Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-12-30
HE MISERY N RUSSIA
Real Condition L. and Wretched-
ness of We Beasants are
Described
FEARFUL EFFECT OF FAMINE
Russian Government Seized All Sup.
plies Of Food to Pay for Arrears in
Taxation - Awful Mortality Re-
ported Among the Children of the
Poor.

Poor.
The London Standard prints the fol
Rowing from Russian at present liv-
I hg in London, who has himself expe-
4ienced the terrors he tells about, Civ
ING the following description of modern
j Russia:
AT the present moment famine and
misery untold are running riot i'll Euro
I ian Russia And vet only q short time
no m English journal pointed to this
years immense expectation Of corn
8 from Russia as proof of the increased
4 pFosperity of the country. No one, per-
Shaps, knows SO well as Russian who
s5Sas himself suffered how this seeming
aSiyn,bol OF plenty is as the death war
rant of hundreds Of miserable men,
women and children. For it mems that
( The Russian government has seized the
entire supplies Of food which the peas
ant has raised to feed himself and his
family in the winter, to pay for the ar
stears Of taxation, arrears Of land tax,
Sof grants in aid, all of which amount to
Hundreds of millions of rubles.
| Within the interior of Russia ut the
S1preoent moment are large villages in
htch the entire population lie famish-
IN their wretched huts. In these
there are moi; even mice, because there
Il no food; NO cats, owing to the alb
q
~ starved. In some places the In
S6atants hive trained themselves to
without food by allowing them
s1lves to sink into kind of win5<f
9leep and by moving as little as posi-
6le whereby the waste Of bodily tissue
arrested, and a saving in food and
kuel Is elected. In many parts where
the famine Is severe 1t is hardly proba-
6le that single young child will sur
Nltittve
Because there Is no milk the baby
q ftxen a horrible substitute, called a
blplc1ing bag. It is filed with black
It'd, which = rarely changed, and
1 Eeads disease as it goes on from
mouth to mouth. At last dysentery sets
aaSs1n and the child soul returns whence it
HH61ne 90 short while before. Thus it
i hl9 come about that the mortality of
tho Russian population is Largely In
sasin9 and the once rapid increase
he Russians has been checked.
me n Bsian peasant Is not trained
% work He feels no zest in it. He
E1ff not labor for more than Is neces-
~ to provide for the next few days,
3dr the land: is not really his own, and
therefore he cannot love it as hus-
sbanaman should. His whole character
hass been enervated by enslavement
|fana bad government, which rendered
him less than ever capable Of strug-
3 fling with bad times.
8 But the state, instead Of doing any
ming to increase the industry and pro
q live power Of the people, does the
S1l3 reverse It even panders to his
sss ~ increasing the number Of
i1 Festivals and holidays, far more
aer, apparently, to impress him with
q ~ san,ctity Of the church and the au-
4 E1V Of the state. Now, these holt
& - cost the country enormous sums
mcn.y. Assume that Of 12O,O0O.oO0
4 COO able workmen alone do work
SeN(E day to the value Of 20 kopecks.
IL modest rate the nation is de-
pG346 hy every holiday Of f1,200,O 600
"A - GO.
he Russian Of the farming districts
- 100 or more of these holidays an
3 ally, and the tendency in official cir
- Il. still further to increase them.
4 I6ls eyen mont Orthodox Russians, be-
their Catholic and Protestant hol-
Nv, are compelled to observe Ortho-
8 Aints' days as we'll. Calculated in
mq Nv the loss of labor caused In this
liner added to the foods Of brandy
II y which the days are celebrated.
ut represent an annual loss Of GER
tSinly not less than E1O,OOO,OO0 $780,
eb,O(O,.
Tie poorest village manages to find
MEANS IL necessary by recourse to the
Mage poor box-to celebrate these
days. which is equivalent to
king pailfuls OF brandy. And the
Il that is drunk the better the gov
/ 1t Of the Little Father will be
m for is not it's sale govern
Monopoly? It has been calculat-
4 at peasant family of four men,
bta Eonly will spend fifth Of the year
- come in brandy"
Res1cide ~ Royal Tutor.
sensation has been caused by the
~ that King Peter of Servia has ap-