The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-30
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
That Granted by the Gar Last Year Is
Further Confirmed.

st. Petersburg, Oct. 3O.=The morn
ing of the first anniversary of the
proclamation of the imperial mani.
festo giving a constitution to Russia,
passed in st. Petersburg without any
disorder being reported. TIE Deums
were celebrated in the cathedrals and
churches and only small crowds of
people were to be seen in the flag
decorated streets. Many of the resi-
dents deciding to stay indoors owing
to fear OF becoming involved in the
troubles. Students in uniform were
conspicuously absent as the result of a
warning issued at the meeting held in
the university yesterday that bands of
reactionary rOwdies had been formed
to beat pedestrians in student garb.
The garrison of the city was dis
tributed in accordance with the emeF-
gency regulations for preserving or
cavalry were concentrated in the
vicinity of the Kazan cathedral, whose
pOrtico was guarded by soldiery. and
large numbers OF troops were gathered
in the neighbOrhOod of the university,
but the military were kept out Of
sight, as far as possible, in the in
terror of courts and in buildings. Spe-
cial guards were stationed at all the
railway stations.
There was a conflict last night be-
tween a detachment of troops and a
large crowd which had gathered at a
fire in the industrial district of
Schlusselburg. Some Towdies cut the
fire hose, drove fremen away and be-
gan plundering, whereupon the sol
diers fired a volley in the air and dis
persed the crowd without any casual
ties. Otherwise the night passed
quietly.
At noon a special edition of the Of
hclal Gazette containing the imperial
ukase granting full religious freedom
to the "ol1 believers" was issued, the
preamble of which is as follows:
10 guarantee to all Russian sub
1ects liberty, faith in public worship
according to dictates of their con-
science we issued a ukase April 80,
1905. In continuance of this task Of
love and peace we deem it good to
establish rules and regulations gov
erntng the internal organization of the
old believers and other dissident sects
of the holy orthodox church, charg-
ing the ministry of the interior at the
same time to elaborate a similar law
for the sects issuing from other
Christian confessions With trust in
benehcent providence we believe that
these measures will serve to strength
en- the ties of loyalty by which the
old believers have been bound for
centuries to the throne and father
land and enhance the greatnes of our
general mother, the holy orthodox
church.
According to the law any dissident
sect mum bering so persons whose aims
are not immoral or having tenets like
refusal to do military service (the
Dukhobors and Standists are illegaD
can apply for and receive permission
to organize churches. conduct services,
build schools and elect clergy. who
shall be exempted from military ser
vice and be entitled to wear Vestments
and perform the baptism, marriage
and other sacraments and keep regis
ters of births, marriages and deaths
of equal authority with the official
records of the orthodox priests. The
new law introduces an important in
novation in the form of civil marriage
designed for the sects having no
clergy, but of which nonmembers can
easily take advantage enabling thou
sands of persons, who on account Of
their objection to a religious rite and
the absence of a civil ceremony, have
lived together unmarried, to assume
the legal tie and legitimatize their
children. This law is of special i'm
portance to the Mariavists the Polish
schismatics from the Roman Catholic
church, whose numbers are rapidly
growing on the German frontier.