Ill hen and 1692-1917 From the Autographic Album, 1892. Family of the Emperor of Russia: i. Czar Alexander III. 2. Empress Marie. Children: 3. Nicholas, the present Czar. 4. Grand Duke Michael. 5. Grand Duke George who died after the accident with a velocipede. 6. Grand Duchess Xenia. 7. Grand Duchess Olga. (Both Grand Duchesses are now giving their services to the Red Cross.) 1892-1917 MY MISSION TO RUSSIA DURING THE FAMINE OF 1891-1892 WITH DATA BEARING UPON RUSSIA OF TO-DAY BY FRANCIS B. REEVES WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Ube Ifcnicfeerbocfeer press 1917 COPYRIGHT. 1917 BY FRANCIS B. REEVES Ube fmtcherbocfcer press, Hew SJorh StacJt Preface SURELY we have reason for gratulation that the United States of America and the Empire of Russia have always been on terms of amity, of which fact the coming to us of their warships in our time of threatened disunion; the sending to them of our relief ships in their time of famine; their people's beautiful expressions of gratitude through our Commissioners, and the coming to Philadelphia of their fleet of battleships in 1893 with splendid gifts from their Emperor to the Commissioners to Russia for relief of their famish- ing peasantry, are happy indications. And may we not link up with this gold chain Russia's sale to the United States of Russian America Alaska? A possession of Russia since its discovery A.D. 1741, with an area of 590,884 square miles, they let us have Alaska by treaty of March 30, 1867, for the insignificant sum of $7,200,000. Equally good tokens of friendship have followed these long-gone years up to the present day. iii iv PREFACE The motive to write this book was the resultant of these convincing thoughts. A frequent traveller or a long-time sojourner in a foreign country might be better qualified to entertain friends at home with an account of his journeyings than can one whose observations have been limited as to territory and time. Yet, en- couraged by the assurance that this mission afforded me special advantages such as are not experienced by an ordinary traveller, I determined to make a book-story of it. Men, whose privilege it is to be living in these days, are wont to discourse upon or to read about the wonderful achievements of human knowledge. Like the ancient Athenians, much of our time is spent in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Happily the present age has that to tell that is of vastly more practical value to the world than was all the boasted wisdom of the Hellenists in the early years of the Christian era. Not alone in the discovery of new material forces and the skilful unfolding of long-hidden secrets along the lines of the applied sciences, but also in the increase in knowledge of the will and PREFACE v ways of God and the real meaning of the life of His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, is our age making great forward strides. If one should now return to earth after a visit upon another planet, our volunteer systems of public charity would be a revelation to him; not, however, such a revelation as was given to the Apostle on Patmos, of a glorious world where there is no death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things are not yet all passed away. Rather it would be an open vision of a spot of hallowed ground in this " present evil world," where real sickness and sorrow abound; of a city whose inhabitants are continually saying 11 1 am sick." Ever since the outbreak of the ferocious war two and a half years ago, and still raging, Russia has been growing nearer and dearer to America. This statement is no implication of our lack of regard for other nations engaged in the terrible conflict. We are mourning for the millions in the war zone who are suffering the pangs of grief and despair. Praying for their relief we harbour a gleam of hope that Almighty God will soon reveal a way to end all wars now and forever. vi PREFACE A PRAYER FOR PEACE Heavenly Father, God of Nations, Thou hast blessed our native land, Showering favours without measure From Thy ever gracious hand. Oft beside the quiet waters Thou hast led us; still lead on; Shield when dark'ning tempests threaten, Guard us 'til the storm has gone. Father, haste the day of promise, When, in all the world around, Wars shall cease: ye angels harken! Hear the gospel trumpet sound ! Wake the echo, Christian Nations! " Peace on earth " your watchword be, 'Til Love's banner, all victorious, Floats o'er every land and sea. Light the torch of truth and freedom O'er the Nations near and far; Bid the world's belated rulers Now prepare for Zion's war. Glory be to God the Father, With the Spirit and the Son ; Blessing, honour, glory, power, To our God, great Three in One. Amen. The author extends thanks to John Lane Com- pany, publishers, for the privilege of copying PREFACE vii extracts from John Hubbak's Russian Realities; to Funk & Wagnalls Co., publishers, for permis- sion to include extracts from John Foster Fraser's Russia of To-Day; to Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, D.D., for the inclusion of his addresses before his congregations at Temple Keneseth Israel; to Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg for the privilege of quoting from his pamphlets regarding his visit to Russia in 1892 ; to R. Martens & Co., Inc d ., for extracts from their monthly brochure entitled, Russia; to the American Geographic Society for including a writing by E. K. Reynolds; to The Continent, and to the Sunday School Times for articles by Mar- garet Wintringer; to Samuel McRoberts, Vice- President of the National City Bank of New York, for the use of his publication Russia; to the Guaranty Trust Company of New York for ex- tracts from their booklets relating to Russia's Finance and Commerce. FRANCIS B. REEVES. We've a story to tell to the nations, That shall turn their hearts to the right, A story of truth and sweetness, A story of peace and light. We've a song to be sung to the nations, That shall lift their hearts to the Lord; A song that shall conquer evil And shatter the spear and sword. We've a message to give to the nations, That the Lord who reigneth above, Hath sent His Son to save us, And show us that God is love. We've a Saviour to show to the nations, Who the path of sorrow has trod, That all of the world's great people Might come to the light of God! For darkness shall turn to dawning, And the dawning to noonday bright, And Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth, The kingdom of love and light. COLIN STERNE. vm Contents PAGE PREFACE iii CHAPTER I. RUSSIA'S FAMINE OF 1891-1892 GREAT RELIEF FROM U. S. A., 1892 . . i II. SAILING OF S. S. "CONEMAUGH" . 9 III. RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME . . .15 IV. A RELIGIOUS SERVICE As LOADED TRAINS START FOR THE FAMINE- STRICKEN DISTRICTS . . .30 V. FROM RIGA TO ST. PETERSBURG . 47 VI. FROM PETROGRAD TO Moscow . . 52 VII. VISITING THE POOR PEASANTS . 57 VIII. WITH COUNT TOLSTOY . , . 67 IX. RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE . * 77 X. RUSSIA'S RELIGION .... 96 XI. THE ABOLITION OF VODKA . .no XII. WHAT THEY SAW IN RUSSIA AFTER VODKA LEFT BY MARGARET WIN- TRINGER . . . . .113 ix CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIII. THE TRUE STORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST GIGANTIC TEMPERANCE EXPERI- MENT BY MARGARET WINTRINGER . 119 XIV. TEETOTAL RUSSIA . . . .126 APPENDIX . . ; . . . 129 POSTSCRIPT . ... . . . 179 Illustrations PAGE THE FAMILY OF THE CZAR, ALEXANDER III. Frontispiece GRAND DUKE NICHOLAS 1892 i GROUP OF WORKINGMEN OF THE PORT OF LlBAU ....... 4 GOING TO MEET THE "CONEMAUGH" ON "THE ROADS" FROM RIGA .... 14 THE INHABITANTS OF RIGA SALUTING THE AMERICAN S. S. "CONEMAUGH" FROM PHILADELPHIA, ON "THE ROADS" AT RIGA 16 PARTY AT DINNER GIVEN BY NIELS PETER BORNHOLDT l8 ON THE WAY, BY GOVERNMENT TRANSPORT, TO THE CEREMONIES ON THE " CONEMAUGH," MAY 1-13, 1892 ..... 20 THE HOUSE OF THE BLACK HEADS CLUB, RIGA 22 U. S. CONSUL NIELS PETER BORNHOLDT, CAPTAIN SPENCER OF S. S. "CONEMAUGH," U. S. CONSUL-GENERAL DR. CRAWFORD, AND FRANCIS B. REEVES 26 xii ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE RELIGIOUS SERVICE AT STARTING OF RAILROAD TRAINS FOR THE FAMINE-STRICKEN DIS- TRICTS ....... 30 A TROYKA 46 THE IMPERIAL FAMILY OF DENMARK AT THE ROYAL CELEBRATION OF THE GOLDEN WEDDING OF KING CHRISTIAN IX. AND QUEEN LOUISA ..... 48 THE WINTER PALACE, PETROGRAD . . 50 ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL, Moscow . . 52 Moscow. KREMLIN. BELL-TOWER OF IVAN THE GREAT ...... 54 CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, PETROGRAD . 56 A HAPPY PEASANT FAMILY .... 58 RUSSIAN PEASANTS MAKING HAY ... 60 COUNT LEO TOLSTOY ..... 64 FACSIMILE OF A LETTER FROM COUNT TOLSTOY TO THE AUTHOR ..... 70 MAI AND SOPHIE PETERSON .... 74 THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, Moscow . . 82 POOR PEASANTS ...... 94 UNDER THEIR ROOF . 102 ILLUSTRATIONS xiii PAGE GOLD-PLATED PUNCH SET PRESENTED TO THE AUTHOR 106 Moscow RESTAURANT, ONE OF THE MOST NOTED IN RUSSIA . . . . . .112 KALMUCK HUTS ON THE VOLGA, NEAR ASTRACHAN 122 PHILARET ....... 128 PEASANT GIRLS . . . . . . 130 THE FIRST OF THE HARVEST . . .134 TOYS MADE BY THE INSTRUCTION TOY SHOP OF THE PROVINCIAL ZEMSTVO OF THE Moscow GOVERNMENT, IN SERGIEV POSAD (HAMLET) 142 BUFFET MADE BY THE KOUSTARS OF SERGIEV POSAD (HAMLET) . . . . .146 Miss FLORENCE FAIR GIVING HER AID TO MAKE THE RUSSIAN BAZAAR A SUCCESS . .172 THE LAST CZAR OF RUSSIA AND His FAMILY 180 Grand Duke Nicholas 1892; Czar of Russia, 1894 to 1917. He Married Princess Alix of Hesse, a State of the German Empire, a Granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Russia Then and Now Russia's Famine of 1891-1892 Great Relief from U. S. A., 1892 FOLLOWING authenticated reports that the agricultural districts of European Russia had suf- fered an awful failure of their crops of food supplies (1891), there appeared in many of the newspapers of the United States telegraphic re- ports of an impending famine in a large portion of the Empire. As days went by, despatches, re- affirming and emphasizing these first outgivings of the dreadful news multiplied, and the story of famine-stricken Russia was being discussed by humanitarians all over our favoured land. The Philadelphia Permanent Relief Committee, having received confirmation of these reports, through private and semi-official agencies, and particularly RUSSIA THEN AND NOW through telegraphic and written communication with the United States Legation at Russia's Capital, and by conference with our State Depart- ment and the Russian Ambassador, was convened to consider the question of sending relief to the sufferers. At the time of harvesting the grain crops of 1891 the farmers were induced to sell at the bidding of high prices by buyers for the Central Powers. Dr. J. M. Crawford, our Consul-General, writing January, 1892, to the United States Department of State, said : The great advance in price of grain at the beginning of the last crop season tempted farmers throughout the Empire to sell, trusting to Providence and the generosity of the