Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-09-06
GEAR STILL RULES.
HAS FAITHFUL ALLEGIANTS IN
 AMERICAN TERRITORY.
Word of the the Russian Ch---chl Head Is More Potent Than United States Law in
 Remote Alaska.


 There are remote regions in the ir- terior of far away Alaska, under Amer ican rule, where the czar of Russia still holds the faithful allegiance of hum dreds of former subjects, where his word as the head of the Russian church means more to the people than law of the United States congress or rul- ing of the United States courts.
 These people are descendants of mixed Russian and native stock and the active proselyting of the representatives of the Russian church has kept them loyal to the Little Father and has led them to accept him as their temporal ruler, although 40 years have passed since the signing of the treaty which conveyed the country to the United States.
 In these settlements the Russian lana guage is almost exclusively spoken, missions are maintained by the Russian church and schools conducted under the auspices of those missions.
 In many respects the people are as thoroughly Russian in both appearance and allegiance as are the people in the outlying portions of Siberia on the op- posite coast of Behring sea.
 Of the 6o.000 people living in Alaska, one-sixth are eommunicants of the Rus sian orthodpx' church. The church mairtafns in ihe districts 16 parishes, 3s missions and 30 schools. having a total of TAO children in attendance
 The total enrolment in the 8 public schools maintained in the district by the United States government is 2,100. only three times as large as that at Russian schools.
 In all there are I06 missions main- tained in Alaska by different religious denominations, of which the Russian church maintains 5s. While the Rus sian religious influence is hardly the dominant influence in Alaska. 1t is easily the largest religious influence, and Is probably the dominant influence among the native population, since many of the churches. notably the Congregations al and Episcopal. devote their energies largely to the white settlements.
 The Russian missions are maintained in remote settlements where the popu- lation is chiefly native or a mixture of native and Russian.
 It is difficult for most Americans to understand how an absolute autocrat like the czar of Russian has SO long held the unswerving allegiance of millions of people. A key to this enigma may be found in any one of the thousands of modest homes in the district of Alaska. In the humble cabin of the average En- dian river pilot on the Yukon river. in the shack of the Aleut fisherman, on any of the Aleutian islands or in the miserable igloo of the Eskimo reindeer herder at Point Barrow. may be found hanging side by side two highly colored prints: one that of the meek and lowly Nazarene. and the other that of the ear of Russia. the head of the Rus sian Greek Eastern Orthodox church.
 In each of the Russian missions the Russian speaking priests and mission aries perslstently instruct their parish toners that the power of the czar is not only temporal. but spiritual as well. and that no loyal and devout member of the church should take up arms against the Little Father or in any respect disregard his wishes or commando