruit, on the theory that God
intended food to be used exactly as it was
created. Occasionally some individual is
stricken with sense of sin, and, burn
ing his cabin, starts out VAN his family to
wander like Christ and His disciples, de-
pending upon Him who 4.eas the ravens
tn.
vide them with food and shelter.
Pilgrimages of the Doukhobors.
The most serious affairs, however, are
their pflgrimages,' which occur every few
months. They believe in the second com
Ing of Christ. and certain of their leaders
delude them with the expectation that He
will meet them upon the prairie and lead
them upon mission to evangelize man
kind. In order to propitiate Him they
must appear in the image of their Maker.
that is, stark naked-so they wander off
over the praires, knowing not where until
they meet their Lord, sleeping on the
ground, eating raw vegetables, fruit and
even roots and grass, until the mounted
ponce round them up and drive them to the
nearest Jail. There they are kept until thew
partially recover from their decisions, and
are sent back to their villages Some of
them never recover At present there are
sixteen Doukhobors in the jail at Regina
under sentence of six months imprison-
ment each for indecent exposure They We're
arrested naked upon the open prairie while
looking for their Redeemer The police
wanted to have them declared insane and
sent to an asylum, but the department of
justice at Ottawa did not approve of that
plan and had them committed to prison.
where they are giving a great deal of
trouble. They refuse to eat anything ex-
cept raw vegetables and fruit; thew refuse
az n dr. n mill One hos
from starvation, and three more are in
desperate condition from the same cause
The uncooked food is indigestible and af-
fords no nourishment, and they will not
eat anything else.
Two years ago 100 men, women and
children marched naked into Yorkton to
evangelize the people Of that place ON
another occasion 600 left their homes in
midwinter, with the snow several inches
deep on the ground, and started across the
prairies to the town of Binscarth where
the were arrested and detained, until they
hnaliy recovered their reason. These out
breaks are the result of fanatical preach
ing by certain individuals who claim to he
inspired and exercise hypnotic influence
over the simple-minded peasants Their
conceptions of religion are very vague and
primitive, but they are very tenacious and
determined. Their ancestors have endured
persecution for centuries, and the present
generation has inherited the spirit of mar
tyroom Tnelr usefulness as citizens, how
ever is beginning to be a matter of serious
doubt, and l am told by the officials that
as mass they are not improving, and n
does not seem possible for them to assimi-
late with the remainder of the community.
Inc government has shown a liberal and
humane policy In it's treatment of then,
put Is beginning to lose confidence in their
Named in Derision,
Inc word 'Doukhobors'' Is a Russian
term meaning spirit wrestlers." and was
given originally in derision to a sect of dis
senters from the Orthodox Greek Church
which originated in the latter part of the
seventeenth century. The basis of their he
hef was that by wrestling with the HOLY
Spirit they could accomplish more thar hv