Central Governments to look after the poor. Hence it was that under the stimulus of high prices, the export of cereals from Russia up to date of the Imperial Ukase putting an embargo on wheat has been officially found to be equal to those of last year, thus seriously complicating the whole matter. The elevators of the Baltic and Odessa ports, as well as the storehouses on the different lines of rail- road, are overflowing with grain that has been con- tracted for and in part paid for by English and German buyers. This mass of grain, practically the property of foreign speculators, is waiting for the FAMINE OF i8pi-g2 Imperial gates to open and let it pass through. It is evident that it will be extremely difficult even in an Imperial form of government to prevent it from going to its owners whose object was to sell this grain at a big profit to the Government for the relief of the starving. They rushed the rye and wheat in great quantities over the frontier in the three weeks that intervened between the time the Ukase was deter- mined upon and the date of its taking effect. The peasants in many places tried to stop it, and in some cases bloodshed resulted. They said, "You are exporting the blood of our children." But what cared these horrid speculators and gamblers for starving children? Information came to us that the National Red Cross Association had the promise of the people of Minnesota of sufficient corn to load a ship and the thought of the Philadelphia Committee was to collect enough money, from the charitable among us, to charter a steamship and tender the same to the Red Cross that no time might be lost in re- lieving the distress. Meantime, it was deemed advisable that a special Russian Famine Relief Committee should be formed, to include others than members of the Permanent Relief Commit- tee, to proceed immediately with the work in hand. This Committee was thereupon formed with RUSSIA THEN AND NOW twenty-five members, the Mayor being its Chair- man. Correspondence with regard to the alleged cargo of corn in possession of the Red Cross evidencing that there was faint prospect of its reaching the Atlantic seaboard within a reasonable time, the Philadelphia Committee proceeded with vigour to make their appeals to the public to purchase flour, rice, etc., and to charter a steam- ship to carry it to Russia. Sub-committees, one on Transportation, one on Finance, another on Purchases and Supplies, were formed, and all these worked with a will. The Committee met with the greatest encouragement at the outset in the magnanimous offer by the International Naviga- tion Company of Philadelphia of the use of the S. S. Indiana free of cost, excepting the actual outlay for expenses of voyage, and the generous proffer by the officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Philadelphia & Reading Rail- road Company of free transportation over their respective railways for all supplies given or pur- chased, without limit as to distance or quantity. The religious exercises on the wharf at the sailing of the S. S. Indiana, our first messenger of Mercy to the famine-stricken peasants of Russia, on Group of Workingmen of the Port of Libau. Under the picture is the following Biblical quotation; "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." FAMINE OF 1891-92 Washington's Birthday, 1892, were so unique and remarkable that they commanded attention throughout Christendom. Roman Catholic Arch- bishop Ryan, Jewish Rabbi Jastrow, Presbyterian Rev. Charles Wood, Protestant Episcopal Bishop Whitaker, Baptist Minister Dr. Wayland and Methodist Episcopal Bishop Foss, standing upon a common platform, gave wings to the faith and hope that inspired every breast, that He who rules the winds and the waves would speed the great ship to its desired haven. And I thought as I looked upon this scene that, though prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away, the love that binds the hearts of the children of men in the bonds of a common brother- hood shall endure forever. Here was Charity in volcanic action, and in its fire I beheld the beauti- ful foundation-stone of all true religions, sparkling like a "gem of purest ray serene," and, following its light, flashed across the stormy seas, I have seen it again and again, lightening many a dark and dreary dwelling in dreadfully afflicted Russia. Their cry of distress went up to Heaven and was echoed back to our far distant shores. The Philadelphia Relief Committee's Commis- RUSSIA THEN AND NOW sioners to go to Russia and deliver the Indiana's cargo and a liberal gift of money, besides myself, were Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg and Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. As I was obliged to resign the appoint- ment because of the serious illness of a member of my family, Dr. A. L. Biddle was appointed in my place. So prompt and liberal were the good people of Philadelphia and other towns, in responding to the appeal for money, that when the Indiana sailed for Libau, Russia, on Washington's Birthday, 1892, loaded to her utmost capacity, the inflow of money was at its height, and there were no signs of an ebbing tide. Then came the resolution to send a second cargo, and again came the offer from the International Navigation Company of another free steamship, the Conemaugh; and again the word from our big railroad men offering to carry the shipment free of all freight charges, even though it was to be transported from afar, as was the greater part of the Indiana's cargo. Coal companies freely supplied the steamship with fuel for their engines, and stevedores worked without wages to load them; grocery men gave provisions for officers and crews; rich men gave of FAMINE OF 1891-02 their abundance, widows of their mites; churches of all creeds, societies of all sorts, Sunday schools innumerable, children of public and private day schools, in a word, almost everybody helped with glowing zeal. This was in April. The Philadelphia Relief Committee then commissioned me to go to Russia to supervise the delivery and distribution of the Conemaugh's cargo. Following is an appeal from the Pennsylvania Department of the Grand Army of the Republic to every Post of that Department: Headquarters Department of Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic, No. 1025 Arch Street. Philadelphia, April i, 1892. General Orders No. 4. I. The Steamship Conemaugh will sail under the American Flag from the Port of Philadel- phia, Pa., on April 23, 1892, with a cargo of food for the relief of the starving Russian peasants. II. Remembering the acts of friendship shown by the Russian Government and people towards this Nation during the period of the RUSSIA THEN AND NOW Civil War, each Post of this Department is requested to donate one or more barrels of flour to this worthy object, not only as an act of humanity towards a starving people, but also as an evidence of the appreciation of the services of the Russian Government at that time by the men who fought for the perpetua- tion of American Liberty. III. All contributions should be marked "Russian Famine Relief, Steamship Conemaugh, Phila- delphia, " together with the number of the Post. They will be forwarded free of charge by any railroad. Notice should also be sent to these Headquarters immediately upon the shipment of donations, stating the number of barrels contributed. By Command of Department Commander John P. Taylor. SAM'L P. TOWN, Asst. Adjt.-General. II Sailing of S. S. ConemaugH THE ceremonies preceding the sailing of the Conemaugh, Captain James W. Spencer, April 23, 1892, though less elaborate than those of the previous occasion, were no less impressive. Two thousand men and women crowded the wharves and the steamer's deck at sailing time. Singing societies sang patriotic hymns of the two nations, and instrumental bands contributed their music to the joyous God-speed. His Honour Mayor Stuart, as chief executive officer of the City of Philadelphia and Chairman ex-officio of the Relief Committee, made an effective speech; two eminent ministers of the Society of Friends, Dr. James E. Rhoads and John B. Garrett, the one with the reading of a Psalm and an appropriate address, the other with prayer for God's blessing and protection, voiced the minds and hearts of the assembled thousands and of the greater multitude by whose charity the great steamship was freighted 9 io RUSSIA THEN AND NOW for God's suffering children in Russia, starving, despairing, dying victims of famine resulting from the almost total failure of their crops of food products in 1891. The Conemaugh 1 s course, after crossing the Atlantic, was around the north of Scotland close by the Hebrides, through the North Sea, under the coast of Sweden; thence northeast- ward to Riga, the principal Baltic port of Russia, a beautiful city of more than two hundred thousand inhabitants. This voyage, Captain Spencer of the Conemaugh had in- formed me, would probably require twenty days. Four days after the sailing of the Conemaugh I took passage for Antwerp, Belgium, on the Steamship Waesland of the International Naviga- tion Company's Red Star Line. The superior appointments of this steamer and the extreme kindness and courtesy of its commander, Captain Grant, combined to make the voyage a delight. The Captain by request of the Company quartered me in his spacious deck cabin. A two days' sojourn in Antwerp was made necessary by sending and receiving cable messages, etc., and then I started SAILING OF S. S. CONEMAUGH n by rail for Riga, via Berlin, Koenigsburg, and Wirballen. At Wirballen, an important Russian frontier station, I was fortunate, being alone and unlearned in the Russian language, in meeting Count Fer- zen of St. Petersburg, an officer of the Imperial Lancers, who assisted me in exchanging British gold for roubles, and gave me valuable information regarding Riga. Secretary of State Blaine, who had taken a deep personal interest in the work of the Philadelphia Committee, had provided me with a special pass- port countersigned by the Russian Minister at Washington and sealed with the double-headed eagle, the great seal of his Government, together with the following letter: Department of State, Washington, D. C., Feb. 23, 1892. To the Diplomatic and Consular Officers of the United States: GENTLEMEN : At the instance of the Honourable Edwin S. Stuart, Mayor of Philadelphia, I herewith introduce Mr. Francis B. Reeves, a member of the Citizens' Russian 12 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW Famine Relief Committee of Philadelphia, who is going abroad as representative of that Committee. I ask for Mr. Reeves such official courtesies as you may be able to extend to assist him in his humane mission. I am, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, JAMES G. ELAINE. The route, until Russia's borders were crossed, extended through the Belgian and German farming country, over which the beauties of a vernal springtime had been lavishly scattered. I arrived at Riga the morning of Thursday, the I2th of May (their date, the 30th of April), not a day too soon, for the Conemaugh came to