Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-11-25
Three Days in Village B. zss e 9s1..,

Into our village, which has about so
homes, day after day there come to II
frozen, starving and tattered wayfaring
men in search of lodging for the night.
Half naked, shoeless. very often i'll. ex-
tremely filthy, they seek the constable.
In order that these men may not starve
or freeze to death on the streets, the
constable brings them to the doors of
local residents. But the constable calls
only on such residents as are peasants.
The constable does not take the wayfar
ers to the landowner, who besides his
ten living rooms has dozens of unoccu-
pied places In his office. in his stable. in
the laundry, in the servants hall and
elsewhere; nor does he take them to the
priest or the deacon, or to the merchant;
no, he takes them to the peasant. whose
entire family live in one room, 1s. Is or
"a feet square. And the host not only
gives this ill-smelling, ragged, filthy
stranger a nights lodging, but asks the
wayfarer to break bread with him also.
when sit down to eat an old peas
ant said to me, II can't help inviting the
stranger. The meal would not taste right
If / did not"
And of late this goes on every day
throughout Russia. A vast army grow
ing larger every year, of beggars, Grip
pies, people banished from localities by
authorities, helpless old people, and prin-
cipally laborers out of work, is found
living (being sheltered from the cold and
wet and feeding) by the aid of the hard
est-working and poorest class in Russia
the village peasantry.
We have asylums and work houses, and
IN the cities there are municipal chari-
table homes. In all these institutions
buildings with electric light, inlaid floors,
clean ATTENDANTS ~
thousands of helpless people of all kinds
are being cared for. But the number
thus provided for are as a drop in the
ocean compared with that vast army
(whose number, unknown must be APP
palling) who are wandering all over Rus
STA today begging, and are cared for. not
by any institutions. but by the village
peasants, impelled by Christian feeling to
take up this weighty burden.
And as all truly good deeds are done,
the peasants do this increasingly, not
even noticing that they are doing good.
While they are doing something ''for
their own souls" they are doing some
thing Of tremendous service to all Rus
sian society. Were the wrath of these
outcasts not softened by the spiritual
realization of the brotherhood of all men
that is so deeply rooted in the hearts
of the numerous Russian peasantry, then
In spite or the ponce cor whom there
are so few and whose number in the
villages cannot be increased) these home
less men, in their despair, would have
long ago destroyed the houses OF the
rich and killed those who stand in their
path.
Our own house is visited daily by ten
to fifteen men.
had hardly risen from sleep the other
day when Ilya Wassilyvitch CTolstois
man-of-all-work) announced:
Five tramps at the porch"
There is some money on the table;
give II to them"
Ilya Wassilyevitch gives out the allot-
ted five kopecks for each man. Almost
an hour passes. step out on the porch.
A frightfully ragged little man, whose
shoes are literally falling from his feet,
a man with sickly face, with swollen,
furtive eyes. bows low and addresses
me- as 'Excellency."
Did you not get your share?"
but, Your Excellency, what can do
with a 5-kopeck piece? Put yourself in
my place, Your Excellency. Have the
goodness to take look. Your Excel
lency; one glance, SIR" He points TO his
rags. c'Your Excellency," with every
word, but his face is bitter with hate.)
where can 1 go? What can / dor"
/ tell him give the same to each, five
kopecks. He drops to his knees. / beg
him to leave me.