Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-05
Especial Correspondence


1T. PETERSBURG, Jan. 24.-Many
- hundreds of thousands of dollars
went to Russia for the relief Of
sufferers from famine but tle-RsasaHts-
have not received one-tenth of It, The
Liberal party in the Duma has made
a fuss about this twice and at present
the Liberals accuse NJ. Ushakoff. mem
Der of the Vladimir Zemstvo, of buying
bad grain at high prices from his friend
Shakoff, and when 30.000,000 pounds OF
it, they declare. were sent to the COM
munes hardly seven per cent was tit
for sowing. This means waste Of
over S5s.OOo. most OF which was coh
lected in America.
Attention was called publicly to the
reports of the Zemstvos. which COM
plain that the grain Is not only use
less, but one-third dearer than the best
qualities In the market. UshakofT,
when asked to order the grain else
where, refused to do so. and he also
refused to look at the reports of those
Zemstvos which complain that the
grain is quite unuSable. In fact, he or
dcred another consignment of 3,OOO.OO0
pounds straight away, at the same
price. although the market price of
grain had dropped by Is per cent. The
Liberal paper RUS" (The Russian)
published an account OF the whole af-
fair, and the editor stated publicly
that, IL foreign philanthropists knew
into whose hands their money falls.
they would cease subscribing to Rus
sian charitable funds.
WEIRD BOOKKEEPING.
owing to the carelessness with which
the accounts are kept 1t is impossible
to find out how much has como from
America and England within the past
three or four years, but all who have
watched the affair agree that s250,00O
| Will not cover 1t. But, bad as their
| management is Shakoff and UShakof(
| are not the first. or worst. offenders
| in this respect. Some time before these
| two men occupied public attention
| Russia was amused. for she generally
| laughs at these things. by the Gurko
l case, In which Captain Gurko, son OF
| the famous general and viceroy of Po-
| land of that name. and Lidval, sani-
| tary engineer, were tried for misap-
| preparation OF the famine funds, some
| OF which came from the government
| while the rest was subscribed by for
| eign countries. Lidval escaped with
| reprimand but Captain Gurko was
ordered to pay large fine. deprived
OF his public appointments and de-
| graded for the space OF three years.
| In the course OF evidence many prom
| trip
en- unpleasant notoriety. Amongst them
| Madame Esther. a fashionable dress
| maker, and Madame Wittc. the cX.
| minister's wife. may be mentioned. Bu
before going into this case. which oc
| cupIed the criminal court at ST. Peters
! burg for months. 1t will be interesting
4 TO touch on the life stories OF the TIVE
defendants-Lidval and Gurko. Lidval
the sanitary engineer. managed tn,
frauds with such cleverness. that tn,
Russians have added a word. Lid
valiada" (misappropriatlon of public
money! to their vocabulary. The tern
even headed every accusation that tn
RUS" brought against Shakom an'
Ushakoff. Lidval knew nothing abou
grain: but he supplied 1t TO the com
munes. while Gurko paid for 1t
SHADY CUSTOMERS.
How Gurko met Lidval Is romano
| In itseH- burko ndu ioT SOME year
been in bad odor at court The EN-
peror looked askance at him and (
seemed impossible for him TO get an
| remuneratiYe appointment. In fact
he had. n few years ago. been joint ac
tor ia an affair that scandalizcd eve
Russian society. He and his brother
Ivan, were great gamblers and spen
most of their time at Monte Carlo. on
| winter. both were very hard up an
| both had lost heavily. At the sam
hotel there was very rich old Rus
sian prince whom the brothers kncy
very well. The prince was also
! gambler, but had been lucky enough I
win a large sum which. Russlan-likt