The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1909-06-03

side of the Atlantic. For years the ''Douks"
were looked upon a joke and Canada was
laughed at and rdculed, but now there is
different tale to tell Most of the stories that
brought the immigrants into contempt were
based upon the doings of small minority of
the communists, religious zealots whose fervor
led them into extravaganza of conduct such
as could be explained only by mental de-
rangement. These zealots went naked in the
middle of winter on pilgrimages through the
snow in search of the Messiah. They would
not work and they would not sanction work
by others. They even turned loose their
horses. cattle sheep and hogs (given to them
by the Canadian government), because they
didn't believe that horses or oxen should be
made to toll for man or that sheep or hogs
should be eaten by man.
The majority of the immigrants, however,
were industrious and painstakng and had lit
tie sympathy for the fanatics. These indus
trious ones have built up the community prop
erty until now the Doukhobor colonies are
among the best in the Saskatchewan country.
They are as deeply religious as ever. and they
cling to their old Quakerlike customs tena-
ciously, but they no longer looked upon
problem by the Canadian government and
there will be more talk of dispossessing
them from the magnificent domain they
cupy
The Doukhobor has made good.
the nrSt Sh1plOad OF DOuknoDorS LETT Ba-
toun. in Asiatic Russia, in January, 1899, bound
for Canada, and by the middle of that year
more than 1000 of them had settled in the
far northwest Now the number of these pc
culiar reigionsts in Canada exceeds 10000.
The creed of the Doukhobors is somewhat
vague in many details. The principal points
of their belief however these: There is
one God; the Holy Trinity is beyond compre-
hension. They do not believe in praying in
temples made with hands. and say that all the
ceremonies of the churches, being useless.
were much better left alone. Luxury in food
or dress is condemned, and going to war, car
rying arms taking oaths of any descrip-
ton are forbidden. Their mode of life is
strictly communistic, all laboring for the com
mon good They abstainers from alcohol
and tobacco, and, for the most part vege-
tarians
For many years the Doukhobors lived in the
neighborhood of Kief, in what is called Lit
tie Russia" In the reign of Alexander l.,
they all were banished to the Wet mountains
of Georgia. in the Caucasus. There they lived
for many years among the haf-savage Ma.
hometans, who have been the rulers of that
region for centuries The crisis in their for
tunes came in 1887. A universal CONSUMPTION
was declared throughout Russia. Every
healthy adult male was ordered to be ready for
service in the army.
For the next three years the Doukhobors
were prosecuted unremittingly. There We're
innumerable banshments. mprisonments.
foggings and tortures that cannot be de-
scribed, but the Doukhobors were immovable.
Their condition was pitiable in the extreme
when Count Tostoy and the Society of
Friends in England came to their relief by
raising funds for their emigration TO Canada.
There was little difficulty about obtaining
sufficient land at little price for the 1000
| h 4.
first year. Each male over Is years old was
allowed to take up 100 acres subject to pay
ment of $40, which was three years deferred.
The Dominion government also gave grant
of So TO each man, woman and child, who
reached Winnipeg before June 80 1899
The region where these Russian exies have