anchor in the roadstead eight miles below the city the next morning. A schedule for a wide distribution of the flour, etc., among the various agencies throughout the stricken provinces having been already prepared by the Czarovitch Relief Committee in connection with the United States Legation at St. Petersburg, I had but to examine and approve it, reserving, however, a few carloads for any special cases of want that might be discovered on my visit to the famine region later on. Enough railroad cars SAILING OF S. S. CONEMAUGH 13 (they call them wagons in Russia) were at hand to move the entire cargo. By order of the head of the department of the railways these trains were given right of way before all others, not excepting passenger trains. The Imperial Government carefully observed official independence in all matters connected with the gifts of private charity, whether from their own people or from abroad, and it is well known that all such gifts met with the most kindly ap- proval and grateful sympathy of the Emperor and Empress and with the hearty sanction of their Court and Cabinet. I heard of well-authenticated cases of inter- ference with the relief organization by local tchinovniks (officials), but this happened at the beginning of their work, and may be accounted for on the ground that these lazy and inefficient office- holders were piqued because they were not allowed to have a hand in it. They soon found, however, that the authorities at St. Petersburg would give them their just deserts if they did ,not mind their own business and let the voluntary workers take their own course, so there was no interference nor trouble of any kind afterwards. i 4 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW It is unfortunate that the people of Philadelphia and other large American cities will not wake up and exercise such a power to curb the grip of their self-serving political gangsters. I 'sJ Ill Riga's Grand Welcome EXTENSIVE preparations had been made by the authorities and citizens of Riga for a patriotic demonstration on the steamer's arrival, and this was carried out on the afternoon of Friday, the 1 3th of May (Russian date May 1st), a bright, beautiful day. At four o'clock a flotilla of nine- teen steamers, well rilled with people, sailed out from the city to welcome the Conemaugh. On the Government man-of-war Strasch were His Excel- lency General-Lieutenant M. A. Sinowzeu, the Governor of the Province of Livonia, and his wife; the Vice-Governor; the resident Consul of the United States, Niels Peter Bornholdt; the Mayor of the city and others of the most promi- nent officials, together with many ladies; also Count Andre Bobrinskoy, executive of the Czarovitch Famine Relief Committee; and United States Consul-General, Dr. J. M. Crawford. The mer- chants of the trade guilds, with the ladies of their 15 16 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW families, accompanied us next in the fleet upon a large side-wheel steamer from whose deck a fine military band discoursed enlivening music. The cheers of the multitude on these steamers, the booming of cannon and the discharge of rockets signalized our approach to the Conemaugh's broad- sides. The visitors on the Government steamer being invited to board the ship, a brief but very impressive ceremony took place in the cabin. Following a welcoming speech by Captain Spencer, a Russian gentleman representing the Associated Societies of Riga, addressing the Captain, pre- sented the customary offering of bread and salt on a silver platter in testimony of their loving welcome. Then addressing me, as commissioner from America, he presented me with a beautiful album of photo- graphic views of Riga with the following appro- priate inscriptions engraved upon its silver covers. On the front cover: From the Committee of the Russian Society of Riga, to the representative of the friendship of the American people to Russia as a token of remembrance and gratitude for the brotherly gift to the sufferers from the failure of the crops, sent on S. S. Conemaugh. RIGA, May, 1892. RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME 17 On the reverse side: "The Beehive" Stock Company, The Poet of the Glee Club of The Artisans' Aid Society, The Combmakers' Beneficial Club, "Lado" Literary and Musical Society, The Literary Circle, Lovers of Sacred Songs, The Nicolas Merchants' Society, The Society Club, Society of Russian Physicians, Society of Mercantile Salesmen, The Porters of Peter and Paul, The Editors of Riga Courier, The Artisan Company, Third Society of Mutual Credit. As briefly as possible I now summarize some of the events of a complimentary character during my stay in Riga. There and in St. Petersburg ladies of the nobility seemed to vie with each other in tendering their social hospitality. There was a dinner at the Riga castle, given by the Governor, at which about thirty were present. Another given by the Mayor of the city at his residence, about forty being present. A third, when seventy sat at the table, was given by United States Consul Bornholdt at the Kurhaas, Debbe- i8 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW len, on the seashore. At all these entertainments ladies graced the scene. There were teas and lunches within the home circles of ladies promi- nently identified with the famine relief work. At one of these, only typical Russian dishes were served. A serenade was given at my hotel, the De Rome, Saturday night, the Riga Chorus Club of one hundred men singing the national hymns of their country and ours. At this time a thousand men and women thronged the wide, open square facing the hotel that it might be understood by the representative of the givers of the Conemaugh's cargo that all the people united in the welcome and in the national thanksgiving for the benevolence that prompted the gift. At all these assemblies were uttered the strongest possible expressions of Russia's gratitude to their American friends. On Sunday morning, accompanied by the Mayor of Riga and the Captain of the Cone- maugh, I visited several clubs and churches, first the Lutheran Church of St. John, the largest in the city, erected in the thirteenth century. Here the Sunday School was in session. Forty to fifty small boys and girls stood in parted ranks, boys bow- ing, girls courtesy ing as the visitors passed MB? O "* * ' RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME 19 through. Having evinced an interest in the school, I was presented the next day with a copy of selections from the rules of the Girl Sunday School, Curatorium : Pi . The aim of the Curatorium is to help the poorest girls to visit the school by giving them clothes, boots, etc. P2. The Curatorium consists of an unlimited number of persons both male and female of any religion, state & position in life. ?3. There are three kinds of members; honourable, actual & fellow labourers. Honourable members have to pay 10 roubles a year, or 100 r. once for all time; actual members 3 r. a year & fellow labourers are especially school-teachers. ?4. The means of the Curatorium is formed of members' yearly payments & of voluntary offerings of members of the society & as well of persons not belonging to it. P5- The management & the direction of the affairs of the Curatorium fall upon : the Administration of the Curatorium & the general assembly of members. P6. All the members of the Administration work gratuitously. This document is an indication that the Sunday School in Russia has not advanced beyond the original established by Ludwig Hecker in Ephrata, 20 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW Penna., in 1739, and adopted by Robert Raikes in Gloucester, England, in 1781. A few days later, I received the following note: Miss Nathalie Mansouroff, President of the Sunday Girls' School Curatorium in Riga, requests the honour of calling Mr. Francis B. Reeves its honourable mem- ber, knowing his sympathy and noble activity for th> .a RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME 21 of which photographic representations and de- scriptions in book form were presented to me. In conversing with a member of the club I asked him the meaning of the club's name. Not being well versed in English he said, "It is a widowers' club." Expressing my surprise that so many young men had lost their wives, he said that they had never had wives. Then, in answer to a question, I said that we in America would call it "The Bachelors' Club." Among the educated classes of Russia the speak- ing of French and English as well as their native tongue is not unusual. As I understood only our native language, care was kindly taken on all occasions to keep me in touch with English- speaking Russians. It would be well for students in our colleges to acquire knowledge of the lan- guage of other nations, particularly those scholars who may become foreign missionaries or who may contemplate a business vocation in the line of development of American commerce. Mr. Fraser, in his book Russia of To-Day, says: It is a punishable sin to speak German within the Russian Empire. It is, however, the keen ambition of every young Russian lad and girl to speak English. 22 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW All through the winter of 1914-15 anybody who could give lessons in English was at a premium. Humble teachers, who had formerly struggled with adversity, found they were earning 20 a month. The stock of English primers gave out, and I fancy that for my little Russo-English dictionary I could have got its weight in well, in one-rouble paper notes. Russian- English clerks and typists are in the heyday of pros- perity. They have not to seek jobs; they are woo'd to work. A year ago all the boys who intended to go into business learnt German at school. That is now the forbidden tongue, but parents have presented a petition to the education authorities praying that English be substituted. English is on the boom. In the afternoon, by written invitation, I was the guest of "The Ladies' Circle of Riga, " a company of honourable ladies actively engaged in the relief work. As we sat at tea I was asked to tell the story of how we came to think of them and to do so grandly for them in America, and especially to give an account of the methods of the Philadel- phia Committee. Among the very appreciative responses that were made was the reading of two original poems, one by Madame Marionella Philadelfena Maximovitch, the handsome wife of Innovkentie Klavdievich Maximovitch, President Judge of the Supreme Court of the Province of The House of The Black Heads Club, Riga. RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME 23 Livonia, in the Russian language; the other by Madame de Woehrmann, nee Princess Mary Ourousoff , in English. The next day these verses were presented to me tastefully printed in both these languages and enclosed in a cover of satin, representing on one side the flag of their country and on the other side our American flag. POEM BY MADAME MAXIMOVITCH In your distant, happy land You have heard of our need, And you send a helping hand, Friends in sorrow, friends in deed. On