New-York tribune., 1905-07-02
HEADSTONE IN ITS RESTORED
CONDITION.

looked for ukase investing the mouJik with the
ownership of the land and that the execution OF
the decree is fraudulently withheld by the Local
officials and territorial magnates Of the neigh
borhood a sort Of JacQuerie on a small scale
ensues The peasantry, wild with rage al the
notion of being deprived of what they believe
to be their rights-of the rights accorded to
them by their Little Father"-attack and burn
a few chateaus, perhaps massacre some OF the
inmates if the latter happen to have rendered
themselves particularly obnoxious, and cut
down with their terrible scythes any of the
rural government officials whom they may en-
counter but are soon reduced TO subjecton oy
the lead thonged whips, the sabres, the lances
and the rifles of the Cossacks, who cut them 10
uieces and shoot them down en- nasse- Reports
of these disturbances find their way into the
foreign press, and falsely described in a
Way 10 convey the impression that if the peas
ants have risen it is against the Car anu
against his government, whereas it is nothing
Of the sort, the revolt having been wholly and
entirely against the territorial magnates and
local officials for refusing to put into operation
what the moujiks believe the Emperors
wishes and orders regarding the distribution OF
the land
Czar. Nicholas understands the Russian peas
ent He may not be a great statesman or
man Of such brilliancy and intellectual activity
as, for instance, Emperor William But he does
understand far better than many of his Min
isters and political advisers the moujik- In
spite Of all the efforts of the officials by whom
he was surrounded while acting as president OF
The famine commission, prior to his accession,
he managed time and again to get into very
close contact with the poor in the rural dis
tricts. He encouraged them to talk to him
hiS odx-
in certain respects the distances between the
great and the lowly are less marked in Russia
than in Western countries, and the moujik thinks
It perfectly natural TO address his sovereign as
Little Father and with the familiar thou.
In lieu Of the obseQuious forms Of speech re-
ouired by the etiquette Of courts and ofticialdom
In verbal intercourse with crowned heads what
Nicholas saw of the terrible poverty, the lifelong
misery and of the persecution to which the
moujiks were subjected made on him very
profound impression He firmly determined that
when he became Gar he would make 1t the chief
business of his reign to tighten the heavy burden
which the peasants bore, and to better their lot
in every way, and his one great trouble in life
is that nearly all his efforts in their behalf have
failed and that save for the fact that he has
remftted millions upon millions Of rubles of
their arrears of taxation, their lot is no better
now than It was in the days of his father. Nor
&c this endeavor to ameliorate their lot wholly
disinterested. For he is shrewd enough to ap-
preciate to its full extent the touching senu-
ment Of loyalty, of devotion. Of the rnoujik tow
trd the Little Father" and the PEASANTS firm
belief In the sympathy and the fondness Of the
Car for the humblest class Of his subjects And
Nicholas feels that as long as these impressions
are preserved. as long as the peasants are con-
tent with their sovereign, the latters throne
will be safe, no matter how much noise the
classes and the townspeople may make
But it IS not only the Gar who understands
this The fact is likewise appreciated by that
ablest of all Russian statesmen. Count de Witte,
and by other public In Russia Of the same
calibre- True. they do not proclaim their views
from the housetops. realizing that. for many
reasons. both personal and public, 1t Is polite