Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-21
Hold Easter Service
at Late Day
"Mllk Drinkers" with Their Brlah,
colors and Quaint Customs, Are
Page of Old World
History

been a source of curiosity as they go
to and from their work passing in our
busy streets as a bit Uf medieval col
or-the Molokanes-Russian peasants,
fleeing from the land of the great white
czar, have settled in Los Angeles, are
learning our language, but yet live
unto themselves and largely for them
selves. AS they go about on the streets
they are not part Of the crowd, but
stand singularly alone.
Few, IL any, Americans have made
friends with them, and their natural
distrust, fostered by generations of op-
preston, is not conducive to this, and
today they are almost as much curl
osity to Americans as when they first
landed on these shores, and their GUS
toms are almost unknown to the out
side world.
Last Sunday was their celebration of
Easter.
All, yes, all this and more To them
Easter is not day of viewing the
creations of dressmakers and the mil
liners, but with gladstone hearts, bright
kerchiefs that are donned for Sunday
these peasants that have suffered un-
told prosecutions for their faith go in
clusters to their meeting place and
there go trough a service that has
none of pomp and vanity, but which,
to them, bares their souls to their
creator and their fellowmen.
In the main assembly room of the
Stimson-Lafayette Industrial school
are these services held, beginning at
8 o'clock Sunday mornings, continuing
until IL o'clock, resuming at and con-
tinuing until and from to 10 o'clock
in the evening, which is followed by a
business meeting of the council of
elders.
Last Sunday was their Easter, the
observance of the day # the long ago
that has made it possible for hundreds,
nay, even thousands of their faith to
meet worse than death with resignation
and even gladness.
Are Sturdy Citizens
But come and see the service of these
people, strangers in our land, who some
day in the future, in all probability,
will form as sturdy an element of the
American race as did the pilgrim faith
ers. Through the kindness and cour-
tesy Of Count A. n. Lochwitzky, him
self an exile from the land of the great
white czar and who has suffered un-
told agonies for his attempt to better
humanity, we may see and understand
the service of these people.
Perhaps you will think, as did, that
these people are fanatics, believing as
they do in the gift of tongues, pro-
phecies and in the divine manifestation
of the Holy Spirit to their people. l
must confess that 1 expected to see
a service much on ,t.e order of the
Holy Jumpers. I went not as a SCOT
fer, but solely to get a good story
But 1 came away impressed with the
solemnity of the service, more as a
funeral than anything else; with a
higher regard for tn Sc people of the
queer national dress and whiskers;
with a deeper regard for their belief
and with a wholesome respect for the
men and women, believers in Christ,
whether Russians or Americans, who
would sacrifice ALL life and property,
to worship their God as they thought
the right way; to live almost in bond
age like the Israelites of old and like
them, have travelled by night and day
to the land of promise, with the thought
of the statue of liberty as a cloud by
day and a fire by night to guide their
straining eyes to the land where they
might be free in spirit and action.
Is Quiet Neighborhood
They come to a land of plenty, carved
for them by the pilgrims, and well may
they say in the words of the poet:
I'VE rest in peace where battled thou;
We feast where hunger was thy guest
And where We toiled we find sweet rest
In happy homes of comfort now.
So grand.
Its fruttfulnesS,
We know
We owe
Thy faithfulness
Brave pioneer"
The neighborhood near the school is
ouiet, composed of little homes of
working people, and as we near the
school where the service is being held
we hear low murmur as of the wind
in a forest in the distance and which
gradually comes clearer as the chant
ing by both men and women reach us.
The count leads the way into the
anteroom, where are hung in rows
the hats and caps of the men-the
women always keep the kerchiefs on
their heads, seemingly without the
least difficulty Then we are ushered
into the room, contrast in light and
dark. AS in the Quaker churches, the
men and women sit IN dlHerent parts
the men tall, broad shouldered, sturdy,
and the women no less so, sons and
daughters of the soil for many genera
tions, intent on the service. The men
over there form strong, dark mass,
a contrast to the women, who are all
in light, mostly in white, with a gay
bit of color in their headdress.
Young Women Polite
Our entrance causes hardly any stir,
far less than theirs would in our
churches, and we are politely offered
seats by young women, The count
takes his place among the men, who
make way for him, not as a nobleman
and their superior in their native land,
but rather as a brother and fellow
sufferer. There is no class caste among
these people, they are all brothers and
sisters.
AS he stood there one could but no
tice the difference-the count, rather
small of stature. the highly educated
gentleman of the world, with the
courtly manners of the palace, beside
those big men, sons of toll, each with
that look Of determination that would
suffer death rather than waver. And
this same look is in the face of the
count as he stands and kneels with
them-the look that has made it possi-
BILE for him TO live sixteen months in
solitary confinement in a dungeon, ex-
lied In Siberia, lose wife, children and
estate.
In one corner of the room is placed
saat