the waves of the vast ocean Came the news of hungry peasants; The Indiana, swift of motion You then sent us with your presents. Worse than wind and storm and rain Is the famine's cruel sting, And the help out of this pain The Missouri was to bring. But a new act of your friendship, Of such tender, deep import, Is this third and noble steamship, Conemaugh, now in our port. 24 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW Oh, believe me, seeds of kindness! We shall reap from what she brought ; If you call us, touched by sadness, You shall have our every thought. We shall share with you each sorrow, By you we shall always stand, But we wish a bright to-morrow To each day in your bright land. From a woman's unskilled pen Please accept these humble greetings, And believe that all our men, That all Russia, share these feelings. At Chicago we'll be meeting There the goblet we shall raise, With the world at large repeating Your so well-deserved praise. May the thanks and all the blessing, Which we call on you to-day, Like the sunlight, warm, caressing, Always lie upon your way. First in every grand endeavour, First in work of every kind, May you thrive and prosper ever, Model to all human kind. The other poem, composed in English by Made- moiselle Olga de Woehnnann, equally expressive RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME 25 of the warmth of the woman-heart of Russia, is as follows: Welcome, brothers, come in friendship From the land of noble deeds ! Welcome, Conemaugh, noble steamship Come to help us in our needs. By what words of friendly greeting Can I say all that I feel Overjoyed at this glad meeting, Brothers, friends, so true and real ! Thinking kindly of our peasants, You have come across the deep; From your rich and welcome presents What a harvest we shall reap ! For the seeds brought in such kindness Must bring forth much that is grand ; Let us thank you in our gladness, Welcome! Welcome to our land. t- Russia's brotherly devotion Will reward you for this hour, Love is deeper than the ocean And as boundless in its power. Shortly after my return to Philadelphia I received a letter from Mademoiselle de Woehr- mann, the closing words of which are the following : 26 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW So few foreigners have been able to understand Russians; so very few have admitted that we are not the savage barbarians we are generally made out to be; and it is a great relief to read truth and nothing but truth in a foreign paper. I hope you will keep your promise of coming over to St. Petersburg with Mrs. and Miss Reeves and that I shall have the pleas- ure of welcoming them and you at Moshkoff Person- lok. With many thanks and kind regards, believe me, yours sincerely, OLGA DE WOEHRMANN. June, 1892. We have misunderstood Russians because we have not known them. We have not known them because the opportunity has not come to many of us at first-hand, but often from unreliable sources. Since my return from that country I have nailed a number of falsehoods about the Russians that have been going the rounds of our newspapers. Our Government may go along for another century before claiming perfection. This applies not only to National but also to our State, County, and Municipal affairs. "Let him that is without sin among you, first cast a stone at" Russia. Russia loves America and America loves Russia, From Left to Right: U. S. Consul Xiels Peter Bornholdt, Captain Spencer of S. S.Conemaugh, U. S. Consul-General Dr. Crawford, Francis B. Reeves. RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME 27 and we say to her, " Peace be within thy walk and prosperity within thy palaces. " A RUSSIAN S TRIBUTE IN VERSE TO COLUMBIA'S HELPING HAND In addition to the souvenir received by Mayor Stuart of Philadelphia from the Ladies' Circle of Riga, his Honour has in his possession some poetry forwarded by Michael A. Scherbinin, of Rublevka, Poltava Government, Russia, "with the author's most sincere and most respectful regards." The ode follows: To Our Neighbour Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neigh- bour unto him that fell among the robbers? And he said; He that showed mercy on him. LUKE x, 36-37. Thou say'st it is by obligation For service rendered in the past That thou art succouring our nation In time of dearth and deadly blast. Well, be it so ! But Lord, defender, Was blaf-weard in thy tongue of old. In modern English this to render It meant bread-keeper, we are told. 28 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW To-day, in God's predestination, By succour brought in time of need, Thou art the blaf-weard of our nation, A brother and a friend indeed. Be welcome, sympathizing brother! And welcome be thy noble band, Who wrought with one accord together To forward help by sea and land ! The deed forbodes that blessed morning When wars and enmity shall cease, And when all nations are adorning The throne of Christ, the Prince of Peace. From Bering Strait to Louisiana Our heart is on thy welfare set : Missouri, Conemaugh, Indiana A Russian never shall forget. And while the Tynehead we are meeting With cargo brought by woman's care, Iowa's daughters we are greeting, Whose thought our hearts enshrined will bear. To us thy sympathy is dearer Than gold, or silver richly spread, Stretch out thy hand! We must draw nearer, One path of equity to tread. Thy welfare as our own esteeming, What know we of our coming fate? RIGA'S GRAND WELCOME 29 We only know, what God is scheming Shall be both lasting, strong and great. Two things thy banner has bespoken As stars involve a two-fold sense: Of Heaven's realm they are a token, A symbol of God's providence. The wonders of God's grace confessing, We praise the Giver of all bread. May His reward and fullest blessing Be poured upon Columbia's head! All hail Columbia, land fraternal ! Long live the Emperor of our land, And on the base of truth eternal May their dominions firmly stand! MICHAEL A. SCHERBININ. June 8, 1892. IV A Religious Service As Loaded Trains Start for tHe Famine- StricKen Districts THE starting of the first trains loaded with flour from the Conemaugh, destined for the far- away starving peasants, was celebrated the morning after the welcome in the harbour, at Muhlgraben, seven miles from the city, whither I was conveyed by special train with the Governor and other high officials with their wives and daughters. The Governor's private car contained two rooms with chairs and sofas of blue satin and gold. Here again a great throng of people assembled to wit- ness the demonstration. Two trains of thirty-six Russian cars each stood there, their locomotives, fired with wood, with steam up, gaily decorated with the flags of Russia and the United States in- tertwined. The officers of the Conemaugh were present in their official uniform. 30 -e-> EQ 3 s J2 oS CO A RELIGIOUS SERVICE 31 A temporary structure had been erected and improvised as a church. It was completely cov- ered with bunting of the national colours, our own stars and stripes prominently figuring in the grace- ful drapery. (See illustration.) Here an hour's religious service was held. The gold-mitred Bishop of the Orthodox Greek Church in the Province of Livonia officiated and made an address, which, though brief, was filled to the brim with grateful and earnest Christian sentiment. By request of the Bishop, our Consul-General, Dr. Crawford, translated and repeated the address in English. This is the translation: In the name of the Russian Orthodox Church we greet you, our American brethren, and bid you a hearty welcome to the shores of our Empire, and in evangelical love we pray that the blessings of God may descend in abundance upon you and upon your fellow- citizens. It is that divine love which Jesus Christ preached to us, the love that knowing no difference between nations, or religions, or individuals, has brought you here. It is that love that is not stayed by difficulties nor by vast distances; that love that overcomes all obstacles and brings succour to all that are in need ; it is that Christian brotherly love that has led you across the great ocean and over the inland seas which separate your country from ours that you may 32 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW bring food to our people who are in hunger and have no bread. We offer with all our heart our prayer to God that you and your compatriots may, among other great blessings, every season enjoy bountiful harvests. May God give you a pleasant sojourn here, and guide you safely home to your beloved land of philanthropy, prosperity, and happiness. Notwithstanding the beautiful Christian spirit of that Bishop's address, I cannot refrain from quoting the following from a letter by Com- missioner Blankenburg to the Philadephia Times, March, 1892. It seems that the Russian Church has for its found- ation stone wretchedness, ignorance, and superstition; that to remove them would be to endanger the great influence and absolute control which the priests now wield. We see an object lesson of this statement on every side; look at the villages with their miserable huts, abodes not fit for even cattle to live in; their dirty streets, wretchedness unspeakable, and then behold the magnificent church building that rears its proud steeples and fine cupolas in the midst of squalor and want. The cost of all the huts and abodes in many of these villages and almost every one has a church cannot nearly approximate the cost of the church build- ing alone ! If the priests would devote but one-half of their labours to the furtherance of the things of this world and the other half to that of the world to come, A RELIGIOUS SERVICE 33 they would confer an inestimable blessing on their people, though they might lose some of the power they now wield. Better yet, make school-masters of nine out of ten priests, or if they are not willing to change their vocation send enlightened schoolmasters abroad, separate church and state and a wonderful change will soon be wrought. An intelligent Russian, who, as most of the intelli- gent ones do, spoke French, told me that the wealth of the Russian Church is almost incalculable; that it could pay the Russian national debt (some $3,500,000,- ooo) and would then be enormously wealthy. Yet this same church has hardly been heard of during the great distress prevalent in so many provinces; no soup kitchens have been opened by it ; no contributions given. It seems bent only upon saving souls for the world to come and upon laying up for itself the riches of this world. The Bishop having presented the jewelled cross to the Americans present to be kissed, and that ceremony having been performed, the service was concluded with chanting and songs of praise by a fine male double-quartette, and the last nine bags of flour required to complete the train load were put on board, each of the following named persons carrying one bag to the car: Count Andre Bobrin- skoy; the Governor of the Province; the Mayor of the City; the City Prefect; the Director-General 34 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW of the Railways; the Chief