The daily sentinel., 1905-02-02
HIDEoUs POVERTY.

In opposition to the gorgeousness
of the palaces and the splendor of
the churches, with their priceless
frescoes. mosaics. statuary and treas
ures of gold and silver and priceless
stones, are the piteous men and wom-
en-. ragged and crippled, crouehiug
in the far-away, hidden recesses of
the cathedrals as if trying to hide
from the glare of the candle-light,
rejecting the candelabra of the
heavy brass. the simmer of costly
the cloth of gold of the priests gar
ments and their resplendent decor
ations; in the CLEAN of the polished
granite columns. upon the icy mar
! BILE floors they kneel In shrunken alb
jectness. In contra distinction to
the display of untold wealth by the
4 fortunate classes. from the nobleman
in his sables. with his oriental lux
ury of life. to the bedizzened priests
! in their churchly functions, are the
beggars--the most forlorn. the most
hideous poverty stricken beggars ev-
| er seen upon the earth-who stand
| in groups at the church doors,
massed at the gates of the monas-
teries, halting by the wayside, skull1-
ing upon the streets, cropping about
railway everywherei The
very poor in Russia wear shoes and
sandals made of bark. Often their
feet and the lower portion of their
Lon. gsl 4.
are arrayed. from crown to sole. In
tatters. Their appearance generally
is that of the "man with the hoe"
the hopelessness. the ignorance, the
slavery and want of centuries are
stamped upon every dull. pathetic
feature. and emphasized in every
movement of the body.
Once when | was leaving the beau
tiful church in the Kremlin at Mos
COW, where the czars crown them
selves, as they slowly recite their
fifty-four titles, l gave a coin to
beggar who had persistently followed
me. In a moment ! was surrounded
by such a crowd of mendicants, i'm
ploring with lips, eyes and hands for
help in manner so determined that
was seized with deadly terror and
ran from them.
A person whose soul is alive to
the miseries of the human family
is always conscious, while in Russia. |
of sense of overwhelming depres- |
ion produced by the unhappy and !
apparently irremediable condition of |
the lower classes. Scattered over
the immense empire of the czar. at
long intervals. are the houses of the /
poor, both in the villages and coun-
try districts. They are built of wood,
some simply of logs. and are small.
poorly constructed and dreary look
ing. All are devoid of attractiveness
and are somberly gray. The only
bright thing to be seen in or near
some of the villages is cabbage gar
den of vivid green. The roofs of
the huts. which are often thatched.
reach nearly to the earth. These
dwelling nestle in the midst of lit
tie clump of outhouses.
The fences are also made of wood.
broken down in places and decayed.
Occasionally there is seen Il fence
or hedge of fir or balsam.
The shepherds are in the fields
with their little focks of sheep, and
often there are shepherdesses. while
an old man guards solitary COW as
she eats.
Mon and ,vop,ap .u,o,l- +oo,otIa,. L.,
the fields, sowing seed, raking hay,
or plowing. Sometimes eight or ten
yoke of oxen are found standing in
one place. hltched to their wooden |
plows, two by two.
In the latter part or September | /
saw women working. barefoot. in
the fields. with their dresses tucked |
up to their knees, thin-necked legs |
cleaning from their petticoats, al |
though it was so cold that / was /
shivering in my heavy winter clothes. /
They were also either bare-headed |
or had cloths folded cat-a-cornered /
tied over their heads.
The peasant women carry heavy |
loads of wood on their backs, as in |
Germany; great bags stuffed full of |
food for the horses or cattle; huge /
wooden troughs for threshing grain. |
and immense buckets of water swung
by chains or ropes from a yoke across |
their shoulders.
Four-fifths of the inhabitants of |
Russia are very primitive. Farming
is done spasmodically. One rarely |
sees anything more extensive than
small patches.
There is a striking difference in
the appearance of the people of the
upper and lower classes. The for
mer are superbly developed and are
among the handsomest men and
women of the world. cultivated in
brain and manner and commanding
in appearance. The lower classes
are dwarfed in growth. often with
heavy frames and slow movements.
There is about them an air of stunt