The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-24
RUSSIA IN DISSOLUTION
FORMER ,sUnJECT OF GEAR TELLS
 STARTLING STORY.
Layviess Conditions in the Empire Harder, Robbery and Graft Every. where, But the Authorities Ap-
 parentIy Helpless.
New York Times.

New York Times.
 Joseph Mandeikern, a real estate dealer at No. 32o Broadway, returned d few days ago from long visit 10 ms native Russia, the first he mas peen able to make in twenty-three years. and he brings back a thriiiing story or the things he saw there.
 A nation in dissolution; government foo weak to govern, but still strong enough to Kill and rob until the deiuge comes: a people too desperate to fear death;f yet to fatalistic to court It; land full of murder and robbery and terrors of every kind; the fear or God and the fear of the Czar supplanted by fear of a new power, the Uligani. or- ranixed robbers of the underwood these are what Mir. Mandelkern says he found in Russia.
 And of all the terrors in Russia he found this newest, the Uligani. the worst When he left the city of Biel- ostok in Russian Poland. as youth, to seek his fortune, in the United States the very word Uligani was unknown. Now 1t met his ear on the railroad train that carried him from Germany into Russia within a few minutes after he had passed the boundary at Alexan- drovo. It entered into every converse tion he held, with friends or strangers, in his home city. He heard 1t uttered in terror at the bier of murdered friend. whose life had been taken be- cause he would not give up his money to these robbers from beneath who have proved themselves more greedy and more cruel than those from above. When he looked for his own fathers gravestone, the same word was whis- pered into his ear by the gravedigger as a warning. When he wanted to seek rest and recreation in a public park, he heard 1t again on the lips of the gendarme.
 The UIigani are the workless and homeless, the tramps and outcasts, the men and women without memories or hopes or ties, of whom Gorky has writ ten Taking advantage of the chaotic state produced by the war and the passive resistance of the people to the old government. MT. Mandelkern says, they have instituted a reign of terror throughout the whole provinces. Their meetings are held in the graveyards at night. Orgies take the place of de- bates. Without religion and without morals, they think only of satisfying the animal passions which have so long been suppressed by the iron hand or law.
 At these graveyard conferences the victims are picked and committees of extcrtion appointed. Then by twos ana threes the Uligani make their dreaded calls. The demand in every case Is the same-money or your life. NO man who owns property is safe. No man who refuses has chance to escape un- less he deserts all and fees to another land. The troops and the police are poweriess. Pitched battles have been fought between them and the Uligaui, and the men in uniform have always got the worst of 1t, the courage of des- pair conquering over the unwilling bravery that is only prompted by duty and discipline.
 '"rales of horror have reached the American people now and then," said Mir Mandelkern yesterday. But here we don't know one thousAndth part of the full truth"
 Another thing he found in Russia. The old fear of speaking aloud forbid den truths has vanished. A feeling oi reckIessness pervades the nation from the highest to the lowest. A rich man. ufacturer of vodka, whom MT. Mandel- kerr met on a railway train, and a Warsaw barber, a cavalry Colonel, and police captain. Moscow cab driver and a St Petersburg hotel porter-all repeated the same refrain:
 Tt is all changed. The game is now open. Why should we not speak if they kill us, can that be'4worse tnan ft t"6R wSa' Mr M MsndeiEern Ma % two " years 10 arrange matters so that, he could return to Russia without fear of the authorities. He had to have com. plete discharge as Russian subject before his American passport could bt of any value to him. It took time and money to get the cherished docu- ment. Once it was in his hands he hurried to Bielostok. where his aged mother was still alive
 That was the only purpose, he says with which he started. It was not until he had reached Russia that his eyes became opened to what was go ing on around him. and he became filled with an irresistible desire tc learn as much as possible about thiE nation in transformation.
 Two things helped him to overcome obstacles that would have been in surmountable to most other men. They were his complete familiarity witf the Russian and Polish languages ant his American citizenship. He carried with him two American flags of silk which he was in tine habit of display ing conspicuously in his room. Tt those who knew no better he let thos' flags serve as tokens of ebulient pa triotism. Really, he displayed then