of the Customs; the Resident Consul of the United States; the Consul- General, and your Commissioner. Then the train sped away on its errand of mercy amid the cheers of the populace. Under government direction trains carrying food supplies were given right of way, sometimes causing half a day's stoppage of passenger cars. One train of cars was sent for distribution among fifteen districts, among which were the following, the names of distributing agents appended: Government of Orel Prince Kurakin Government of Simbursk, St. Vevuline Mr. Rodionof Government of Nishni Novgorod, St. Sviashsk . . . Mrs. Masloff Government of Saratof , St. Atkarsk Mr. Shidlovsky Government of Tamboff, St. Fitkingoff Mrs. Bostrom Government of Tamboff, St. Tokahevka Mrs. Plahovo Government of Tamboff, St. Morshansk Princess Sagarin Government of Saratoff , St. Saltikovka Mrs. Saburoff Government of Orel, St. Babarakine Mrs. S. Pizareff Government of Skopino; to Count Leo Tolstoy. I would direct attention to some facts bearing upon the locality and the extent of territory affected by the famine, the measures of relief administered by the government and people of Russia, as well as that given by our own people and others, and will briefly refer to the causes of the DESTITUTION AND RELIEF 35 great calamity. When it is remembered that the Russian Empire, with a population of one hundred and eighty millions, embraces more than half of Europe and one-third of Asia, an area of 8,647,- 657 square miles, nearly three times greater than the United States of America, exclusive of Alaska, or one-seventh of the land surface of the globe, and that European Russia alone contains a popu- lation in the fifty provinces of one hundred and twenty millions, of whom about half are of the dependent peasant class, one may begin to realize something of the difficulties and the dangers that beset the way of the one man ordained, by the law of an hereditary monarchy, to govern and sustain so vast c. realm. I wonder no longer that, for se- ditious utterances or privy conspiracy, thousands have been banished to Siberia in order that peace may be insured to the millions; I only wonder that so much sentiment and sympathy have been lavished in our land upon the said political exiles, with none whatever for the true man at the helm, at that time Alexander III., who, I believe, would have sacrificed his life any day for the safety of the great Ship of State and the happiness of his sub- jects. 36 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW On New Year's Day, 1893, the Czar, Czarina, and the Czarevitch held a grand New Year's reception at Gatchin. After it was over, the Czar, with his head bared, and in the presence of a thousand of the populace, blessed the Neva. At a later discussion on the matter of a dis- tinctive title for the Emperor, a courtier pro- posed that, "as the father was known as the Liberator, the Czar should be named Alexander the Just. " "Oh, no!" the Czar exclaimed, "I am and shall remain the Peasant Emperor. Some of my nobility style me so in derision, scoffing at my affection for the Moujick, but I accept the title as an honour. I have tried to procure for the humble a means of livelihood, and this I think is the best and only means of keeping the world going." Ode to the Emperor Alexander III. For the great good heart that holds thee Firm and strong in love's straight road; For the wonders of thy purpose To help bear the peasant's load; For thy brainy power that governs Thy vast empire's wide domain, DESTITUTION AND RELIEF 37 All the world will rise to laud thee And extol thy noble reign. F. B. R., 1893. The territory covered by the relief work of the Russian government and organized private phi- lanthropy embraced seventeen governments or provinces with a population of thirty-six millions. Of these, more than half, or about twenty millions, were as destitute of subsistence as was the widow of Sarepta at the time of the prophet Elijah's oppor- tune visit at her house. The Russian peasant was in a far worse plight, however, for whereas the widow faced starvation only for herself and one son, there, over every threshold, gaunt famine stared into the pale emaciated faces of a score or more of men, women, and helpless children, and no Elijah was there to work a miracle upon the meal barrel and empty oil vessels. The question is often asked: "What caused the wretched destitution of the Russian peas- antry?" Of the various theories advanced no single one seems to afford an adequate explanation. The popular opinion that it was the result mainly of the drought of the summer of 1891, when the 38 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW hot east winds burned up everything, is only partially correct. For several years preceding, the same conditions prevailed though to less degree, so that the poor peasants, disheartened and impoverished, were unable to cope with the grim destroyer when the almost total failure of 1891 befell them. The normal state of these people is so close to the verge of starvation, having nothing laid up for days of misfortune, that a single sea- son's crop failure absolutely prostrates them. The loss of their horses, cows, and sheep, through their inability to feed this stock, worked a double injury, inasmuch as it not only deprived them of the assistance of these animals in farm work, but also of the manure so essentially necessary for maintaining the fertility of the soil. At the best of times, by reason of insufficient fertilizing, the peasants have been compelled to let the land lie fallow for from three to five successive years to prevent entire exhaustion of the soil. Mr. James Besant, a devoted worker for relief in the Province of Samara, said the loss of horses was immense and the death-rate of cattle was increasing, so that out of a million in the province not over four hund- red thousand would survive. Most of the unfortu- DESTITUTION AND RELIEF 39 nate peasants were without cattle and had not sufficient seed to sow their fields, and had nothing for subsistence until the next harvest. The Vyestnik Yeoropy, a St. Petersburg periodi- cal of March, 1892, attributed the droughts, which had become chronic, to the destruction of the forests, which has been going on during the past fifty years. It said : ' ' The territory drained by the Volga, Don, and Dnieper was formerly covered with extensive forests, whose deep shades preserved the springs from exhaustion. These forests have disappeared. The Don is being gradually choked with sand washed down from the desolated forest tracts." The writer concluded therefrom that the prevailing unfortunate conditions were the result of slowly working climatic changes and affirmed that no thorough attempt had been made to strike at the root of the difficulty. The application of our American system of irrigation would be more efficacious than hundreds of ship- loads of food, which at best can afford only tem- porary relief. A Russian count, speaking on the subject, said : The moral and physical condition of the peasantry has greatly deteriorated since their emancipation from 40 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW serfdom by the act of Alexander the Second, thirty years ago. The peasants have never learned how to use their liberty, aye, slaves yet to ignorance and a non-personal machine-religion, they know not the meaning of the word liberty. A writer in the Contemporary Review, March, 1892, said: "Bad harvests in Russia are so much a matter of course that the peasant has learned to await them as he awaits the coming of the tax gatherer." The taxes then were of three kinds, imperial, by the State, which includes the Ecclesi- astical rates ; local, by the Zemstvo, and communal by the village Commune. The Zemstvo is a kind of local administration which supplements the action of the rural communes and takes cognizance of those higher public wants which individual communes cannot satisfy. The principal duties are to keep the roads and bridges in proper repair, to provide means of conveyance for the rural police and other officials, to elect Justices of the Peace, to look after primary education and sanitary affairs, to watch the state of the crops, to take measures against approaching famine, and in the event of famine occurring to attend to the admin- istration of relief. DESTITUTION AND RELIEF 41 Unhappily the feudal system held the farm-lands away from real ownership by the farmers. This system, which of old prevailed in the Middle Ages, was abolished in England in 1660; in Scotland in 1747; in France at the Revolution of 1789; in Ger- many and Austria after the Revolution of 1848-50. Now the stars in their courses, which fought from heaven against Sisera, are shining so brightly over Russia that I deem it safe to predict that Russia will fall in line with these other nations and feudalism will vanish like mist before the morning sun. The land was imposed upon every family under the Emancipation Law in quantity proportionate with the number of males in the household. The land dues or rent was required to be paid whether crops grew or failed, and as the allotted land was not more than. enough to keep the women of the family employed in the cultivation, the men had to find employment elsewhere or become a burden upon the workers. And rarely was employment to be secured on any terms. When it could be had, it was only at wages equalling fifteen to twenty cents per day . I heard of men working the entire summer of 1891 for eight cents per day. Russia's 42 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW protective tariff has not availed, as in the United States, to build up manufacturing industries. They have them in the large cities, but they are very few in comparison with the population. In the villages I saw none, not even a tinsmith, black- smith, or potter, absolutely nothing in the indus- trial line outside of their primitive farming. And in this they were truly antiquated. Their plow, called a soktra, was the same old wooden soil scratcher that was in use a thousand years ago. It was made of wood with a little sharp spade- point of iron. Against all modern agricultural implements and labour-saving machines the Rus- sian peasant sets his face like flint. Attempts to introduce them have been met with determined resistance. In all the region where famine pre- vailed I saw no truck patches, vegetable gardens, nor fruit trees, nor any markets nor stores for the sale of the products of these necessities for com- fortable living. Thus it may be seen that the sad condition of these people is not to be reckoned solely as the result of a single year's calamity but rather as the outcome of a combination of evils of which ignor- ance is the chief, a culmination of long-existing, DESTITUTION AND RELIEF 43 unfortunate conditions connected with the neces- sarily defective political economy of their country, with intoxication and with their religion, a curi- ous blending of Paganism and Christianity. Happily, their great ruler is alive to a sense of his serious responsibilities; the higher classes are active in support of his beneficent