Bisbee daily review., 1915-05-30
VARIED PEOPLE ARE
 INHABITANTS OF THE
 BIG RUSSIAN EMPIRE
District and Varied People Still Inhabit Parts of the Present Russian Empire; Great is the Distinction.

WASHINGTON. n. Russia contains within it's vast borders prob, ably Che worlds most interesting as- sembly of people and fragments Of peoples peoples not as iu the United States. melted Co a certain uniform ground-tone character. forced Co lose much of the peculiar under the pres sure of more complex. more highly developed social organization. but peo- ples still distinctively peoples, pre- serving in themselves the fascinating markings handed down from tribal days when a journey between coun- ties was an undertakiue. and a jour ney between nations fell only to the lot of the soldier of fortune. the dip lomat the statesman and the fore most of artists and scholars
 Among these interesting still per sistently individual peoples of Russia the Let's. the invaders of the Baltic Provinces. whose fields are now once more the scene of invasion and battle, captivate the imagination and redec. ton through the mystery of their ori- gin. the romance of their history. and the peculiarities of their present re- lationships Co mighty Russia The Let's are a branch of the Lithuanian nation. Slayouic division whose pas. in the marshy swamps of I.ithuania lies as deeply hidden as the mystic ritual of the Druids Lithuauia was once a great kingdom later an ele- ment Of the unfortunate Polish nation and now part oi the states of Rus sia and Prussia. The Let's. a subdl- vision of this people have survived as its most distinctive repre-enta tiyes"
 Thus begins the bulletin issued Co. day by the National Geographic Socie- ty which deals with the native peas ant population. the patient, long-sut fering farmers. fishermen aud small tradesmeu among whom Russian and German armies are coutesiue for the mastery of the regions around thC eastern elbow of the Baltic The statement continues:
 "The Borussiaus whose name per sists in Prussia. survive as the mod ern Prussians. or at least. a- an i'm portant element that has gone into the makeup Of Prussia's citizeury They, however. are lost as a Lithuau ian tribe have been thoroughly as. simulated to a modern amalgamated type that feels itself a unit and not composite that feels itself more nearly akin to the German than to the Slovenian. The Lithuanian of the in. terior Russian Lithuanian provinces feels a kinship with the Pole. whose political fortune he shared SO long He is beginning Go feel kiuship wila the Rus ian. whose fortunes have now become his own. The Lett. on the other hand, the Lithuanian tribesman of the Baltic Provinces where the German invaders are now marching and fighting still feels himself au dement, apart.
 'Tbr Lett is taciturn. mor0se. little riveu rJ welcoming the stranger He dwoIl5 apart not as the commuuistic Russian in villages whose houses closely press one another The Iet' preserves his own tongue traditions and dreams, and remains in this twan. tieth gentry more than half a wor shipper of Nature and a believer in omens and black craft The old gods whom he cherished and reycreuced the longest, still exert am influence upon him, still survive for him in a thousand expectations, even though he is as deyout as any other present day Christians
 The Lett was Christianizel by ih, sword wielded in the hands of thl Germans and the Swedes shortly af ter the year 1900, a religious order known as the Order of the Sword