Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-06
SOME GOOD READING
FROM NEW BOOKS

Melia Jane should read well before this
Hester took fresh sheet of paper and
began to write. Listen to this, please"
she said after q few sentences, "and tell
me If II will do
Dear Wife-Ths comes hoping to find
you In health. ii leaves me at present
and the children hearty. I am sending
this from Troy, and daresay you will take
" to some friend to read: but tell Amelia
Jane. with my love. that in future she
shal read her fathers letters to you. She
must be getting scholar by this time and
If there's anything she can't explain. why
you can take 1t to friend afterward. We
reached this port last Tuesday (the l4thl
after good passage
Now tell me about your passage please"
AT hrst Mr.. Salt could only tell her that
the passage had been a good one. pas
sages 60 But, by feeding him with a sug-
gestion or two, men feed n pump with
a little water to make it work. by and by
she found hersel- listening to information
In food. Now and then she interposed a
question. asking mainly about his wife and
the home at Yarmouth. She had picked up
her pen again. and he, absorbed in his con-
noence. did not perceive at what n rate
she was making Ii travel over the paper.
The door opened, and Mr. Benny reap
peared with a shawl his arm. He
glanced around nervously Mr.. Salt, Mr..
Salt? / put it to YOU this isn't quite fair
"A me tax L can hear you're having: but
our friends outside are getting impat ient,
and want to know when you'll let Miss
Marvin Begin
"All right boss. I've had yarn here
that is worth all the money Here's your
shilling for it. and the letter can stand over
till tomorrow
But I've written it?" Hester exclaimed.
Written it?' Mr.. Salts jaw dropped in
amazement.
Il don't know If 1t will do. Shall I read
1t over?"
reading ended Mr.. Salt slapped his massive
thigh.
Russia and the Doukhobors.
From "A Peculiar People" by Ayimer Maude; by
permission OF Funk 4 Wagnalls Company
That men who refuse military service
should be imprisoned, beaten and sometimes
killed Is what occurs in other countries
where conscription is enforced. If. as is now
often suggested, the English government
introduces that system II, too. will have
u decide whether those who refuse to bow
the knee to Mars among ourselves shall be
shot or merely sent to penal servitude
W nat was peculiar about the persecution
OF the Doukhobors was the fact that be-
sides the punishment of those who actually
refused to bear arms, one whole settlement
OF some four thousand people. men, wom-
ell and children-was broken up and dis
persed, and the people reduced to such
straits that about one thousand of them
died off in a period of less than three wears.
before permission was given them TO leave
Russia.
AS often happens the final collision did
not occur because the one side were all
good and the other all bad In two of the
districts where Doukhobors were settled.
the RUSSIAN authorities perpetrated no
barbarlty as bad as those about to he de-
scribed; but in the Tifis government where
the enmity between the Large Party and
small Party, though 1t stopped short of
manlfeslng itself by physical violence was
extremely bitter. the authorities were per-
picked by the mutual recrimna tons of tie
boukhobors, and being misled by false re-
ports suspected the Large Party of a
deslSn 10 seize the communal property by
force.
A night the eve of the name-day of their
le;'der' Peter Verigin) at the end of June
told style), 1885, was appointed nv the
Doukhobors of the Large Party, on which
to burn their arms in evidence of their firm
resolve rot to use physical force against
any OF the'r fellow-men Their prepara-
ucnS appeared suspicious to the uthori-
ties and the governor sent a summons to
the Doukhobor elders to appear before him
reply was returned to the effect that
.tey were engaged IN praying and that he
should rather come to them, seeing that
they We're many and he but one
IDS dlsrespectful reply confirmed the
governor m his belief that some conspiracy
was on loot. CossaCks We're sent who
fcSged the people cruelty with their heavy
WHIPS at the very spot where the fire that
mad destroyed their arms was burning ont
ne Sossacks were afterward quartered on
pee pie There the troops misbehaved them
serves IN ways customary to soldiers under
such conditions Finally, the whole of this
Doukhobor settlement was broken I'D Sue
cesslVe lots OF the Inhabitants had to leave
tfer houses and well-Cultivated land at n
rev Gays notice, and were then dispersed
among the Georgian villages. From one to
nve Doukhobor families were sent to each
village in the district
L cit thus with no houses or land or
means OF regular livelihood, among a ponu-
iauon who, for the most part were nor
IN the habit of hiring laborers the position
OF these dispersed" Doukhobors was torri-
pie. sickness, caused by want and by the
sudden change OF climate from highlands
10 malarlal valleys added to their trou-
pres ana the police regulations forbidding
then 10 leave the villages even to look for
work, and imposing all sorts of pettv ex-
acuoni' ana inconvenience upon them-au
coH!pned 10 create conditions IN which a
MOI tally OIL about 10 per cent per annum
IS easily accounted for. They would in
ueed nave persisted much more rapidly had
not the kars and Elizavetpol Doukhohors
perSeVered in rendering generous ass:stanca
ueSpite the TACT that communication yvitb
ine dispersed Doukhohors was prohibited
ps the police The policy of the officials
was 10 smut them off from communication
win the outside world as Completely as
possible, and to oblige them to abandon
tEef principles by the practical threat Of
sioMis eXternlnating them should thew re-
fuse to submit. NS ~