measures for their relief, and the people of our favoured land have thrown a cheery light upon the dark picture that the world may see it and arise to lift up their fallen brothers and sisters. It would seem after what I have said, as though there could have been no very bright side to life in Russia at the time of my sojourn there, but I assure you there was and that it was my privilege to see it. The total grant by the Russian government for food and seed-grain in 1891 and up to May I, 1892, amounted to over $150,000,000. This grant was made of necessity in the form of a loan to the peasants, it being wisely regarded as incompatible with the stability of government to give away money absolutely from the public exchequer. Of course the repayment of the loan, depending solely upon the ability of the borrowers to return it 44 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW from the products of future good crops, was a remote possibility. In addition to this the Emperor gave from his private purse ten million dollars, and it is estimated that the prosperous Russian people added to this fund fifty millions more. The Society of Friends in England raised a fund of two hundred thousand dollars, of which eight thousand dollars was contributed by Philadelphia members of the Society of Friends. This fund was employed in relief work through a committee of their own. The English in Moscow, then numbering about 800, had raised a distress fund with the assistance of friends in England. These funds they had entrusted to the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, patron- ess of the Red Cross Society, and grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. This lady had taken great interest in the relief of the famine sufferers; a bazaar, which she had arranged, had in five days netted about $45,000. The money value of the supplies sent from Philadelphia and money given directly by the Philadelphia Relief Committee into the hands of the Committee in Russia, for purchase of food, DESTITUTION AND RELIEF 45 seed-corn, cattle, fodder, etc., may be stated at three hundred and fifty to four hundred thousand dollars. Twenty thousand dollars in money was taken over by the Indiana's commissioners, and ten thousand dollars by myself for purchase of Russian seed-grain ; or potatoes, cattle, or for other special needs such as might be made known upon the spot. From the United States five cargoes of flour and grain and provisions were sent, first, the Indiana from Philadelphia, February 22nd, with 2500 tons of flour and other provisions of a miscellaneous character; second, the Missouri, the latter part of March, from New York for Libau with about 2000 tons of flour given by the Min- nesota millers; third, the Conemaugh, April 23rd, from Philadelphia for Riga with 33,163 sacks and 516 barrels of flour, 400 sacks of rice and 100 packages of provisions; fourth, the Tynehead, in May, from New York for Riga, with the Red Cross cargo of shelled corn; and, fifth, the Leo, in June, from New York for St. Petersburg with one- half of a small cargo of flour given by our country people under the auspices of The Christian Her- ald, Dr. Talmadge's newspaper. These all arrived safely at destination, their cargoes being in good 46 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW condition on discharge excepting that of the Tynehead, the Red Cross Indian corn, half of which had fermented and was cast overboard. It is much better to send wheat or rye than Indian corn to feed Russian peasants. They have little acquaintance with corn and know but little of the way of preparing it for food. Rye is their main support. The wheat flour sent from America was used chiefly in admixture with rye, supplied by purchase from the more highly favoured sec- tions of their own country. A Russian nobleman told me that all the flour received from America was of most excellent quality. H rf V From Riga to St. Petersburg THE closing incident of Riga's hospitality is worthy of note. I had been advised to make ready to go to the railway station for Petrograd, on the evening of my departure, an hour and a half before the train was to start. At the appointed hour, a troyka sent by the Governor, three fine horses abreast, stood at the door to take me to the station. Over the well-paved streets of the city, out into the suburbs, our team dashed away, the middle horse, under the gilded duga, trotting a square eight-mile gait, the outsiders on a lively gallop. The driver arrayed in dark blue frock, with a light blue silken girdle, scarlet sleeves, vel- vet cap encircled with feathers, and driving reins matching his girdle, displayed extraordinary skill in driving his steeds, without a whip, simply by dexterous manipulation of the blue ribbons and an occasional kind word. Every other vehicle on the streets took to the curb line on our approach, 47 48 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW for the Governor's carriage holds the right of way in the middle of the street and is in no wise re- stricted in its rate of speed. A circuit of seven miles brought us up at the railway station, the once jet-black horses and their brilliant trappings now white with lather. At the station were assembled thirty to forty ladies and gentlemen, including the Governor and his wife, indeed, nearly all of those whose kind attentions had been unremitting from the hour of my arrival. Having partaken of some light re- freshments, standing at a table spread in view of the waiting train, each in turn bade me good- bye on the American plan a hand-shake. I subsequently learned by experience that the Rus- sian custom includes a kiss, at least on the part of the men. A restful night in a comfortable bed in one of Russia's admirable compartment cars and a few bright morning hours brought me to St. Peters- burg, Russia's modern capital, great in wealth, in culture, art, and architecture, worthy to be cata- logued with Paris, Vienna, Berlin, London, and Washington. We all know about the change of name from St. IsrtT n-jbloO JJB. sriT ) qida >u$n TIB snoii hriO " oonhT .i .j-i l rioiuQ .di nh 4 ! .81 .QI ) .OS 4 8 RUSSIA THEN AMD KOW The Imperial Family of Denmark at the royal celebration of the Golden Wedding of King Christian IX. and Queen Louise. The august royal family of Denmark cherish the happy relation- ship (through their childferi) with Russia, Greece, Sweden, and Great Britain, brought us up at the railway station, t The warm, friendship, has always prevailed in this happy family and its relation to other royal families. The persons appearing on the picture are as follows: 1. Olga Constantinovna, Queen of Greece, with l &e f Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. 'ie Governo 2. Empress of Russia, with the Dutch Prince Gerald. 3. Princess Marie, wife of Prince Waldemar. 4. King of Greece, George. 5- Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna. 6. Greek Princess Marie. 7. Prince Cans von Gluksburg. 8. Grand Duke George Alcxandrovitch. 9. Successor to the throne, Czar Nicholas of Russia. 10. Prince Waldemar. Darned by . 11. Emperor of Russia (Alexander III.). ^ 12. Princess of Wales (Alexandra, the elder daughter of King Christian and Queen Louise). 13. Prince^fltelm von Gluksburg. 14- Que^n Louise (Denmark). )mpartment cars an< 15- Constantino, then successor to the Greek throne and the present king. T A -n /^.uzc. Russms. modern capital, great 16. Dutch Princess Louise. 17- King of Denmark, Chris^S^ 1 8. Princess Victoria. Paris, Vienna, 19. Greek Prince Nicholas. 20. Grand Duke (Russia) Michael Alexandrovitch. en 6 M *o W) 2 o O O FROM RIGA TO ST. PETERSBURG 49 Petersburg to Petrograd in 1914, and the reason, the former being German and the new name Russian. In St. Petersburg, as in Riga, under the kindly care of Count Andre Bobrinskoy, private hospi- talities were more extended than could be accepted, for I had determined upon devoting my limited time chiefly to tours through some of the famine- afflicted provinces. My anticipated pleasure of shaking hands with the Czar was rendered im- possible because of his having just then gone to Copenhagen with the Czarina and their son, Grand Duke Nicholas, to join in the celebration of the marriage anniversary of the parents of the Czarina, the King and Queen of Denmark. A picture of the group assembled at that celebration, presented to me, may be seen on the opposite page. I met in St. Petersburg, Dr. Alexander Francis, pastor of the Anglo-American Congregational Church of St. Petersburg. Early in the autumn of 1891, Dr. Francis spent severaljweeks in the famish- ing district of Taboff where the suffering was most appalling. He told me that in one village not a child was left alive. In another village the people had used up every board in the making of coffins 50 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW and were travelling over the neighbourhood to find more. From The Evangelist I quote as follows : With the help of a few English friends residing there, Dr. Francis organized a Relief Committee, whose members made a house to house examination of the condition of the peasants in three villages and a care- ful estimate of what it would cost to keep these villag- ers alive. It was found that five dollars a month, judiciously expended for food, if carefully distributed, would keep alive eight persons. His own church then undertook to save 400 people from death by starva- tion for eight months. As soon as tidings of what Dr. Francis was doing reached this country through pri- vate sources, an appeal for aid in extending this good work of his church was made in the columns of The Evangelist. The work so begun rapidly outgrew its original limits. His energy, devotion and capacity for organization soon attracted the attention of the Russian Government, and every facility was afforded him for the prosecution of his work. Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg, 1892, wrote the following about Dr. Francis: It is but just to say here that much credit for the good work done is due to the Rev. Alexander Francis, Pastor of the Anglo-American Congregational Church rt ^ *-i ^> Jf PH PL, FROM RIGA TO ST. PETERSBURG 51 of St. Petersburg. This church was founded about fifty years ago, and owes its existence, in a measure, to our then Minister, James Buchanan, of Pennsyl- vania, who, after vain efforts on the part of the British Legation, succeeded in getting the permission to build this church from the Emperor Nicholas I. VI From Petrograd to Moscow FROM Russia's capital my next journey was by rail over the straightest four hundred miles of railroad in the world, to the Holy City Moscow. I was the bearer of letters enough to keep me there a fortnight and to open to me every place of interest in the city. These letters were to the Grand Duke Sergius Alexandrovitch, brother of the Czar, Governor of the Province of Moscow; one given me by Princess Troubetski to Madame Kostanda, wife of the Commander-in-Chief of the military, a force numbering 225,000 soldiers; to Prince Dologoroki; to Prince Ourousow; to His Honour the Mayor of Moscow, and to others. Under escort of the Secretary to the Mayor and his business partner, both Russians with a good English tongue, I was enabled to see the Holy City under most favourable auspices. Time would fail me to tell of the Kremlin with 52 St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, Built by Ivan the Terrible. FROM PETROGRAD TO MOSCOW 53 its eighteen towers; of the grandly picturesque view from its lofty site; of the Cathedral containing the venerated tombs of martyrs, saints, and czars; of the hundreds of churches and convents, with their domes of green and blue and gold, with their archaic richly decorated icons; of the holy gate through which none could pass with covered heads; of the surpassingly magnificent ancient and mod- ern palaces; of the exhibition of antiquities; of the Tertiakoff picture gallery; of the Patriarchs* treasury, rich in jewelled vestments; of the grievously crooked and uneven streets with their striking contrasts of light and shadow; of Lazarus and Dives jostling one another under the dome of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael; of a hundred weary pilgrims, men and women, clad in sheepskins or in rags, footsore after a tramp of weeks to some favoured shrine in the Holy City, now at nightfall, asleep, outstretched upon the cobblestones in the byways of the public streets; of the institute for foundlings, within whose walls are 17,000 mother-forsaken infants. These words afford but the merest suggestion of what may be seen in Moscow within three days. Like a vision of the night all these pass before me, but, unlike a 54 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW dream, this picture will stand out clear while life and memory endure. From Moscow to Bogoroditsk (English: "The Mother of God") in the Government of Tula, the centre of one of the distressed districts, is a journey of a night and half a day. It had been arranged with young Count Paul Bobrinskoy, cou- sin of Count Andr6 Bobrinskoy of St. Petersburg, that he should take this journey with me, follow- ing it up with a more extended tour in the famine districts of Tula and Riazan. At Bogoroditsk, I was kindly entertained under the roof of the old manor house, formerly called the Palace of Cath- arine the Second. Here, belonging to the Bobrin- skoys, who are descendants of one of Empress Catharine's principal advisers, is an estate cover- ing ten thousand acres, embracing several villages, and, until the distribution of land was made under the act of emancipation of Emperor Alex- ander II., the grandfather of the present Emperor, Nicholas II., lawful ownership in thirty thousand serfs, now regarded as wards by the owners of the estate. Catharine II., known as "Catharine the Great, " was born in 1729; she was Empress of Russia from o H I) E o ID -4-3 g c3 *O ty V aff , 5 'ft* ^ '^ - o so J3 's c S S ^ i^^l 8 ." ** *^ CJ "3 - 5 8 d rt "S c" *> 8 .a j ^ 5 S FROM PETROGRAD TO MOSCOW 55 1762 to 1796, when she died. She improved the administration of the Empire, introduced a new code of laws, and encouraged art and literature. She has been called " the Semiramis of the North, " and Voltaire said, with reference to her, "Light now conies from the North. " Rambaud, in his History of Russia, said of her: "No sovereign since Ivan the Terrible had ex- tended the frontiers of the Empire by such vast conquests. She had given Russia for boundaries the Niemen, the Dniester, and the Black Sea." Tracing the lineage of their hereditary monarchy from the reign of Catharine II., history gives us the following record: Paul I., her son, born 1754, was enthroned Emperor 1796, and was assassinated 1801. His son, Alexander I., was born 1777; enthroned 1 80 1, and died 1825. His son, Nicholas I., born 1796, when his father was 19 years of age, enthroned 1825, at 29 years of age, and died 1855. His son, Alexander II., was born 1818; enthroned 1855; emancipated the serfs 1861; and was assassin- ated 1 88 1. His son, Alexander III., was born 1845. He mar- ried Princess Dagmar, daughter of the King of Den- 56 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW mark, 1866, at 21 years of age. He died November i, 1894. His son, Czar Nicholas II., was born May, 1868, enthroned 1894; on November 26, 1894, he married Princess Alix of Hesse, a grand duchy and state of the German Empire. She is a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Church of the Ascension, Petrograd, Erected as Memorial to Czar Alexander II. who was Assassinated on this Spot March i, 1881. VII Visiting tKe Poor Peasants COUNT PAUL'S elder brother, Count Vladimir Bobrinskoy, head of the Red Cross Association of the district, was in charge of the distribution for the relief of the famine sufferers, and as Chief of the Zemstvo he directed all measures for govern- mental assistance. United in constant labours with his brothers and a sister, a beautiful, court- eous lady, hospitals and soup kitchens, bakeries and orphanages were maintained throughout the entire district. My first day passed in visiting as many of these active agencies as were within easy reach. These good people during the entire winter had been feeding and clothing their peasants, ministering to their sick and providing for the dead and dying among them, and for a long time they did all this out of their private resources. I was shown a large bakery, in which good rye and wheat loaves were being baked for families unable to bake for themselves. I was taken to a children's 57 58 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW home, a little orphanage, where there were forty children all under eight years of age. Some of the parents had died of cold and hunger, or of disease. This nursery was under the constant supervision of Countess Bobrinskoy. Next was a storehouse, where the American wheat flour and the rye flour purchased with government money, were mixed together, as the peasants were so used to dark rye bread that they did not care as much for plain white bread. Next day, with Count Vladimir Bobrinskoy, I was taken upon his official monthly house-to-house inspection of the village of Tovorkova, ten miles distant. Arriving at this village of about three hundred straw-thatched huts and five thousand inhabitants, at four o'clock in the afternoon, we first secured the company of the two elders of the village. Leaving our carriage we started on a tramp afoot through black mud, going from door to door interviewing the head of each family, the Count noting in a book, systematically, the requirements of the household for the next monthly distribution, facts as to the number now dependent, how many at work, the number sick, if any, etc. The elders were supposed to give VISITING THE POOR PEASANTS 59 the cue if any doubt existed as to the peasant's statement, and in such case we all visited the barn, uncovered the meal barrel or untied the bag string that we might see for ourselves what remained to tide the family over to the next distribution. In every case, save one, we found the pitiful story only too true. The condition of these people was deplorably miserable. In their earthen-covered hovels of two rooms lived families of from ten to forty human beings beside cattle of the ordinary kind. Entering one house in which lived forty people, an aged father and mother, nine sons with their wives and children, I was met just within the door by two cows. Opening the door leading into the other room a third cow challenged my progress in that direction. She had been called into the parlour for milking. "Where do these forty sleep ? " I inquired of the Count. The ready reply, applicable to all such peasant dwellings, was, "In winter on the brick enclosure of the oven (which they call a stove), on bunks or shelves and on the floor; in summer, in the barn or with the cows in the outer room." This family, the Count in- formed me, had never asked for nor re- 60 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW ceived outside assistance; they were accounted rich peasants. Five hours were required for this inspection business and now it was nine o'clock. Our tramp ended where it began, at the abode of the peasant Chief Elder. By this worthy man we were invited to enter and partake of his hospitality. This home differed in nothing from the others we had visited. His family comprised twenty persons. The elder's wife and five sons bade us welcome. Three comely young women, wives of as many of the sons, stood within, each with a baby in her arms. A group of younger children, chickens running about the floor, and two pet rooks, comprised the family circle. Three little heads, with half a dozen bright, wondering eyes, looked down upon us from a broad shelf, high up, two or three feet below the roof, where they had been put to bed. The table, a single board, a foot and a half by four feet, in a corner, surrounded by rough wooden seats, was quickly spread with a coarse white cover. The samovar was brought out, a charcoal fire kindled within it, a draft being secured by connecting a tin pipe between it and the stove ; glass tumblers for the tea were placed before us, for tea is always Copyright, Underwood & Underwood. Russian Peasants Making Hay. V IS 1 TING THE POOR PEASANTS 61 served in glass tumblers in Russia. Then the Count chatted with the party in their native lan- guage until the samovar began to boil. Besides the tea, which was excellent, the elder placed before us a small bottle of vodka, a large loaf of black bread, a dozen hard-boiled eggs, and four salted cucumbers. Having eaten nothing for ten hours, I had begun to realize the dreadf ulness of a Russian famine. An intimation was made by the Count that we would abuse the hospitality of our host if we would not consume about all that he had provided, so everything vanished saving half of the big loaf. They were evidently actuated by St. Paul's counsel to the Corinthians "If one of them that believe not biddeth you to a feast, and ye are dis- posed to go, whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. " It was several days before I recovered wholly from the effects of my share of the meal, four hard-boiled eggs and a cucumber. And this was the home of a "rich " peasant, one who, in the midst of the famine, had never asked for help. One of the daughters, a pretty girl of sixteen years, con- trary to the custom of unmarried women, had her 62 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW hair concealed under a kerchief which the Count asked her to remove that I might see her hair. Blushfully she complied, and a long glossy plait fell to her waist. The girl's object in wearing the head covering was supposedly to prepare her- self for the time, probably very near, when, being married, it would be a shame to her to display nature's lavish head adornment. In most Russian villages the young women are not allowed to choose their husbands. The par- ents do this for them, and the father will some- times take up with the first one that happens to be recommended to him by a neighbour or by some one who has done him a favour, or is in a position to enable him to befriend him, somewhat after the manner that little offices are