The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-16
ARMY THE GAR MUST FEAR.
5000, 600 TREKkING PEASANTS
VINO DEMAND LAND.
Wanderers IN Search Of Harvest Employ
ment Being worked On by the Rev
o~lutlonIsIs- Dr. Mackenzie wallace
Describes Their PIuAbIe Condition.
Spseia, caOis Despatch 10 TEE son.

0lutlonlsls- Dr. Mackenzie wallace
Describes Their P1uAbIe Condition.
nv Special Cable Despatch 10 TEE son.
III LONDON, Sept. lS.-Further light upon
1.-The great tragedy that is being enacted In
Russia is thrown by.Dr. Mackenzie WalIGce
lin the Times to-day. where he discusses
Ithe condition OF the landless peasant. He
a now living in the open air with a COM
lpany which is one contingent Of a vast
host Of 10000 o Of trekking agriCulturists.
fHe IN with a band who left their homes
months ago, according TO the annual GUS
ltom. TO seek work on the crops In other
parts Of the empire. They are now return
ing.
All told, he says, they are nearly twice
fns numerous, and they may prove as In
t~finential as all the workmen In the towns,
ct whom 30 much is heard. and the return OF
this army OF laborers from their dispersion
IN all quarters Of the empire may have
4 reeults not less important than those that
have already followed the repatriation Of
The army Of soldiers from the Far East.
-The lot OF these Wanderers" says DR.,
wallace. lis miserable enough, God knows.
Most Of them are from Little Russia and the
steppe provinces. Some Of them travel as
liar As 1000 versts. They are absent from
their villages from two to six months and
their average wage is 80 rubles, Of which
they have a minimum outlay Of 81 rubles
L for passport and food en- route. This leaves
IL rubles, which makes an average wage OF
II kopecks, or 0 cents a day. Some travel
by train in fourth class, or on the sloweet
volka boats part Of the way, but multitudes
20 on foot. They spend the night wherever
they happen to be when darkness falls.
They suffer innumerable privatione from
hunger, cold heat and sickness. and finally,
II they survive, they reach their destination
with all their strength spent before they
have begun work.
Land, give us land!' these peasants
cry. Nor do they dream OF c~ompensating
any OF the present landowners whom they
may dispossess. At the bottom of their
hearts 10 the ineradicable conviction that a
n WHO works on the land has a natural
right to Il, which il put in the balance against
all the positive laws of property makes
4 them kick the beam. We are the Lords
they say, and. the and is ours Yes, they
still believe in the Lord and before they
lie Town on empty stomachs on the steppe
they commit themselves by the sign Of the
cross 10 the Divine care. They believe, too.
In the Blessed Virgin and the saints and in
ikons and heaven and hell. This stsppe-
over which they wander hoses itself in the
dim horizon where the earth and sky mingie
and are lost and there is a mystical back
ground cnoompassing these wanderers
lives, in the inlet Of which are superstitions,
portents and signs.
In the Russian revolution what is these
peasants rolee It was discovered to me
by a man who had been the companion Of
my journeyings for two days. He forced
his company upon me, for while | was driv-
ting across the country he sprang pom me
from behind a tree and made the demand
which, almost with impotence, | had long
expected TO hear-'hands UNI Ever if
had possessed a revolver ] should not nave
dred, for I could have blown the wretch
out Of existence with a puff of smoke from
my cigarette. | have seen pitiable speoi-
mems Of humanity in my day, but none ever
stirred my compassion so profoundly as
this man, and | c~heerfully gave him the few
rubles I had and some Of my cigarettes.
LAS be smoked he told me his history.
For a political offence he had been provided
by an administrative order with what the
peasants appropriately call a VOLTS pass
port, which forces him to be a perpetual
wanderer on the face Of the earth. or such
part of it as is under the dominion Of the
Gar, reporting himself at specified police
stations "a he goes along. and forbids all
the Cars subjects to give him shelter for
Imore rhan one night. II is he curse Of
Cain, and certainly this mans punishment
Is greater than he can bear. although his
sin was not murder, but merely completely
an printing some illegal literature which the
|Government was making vain efforts tn
suppress. am told by this wolf that hehad
met fewer Of his lind during the last four
or FIVE months than in earlier times, and il
Is to be hop<d the Government has discov-
cred the criminal folly Of treating men as
wild beasts.
But during many years the revolutionary
leaders have found use for these men,
although the Government has zone. They
have ordained them ~peripatetic mission
aries to the peripatetio peasants. They
.eJpply the peasants with revolutionary
.parnphlets for dissemination in their villages !
on their return. They teach them the
sMarseillaise"and other revolutionary songs,
recount to them the heroic deeds Of the
revolu tionary martyrs who by revolver and
bomb havs executed judgment upon tho
oppressors Of the people and distribute
highly colored and still more highly imagin-
alive pictures Of the French Revolution
20 teach those, who annot read low they
ought 70 act. This man is himself a Irving
picture which no one who has seen it can
easily forget.
Great numbers Of these wandering
peasants are sometimes 10 be found massed
tcgethsr. On May 0, for example, 1900
OF them gathered at the st. Nicholas fair
In KAhpvka, and where there are mission
aries wolves are also found. Thus $4,000 o
peasants are being made propagaRdists Of
the revolutionary faith h. By the end OF
October they will have. returned to their
Villages with literature in their wallets,
sonys in their memories and bitterness in