The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-30
RUSSIAN TYPES.
Tragedy and Pathos Found in Tiny
VILLAGE.

Cherniyams, the Black Pit; no more
accurate description 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 ds
in their maps) is IN IT,
self contradiction of the popular
theory Of the stupidity of Little Rus
sian peasantry. 1t lies northwest OF
an insignificant railway station on the
line from Wolocyska to Schmerinkai
mere dip of the ground in the plach
dreariness Of the plain, desolate rene
of new Scytnian attempts at setIlo-
ment.
we arrive Qf you will come, too) az
the wayside station by the very cary
train from Kieff with intent to visit an
English engineer at the sugar mlll zen
miles away; Cherniyama, squalld, ms
cradle. is but a collection OF mud-ana-
waffle huts, with rare panes OF grass
in q few windows and waffle chlmneys
half burned away. The church IS u
mud and waffle, like the huts, save lor
the roof and tower, which are shlnsle
covered. The village street is slougn
of mud in autumn and spring, a caheu
and putrid dung heap in summer anu
onlv in winter is it covered by the gar
nent of white snow, which has done
so much in poetry and legend ana pic
ture to mask the horrors OF Holy nus
STA.
Our first call is at the crazy teahouse.
over yonder by the table IS Bogoan'
Presently he will put his pipe to MS
Inns again and blow for us the meian-
oholy minor music which suits 50 well
thA endless melancholy Of his life. Bog
dan has no story. He has been all his
life a slave on the fields, and his hopes
and learns at their widest have en-
braced no more than square patch Oh
ground to call his own and wherein TO
grow a bit Of maize and, perhaps, a
cabbage. 1t is enough for him that the
sun shines in summer and the snow
falls in winter, and that with his pipe
he is welcome through all the village
which is at once his home and ms
world,
Next to him is the Pole. His real
name is forgotten, but Chort Gold
Nick) they called him when he came
first from the frontier, and Chort ne
will remain. He is the village con-
spirator; q little crazy, they say, but
| tho man has no intellect, and a queer
spider-like gift of organization, SO mat
| it is rather pathetic to find him decay
| ing of this despond. His story, or SC
much Of it as he has ever been will
ing to tell is simple and characteristic.
He was a member of sokol, one OF
those gymnastic associations whlcn
number altogether some forty thousand
men handed together for the protection
NJ Polish privileges and the proseou-
tion Of the pan-Poland campaign. He
and his fellows formed wild and YET
magnificent scheme for the restoration
Of Poland from the Baltic to the Black
| Sea, and he used all his powers in the
cause. He organized agencies through
ont South Russia, established a reVo-
lutionary press in Lemberg, ana
crowning achievement OF his brleI ear
Ger. actually enlisted into the service
an official in the fortress Of Kieff. Anc
ali the while Chort, the brain OF the
whole system, was to I'll appearance
nuiet and harmless student, living the
life of a recluse in CTCcow. His last
| work was to distribute some thous'
| Ands of manifestnes through the medl'
I'm of Easter eggs OF course, ultl-
mately the tick was discovered, bu'
the mischief was done; half the gar
rison of Kieff had read the dangerous
literature and discussed it quietly
among themselves.
Then the Russians caught him. They
could and did prove nothing agalns
him but they watched his every move
melt, quietly destroyed his correspond.
ence and thwarted his efforts; tinall!
they stopped him at the frontier on MS
wav back to Cracow and tore up hi'
nassport. Then, because they preferred
to k eep him under observation, ant
did not think fit to kill him outright
! Che was a subject Of Franz JOSEF
they allowed him of their clemency t
turn back to Cherniyama. He know
he must never leave it; SO perhaps
there is something in this theory o
madners, after all.
And lest of the little group in tn
teahouse is Gregory, the Beggar. H'
sat by the door of the great cathedra
in Kieff for years, and took such bene
fit from this, his only birthright, tina
presently he came to Cherniyama fire.
for all time of the need to beg. He i
emeritus of the mendicant ranks, an(
like all other emeriti he loathes tn
rest for which he worked,
Not all the beggars by ST. Andre
steps have such a history. One stand
:. yet, as he has stood winter and sum
mer. at the side of the lowest steI
lHis rotten coat is decaying slowl,
from him, and in winter the dealt
wind touches him now and again t
the quick. His feet are bound IL
cloths, his hands are crossed upon hi
breast, and his face Is turned upward
to the cleaning cross above. Tourist
cast a careless glance at him. Thu
mild eyed peasants disregard him. Still
| that one figure stands motinless in hi
place, and in his single person mark
the beginning of the end Of orthodox,
in Russia. They call him the un
believer, because his faith has thrown
over the forms of faith and in one ter
Tribe moment he understood that TIL
temple itself is but the pedestal of tn
cross.
Once a child of his lay sick in Mos
COW, and the doctors said there was NJ
help on earth that could save her, On,