Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-03


miss one OF them. since all were equal"
The eldest OF them was sixteen. The most
appalling part OF the story Il that ell
tEesa children planned thu murder t.
gether and no one was found among liie1n
who had enough conscience TO tel tie
authorities OF IL warn Owczak Of Tie
fate which awaited him.
A somewhat similar case of revenge
Cured in the Caucasus recently. There
the people scarcely ever think of taking
their grievances IL a tribunal: all dis
putes are settled privately--by means OF
the kinjal or knife But even IN the
Caucasus vendetta used to be left 10
grown-up men and women. Now the
children indulge in it. well-to-do
peasant was murdered by his netshho-
Several OF The dead mans family we're
mere children and among them was his
younger sister, girl OF ten. She called
all the children OF the village tosethsr
and asked what was 10 be done to svenge
her brother. All of them said that ons
OF the murderer's family must be sacr-
feed So they set out together and be-
gan to play by the murdcrers hut Mo-
body took any notice OF them and little
by little the ten-year-oid child ran inip
the hut. saw the father OF her brothers
murderer asleep. and. creeping UP TO him.
plunged knife deep INTO his throat. Then
she and her companions dragged the dead
body to the threshold OF the hut. where
il lay till the family came back from
their work In the fields. When arrested
she said it was her duty to avenSe her
brother and that if anything happened
to her all her p!aymates had promised
she should be avenged In the same way.
The authorities are at a loss as to how
they are TO treat such childish muir
deress as the law prescribes twenty years
In Siberia for adults and there are no re-
lorna tories in Russia.
Three of the children who took part In
the train-wrecking at Lapy we're the sons
of well-to-do parents. one OF an engineer
and the other of a doctor. This means
that they had not been brought up In the
streets but received some kind of train
ing at home and in school. That this
training is getting worse and worse is
proved by the appalling increase In I'M
morality among school boys and girls in
Russian towns. II is this fact that has
finally stirred the governors of provinces
to action.
The average Russian teacher takes no
interest whatever in his pupils after
school hours. Where they go and what
they do concerns him not. AS lie often
takes boarders-whose parents live some
distance from the school-it Ia easy to
understand that SO per cent OF the school
children are left entirely alone as soon
as their lesson books are shut for the
day. Towns are few and far between. SO
the homes Of the majority Of the pupils
are miles away.
Whether the commissions lately con-
vened by the governors OF provinces will
do any good is a matter Of doubt. The
root Of the evil lies in the school system:
in the lack of institutions for watching
and providing for children who have no
parents to do so; and in the absence OF
proper home training. Until these wants
are supplied all the police orders in the
world. will not prevent the terrible in
crease in infantile crime, which is, at
last. occupying the attention Of ali those
who take the trouble to think in Russia.
Meanwhile the prisons are filled with
children and the growing generation is
ruined. physically and mentally, before
1t leaves the schoolroom for the world.