The Warwickshire Herald. — 1892-12-29 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

THE FAMINE IN RUSSIA.  TERRIBLE STORIES OF CRIME AND DISTRESS.  Distress in Euaia, in spite of the fact that the iamine is over, is extreme and widespread, and Count Tolstoi's description of the ravages of hunger I' as pessimistic now as it was a twelvemonth ago. The following instance, writes a Deily To!tyro?), eorrespondent, is but a specimen of what is met with in districts as large as Prussia. A woman ,ained Tsesalak was put in the dock to stand her trial for murder. She is an old feeble woman of over 70, shrivelled with age and suffering. The ebarge against her was that she had killed her grandson, a boy of 13, and the story of the motives and perpetration of the crime drew tears from many of the audience. The poor woman had absolutely nothing to eat but grass, but she endured her own sufferings stoically, without murmur and without a thought of resorting to crime in order to obtain the herewithal to still her hunger; but the maddening sight of the poor boy's tortures she could not endure. One day, in the madness of despair, sip took the wretched child to the churchyard, and brought him to a tree which cast a aeep shadow on the grave of his father and mother. Here she told him to climb tup the tree and take out the little birds from a nest which he would tind there. Meanwhile she wound a long shawl round his neck and !ied both ends to a branch of the tree. When the child had climbed up high enough the wretched svi,man caught him by the feet and pulled him from the bough on which he was heated. The boy hung in the air. His hands, however, being free, lie Jo a defile rate strug,le or the life mho hv a. vcc•rse than death. At last life was extinct,and the murderess,having prayed for the re ose of his soul, t twel ing on the grave of his parents, sorrvwfully left the churchyard. The body was soon discovered, and the woman shortly afterwards arrested. Asked ly the judge what she had to true in extenuation of her crime, she sailed aloud and said, "It's better for him to be at rest once for all than to buffer all his life in want and misery. AS, if you only saw how he suffered and cried! I loved my poor dear Stanny too dearly to be able to look at his misery without relieving it. May God have mercy on him and me!" She TM then condemned vi the hardest kind of penal servitude in the mines siberia for 10 years. Not many of the prisoners who are escorted to siberia return to their homes again; but that few I' the few who do have an enviable lot in store for !hern is evident from the following story: • little girl of 10 years appeared before the Governor of faroselav with a peti ion in her hand, which she presented to that official. As soon as he had read it he aski d hot some questions, in the presence of .nany other petitioners, and elicited the following letsula. Her father had been an official, but for some offence or suspicion of offence was sent to iiheria. When his time there was served, be was told to get hack to European Russia as best he :euld. His wile being ill, lie had to drive her in a wheelbarrow how Siberia all the way, his little zirl trudging along by his side for months, begging ilms on the road. When they arrived in Yaroaslav hey could go no further, for his wife, what was eAralvsed,could no lmieer support the jolting of the wheelbarrow. The father as a last resource sent its child with a petition to the Governor, who said hat lie would pla. e her in a child's asylum on the Irst vacancy that occurred,but could do nothing for to moment. Among the petitioners', who were uck with the cl!:1,1's be.!uty and modesty, a iubscription was opened, and the inhabitants of the own, hearing of the ease. have resolved to help the ittle girl out of her di.L.aitles.  A coesesponoon; sng.ls In flete:ll nnil SetITEISC9 that they should stop Ile: growing tendeney to give way to laughter upon the sta.,. Some of them allow their risibility to (welcome them to such an extent that they are unable to proceed with their parts. This is hardly eourteonn or considerate to the audience. It in bad 011°11,17, ho says, when they laugh at what i 9 going on (771 the stage' worse when they laugh and giggle at what goes on behind the wings.