New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1918-01-16
IVAN LOST IN WONDERLAND

1 Go those who ask, Why did the Rus
SLAMS stop fighting in the great war?
William G. Shepherd, an American
writer who spent the summer in Petro-
grad and who reports on the situation
in Euerybody's, replies: ..The Russian
people became lost in Wonderland y
Every day after the Revolution brought
so many things into their lives that they
were overwhelmed by the very novelty
of existence. A weak man suddenly
made strong; sick man, well; sad man,
happy; man awakening from fearful
nightmare; a man staggering from the
dezert into sweet, rich land-that is
Russia to-day.
And of all the new things, which the
Russians have gained, the right of free
speech, so it appears to an outsider
seems to be considered by them the most
marvellous. To talk and to listen, on
street corners and in cafes, in big meet
ings and in little meetings, is the chief
pastime of all Russia. The speech
making in Russia reminded a certain
American that Baron Munchausen had
told good story about horn in which,
on cold winters day, the notes of the
bug Ter We're frozen so that the horn
made no sound; but on spring day,
wEen the sunshine fell on tie instrument,
the notes were melted and rushed from
the mouth in a tide of music. ~
In Baron Munchausen's unreal Won
derland, that story was lie; but in this
real Wonderland Of Russia, the very
thing of which Munchausen told has
come true, and it is such marvel to
tie Russians that they would rather:
listen to the magic notes than do almost
anything else in the world.
Next to free speech and free listening,
free action is a popular pastime.
Anarchists have seized some Of the
palaces and newspaper Offices and auto
mobiles and paintings and even wealth.
But in the midst of all this apparent
anarchy, this lack Of government, there
is always and this is an astonishing
fact that has impressed tie members
of tie American Commission and all
the other foreign statesmen who have
come to Russia since the Revolution
"a checking influence Of what We in
the United States cali common sense"
There is always somebody in a meet
ing who offsets wild sreechee; some
body in a crowd who gives matter a
second thought and offsets and checks
tie man who wishes to act without
thinking. There is an unexpected hard
Medicines about even the smobs. The
country districts of Russia, thousands
of its little towns, villages, and cities,
were being governed, three months after
the Revolution, by public opinion and
common sense alone and astonishingly
Ewell governed.
! But all this makes weird world, full
of weird happenings.
The anarchists must leave Durnova
Palace by three o'clock this afternoon I
was public warning which the Cow
eminent issued recently. n 4.
Anarchists" is a word to make folk
shudder, even in Russia. All Petro-
grad decided that the anarchists
were going too far.
And when, from their be!eaguered
! palace, the anarchists sent out telephone
calls for help to seven great factories,
and the workmen, with rifles, to the
number of three Thousand, gathered in
1.-THE neighborheo Of the palace to.defend
TIE sbad men, it looked like the mo
ment for a war reporter to go TO the scene
Never with more thrills did I approach
"a battle-line in Europe, d 9 big FIRE il
New York There was 4 crowd gathered
around the palace-gate, standing at 9