New-York tribune., 1906-06-17
RUSSIAN TYPES.
Tragedy and Pathos Found in a
Tiny Village.
by Charles Tower.

Cherniyana, the Black Pit: no more accurate de-
scription could have been found for my Russian
village. and the very name (Which. mark you. Is
OF no official devising and is not so much as ac-
knowedged in their maps is in itself a contradic-
ton OF the popular theory Of the stupidity OF Little
Russian peasantry. II lies northwest Of an fnsis-
nifcant railway station the line from Wolocyska
to Schmerinka: mere dip OF the ground in the
black drearness Of the plain a desclate relic OF
new Scythian attempts at settlement
We arrive Of you will come. tool at the wayside
station by the very early train from Kien with
intent to VISIT an English engineer at the sugar
mill ten miles away. Cherniyama, squalid mis-
erable is but collection Of mpd-and-wattie huts.
with rare panes OF glass in a few windows and
waffle chimneys half burned away The church
Is of mud and waffle. like the huts. save for the
roof and tower. which are shinsle covered. The
village street is a slough OF mud IN autumn ana
spring caked and putrid dung heap IN summer
and only in winter Is 1t covered by the garment
of white snow, which has done much In poetry
and legend and picture TO mask the horrors of Holy
Russia
Our first call is at the crazy teahouse. over
yonder by the table is Bogdan. Presently he will
nut his pipe to his lips again and blow Tor Us ths
melancholy minor music which suits so well the
endless melancholy Of his life. Bogdan has no
story He has been all his life slave on the helds
and his hopes and dreams az their wiIdest nave
embraced no more than q square patch OF ground
to call his own and whereon to grow a Dit OF
maize and perhaps a cabbage II IS enough Tor
him that the sun shines IN summer and the snow
falls in winter and that with his pipe ne Is wei
come through all the village which Is at once MS
home and his world
gotten but Chort (OId Nick) they called him when
he came first from the frontier, and Cnort M "li
remain He is the village conspirator; utue
crazy thew say but the has no intellect, ana
g. queer. splder-Hke gift Of organization SO tnat
it Is rather pathetic to find him decsytng IN this
Desmond His story, or SO much Of 1t as he has
ever been willing 10 tell IS simple and character
istic.
He was member of a sokol. of those gym
nastfo associations which number altogether some
forty thousand men banded together for the pro-
lection of Polish privileges and the prosecution OF
the pan-Poland campaign. He and his fellows
formed wild and yet magnificent schemes for the
restoration of Poland from the Baltic TO the Black
organized agencies throughout South Russia. es-
e t2hS o hs sTef Y caTaer actually
enlisted into the service an Official IN me IoIrsss tss
OF ke And all the 20 Whe nj s oet % and
harmless student living the life Of Tec!use SEN IN
thousands Of manifestoes through the medium Of
Easter eggs OF course ultimately the tTiek was vas
garrison of Kien had read the dangerogs literature
and discussed ii quietly among themselves.
Fhen the Russians caught him; They gould and
did prove nothing against him, but they watched
a n0G asieS s & they
stopped him at the frontier on his way hack to
they preferred 10 keep him under observation. and
did not think ft to xiii him outright Che was sub
clenency 10 turn back to Cherniyama. He knows
hs hing n R htoqy 81 Fl After M
last the " Bxa sa little R :a @ IN the the deoH ot s Is
and 9slt tS9s s9i9
he came TO Cherniyana free for all time OF the need
TO beg. He is emeritus Of the mendicant ranks.
which he worked
Not all the beggars by St Andrews steps have
such history. One stands, yet. as he has stood
winter and summer, at the side OF the Lowest step:
His rotten coat is decaying slowly from him, and
in winter the death wind touches him now and
again 10 the quick. His feet are bound in cloths.
his hands crossed upon his breast and his face
is turned upward to the cleaning cross above.
eyed peasants disregard him. Still that one figure
stands motonless in his place and in in his I single
doxy in Russia. They call him the unbeliever. be-
cause his faith has thrown over the forms OF faith
temple itself is but the pedestal Of the cross
Cnce = child of his lay sick in Moscow, and the
save her One after another those that he called
told him that nothing could be done, and one
aLteF an9ther TOOK the pFlce OF tnelr he!peSsness
seer, and told him that there but one way
70 save the childs life: III the Bojemater comes
told him and he believed; and therefore he gave
up that AItle store OF paper currency which was
the half of his own soul the hard earned pittance
which gave him position above the outcast and
the destitute who are the lowest estate. He
bought fair linen and spread out the feast 10 which
the Mother Of God was to be made welcome So
the priests and the bearers, the prophets and the
seers Korah. Dathan and Abiram and all the com
house and sat 1t az the head of the table. ''He
loveth cheerful giver" they said, and made much
the man for the propagation OF the picture gospel
and afterward they went away But the child
IN the night he crawls away 70 some shelter undar
the sandstone cHns-(Macmillan's Magazine.