bestowed in our country for political favours. Their daughters are never permitted after marriage to remain at home, but invariably go to live with the hus- band's parents, no matter how numerous their offspring, until the couple can set up for them- selves. The following references to Russian weddings in well-to-do families, I quote from Hubbak's Russian Realities : VISITING THE POOR PEASANTS 63 The Russian wedding is a very important ceremony, which may be performed either in the church or in the house. In each case the bride and bridegroom are endued with crowns, and exchange rings during the religious celebration, which is preceded by a civil mar- riage. The custom in some parts of Russia at least is for the bride to start on the wedding journey in white, and it is quite usual to see the whole wedding party at the station. The bride wears her orange blossoms and carries an enormous bouquet; the bridesmaids appear in the most taking hats they can command. The first to enter the train is the bridegroom, who has a blue frock-coat with brass buttons and a con- spicuous knot of white ribbon. When he has in- spected the location in the train he rejoins the party, and the chief bridesmaid conducted by the best man, goes in to verify matters. Then the bride is handed in by the best man, and the whole party troop after them. The conversation is continued until the last moment, but neither confetti nor rice was employed on any occasion that I have seen. I believe that the evening is the favourite time for weddings, as it is in many other countries. Concerning the guests at a breakfast he says: Russian meals have often been described, but the reality is none the less interesting. One is asked to form part of a gathering for a country lunch, or break- fast, more properly. On arrival after a long drive the guests are set down to an apparently sumptuous 64 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW repast, including wine, beer, or vodka at the outset. When everyone has finished, the hostess asks if the party would like to spend the hour before the ensuing breakfast in the garden or on a stroll. Then one discovers that the feast just ended is only preliminary and that the real lunch is yet to come. I may mention that the usual form among Russians is to thank the hostess at the end of the repast and to kiss her hand. It is allowed to degenerate foreigners to substitute the handshake, if preferred. From Tovorkova we started on a tour through a number of districts in the Government of Tula and Kursk, in an ancient phaeton drawn by three stout horses. My companion was Count Paul Bobrinskoy, a handsome fellow, twenty-four years of age. We visited peasants, their fields, cows, horses, and workers. Over dreadfully bad roads we were jolted and knocked about, going through Suckromna, Buturke, Muravlauke, Beresevka, and Karidzena to Orlovka. In all these places there were evidences of extreme poverty and of welcome relief through the past three months. At Muravlauke a stop made at a public house for change of horses I utilized for a little personal refreshment. Our lunch, which we had brought with us, was unfolded in the midst of a curious, Count Leo Tolstoy. Photographed in Moscow, 1892. VISITING THE POOR PEASANTS 65 interested party of peasants, mostly the family of the publican. Hearty thanks came from the head of the family to be sent to America for the money given to buy the Conemaugh's cargo. One of them, gazing at me with wonder at the prodi- gality of our lunch of sandwiches and sardines, said in a tone of great surprise, in Russian, and translated for me by the Count " My! He even wears a hat like our own." It was evident that one coming so far on such a mission was expected by them to wear at least a red hat and to have some gilt trimming on his coat. Early next morning Count Vladimir Bobrinskoy with his sister left for some hospital work in a distant village. With Count Paul, the younger brother, I set out in a tarantass with three stout horses for a drive of a hundred versts through the country. The roads are simply wagon tracks through open fields and, at long intervals, across unbridged streams. We twice crossed the river Don upon bridges of most rickety construction, consisting of logs covered with earth and stone, in one case so narrow that we were obliged to take off one of our three horses before we could get on. The snow had long since disappeared, disclosing 66 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW in the fields a most miserable prospect for the approaching crop of grain. Cattle were very few, but here and there I saw some thin, half-starved cows rooting in the ground, literally "rooting," for only roots were to be found to eat as a result of all their labour and pains. Many cottages had been dismantled by the horses eating the straw from the roofs. From all of this I was quite prepared to hear as I did through letters from Russia, that the crops well-nigh failed again and that the destitution of the peasant was as great as ever. We stopped for the night in Orlovka, at the resi- dence of Mr. Pizareff, who, as Chairman of the Red Cross Association for his district, was actively engaged with his wife in every branch of the relief work. VIII With Count Tolstoy COUNT LEO TOLSTOY, known also as Lyoff or Lyeff Nikolaievich Tolstoy, was born in the Gov- ernment of Tula, Russia, August 28, 1828 ; he died at Astapova, November 20, 1910. He was educated in the University of Kazan and served in the army in the Caucasus and in the Crimean War, being appointed commander of a battery in 1855. He took part in the battle of the Tchernaya, was in the storming of Sebastopol, and after it, was sent as a special courier to St. Petersburg. He retired at the end of the campaign. After the liberation of the Serfs he lived on his estates, working with and relieving the peasants, and also devoting himself to study. Mr. Pazareff had invited Count Tolstoy, whose base of operations was in the neighbouring Province of Riazan, to join us at supper. The Count came, like our Yankee Doodle, riding on a pony, a little 67 68 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW black beauty, on which he sat with all the dignity of a First Regiment trooper. In appearance the famous novelist and philanthropist was more commanding than handsome, in manner easy and kindly, in conversation quite unreserved, not lead- ing, but as ready to listen as to talk. After supper he mounted his pony and galloped away, first inviting us to call upon him on the morrow. With three frisky horses our drive was resumed next morning. Our first stop was at Beghitshevka, Tolstoy's headquarters for famine-relief work. We found the Count, dressed in his grey peasant's smock, sitting at a table in his study, a small, unpretentious, simply furnished plank-floored room. With a hearty welcome he presented us to his daughter, Princess Mary, who, while presid- ing with grace over the affairs of the house in her mother's absence, devoted herself, with her father, to their great work of charity in the surrounding country. A plan of the province given to me showed twenty-six soup-houses and bakeries, eight hospi- tals, and seven sanitariums under the care of Count Tolstoy. As a result of his telling me that he had notified the Government Committee that he would WITH COUNT TOLSTOY 69 need no more assistance during the season and that he now regretted having done so because there was increased suffering and want caused by sick- ness, I telegraphed to Riga for a carload of flour to be shipped to him. After my return to Phila- delphia I received a letter from him thankfully acknowledging receipt of it. A photographed copy of this latter is on page In answer to a question whether he was engaged in writing a book, "Yes," he replied. As to its subject, he said, "I think that the title will be, 'The Kingdom of God is in You,'" asking me at the same time if he had given the right English translation of the Bible text. His talk was chiefly about the sad condition of the peasantry, and the great progress of the Christian religion, of which the sending of these relief ships from America to Russia was a sure evidence. "The time seems to have come," he said, "when the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man are being universally acknow- ledged." Connected with the Count's study was a large room with a rough old plank floor. At a table in a corner sat an aged man, of over four score years, 70 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW in shabby clothing. Princess Mary, after explain- ing his presence with them, brought him out for an introduction, and read to me a lot of queer religious rhymes written by the old fellow. She said he had come last winter telling her father that he had a vision of and message from God that he should spend his last days with Count Tolstoy. Taking him at God's word the Count admitted him. Ask- ing Princess Mary what her father would do with him upon return to their home in Moscow, she expressed the opinion that he would take the old man with him. In reply to his inquiry regarding my stay in Russia, I told the Count that it was near its end as I had important business to transact in Liverpool, England, early in June. The Count, expressing his regret that my stay was to be so short, I dropped the American adage "Time is money." "No," he said, "time is not money; that is placing too low an estimate on the value of time. " Standing outside the door to remount our tarantass, I remarked to Princess Mary, looking up at the gathering clouds, "I hope it will not rain today." Beaming with brightness she said, " I hope it will. " I thought of the long journey Facsimile of a Letter from Count Tolstoy to the Author. WITH COUNT TOLSTOY 71 ahead of us in the open wagon; her thoughts were upon the struggling grain in the fields. It rained, and I was well watered, but I took the drenching with equanimity as I thought of Miss Mary and the starving peasants. Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg wrote the follow- ing to a Philadelphia newspaper: The rumour that Count Tolstoy has been antago- nized and even threatened by the Russian Government for the manner and methods of his work can be traced to the same source that invariably tries to belittle, misrepresent, and even falsify everything pertaining to Russia. There is an antagonism to Russia and her Government in Germany, as well as in England, that seeks in every way to propagate falsehood and to cloud the truth, and, as most of our information from and about Russia is gathered from English and Ger- man sources, it would be well for us to discount largely the wonderful stories we hear from and about this land. When I arrived in Europe the story was flashed all over the civilized world that Count Tolstoy had been ordered to his estates by the Government and that he was a prisoner! I read editorials on this "high- handed outrage" in some of the leading papers of Europe, and must confess the news struck me very unfavourably and prejudiced me a good deal. Almost the first question I asked upon my arrival was regard- ing the truth of this story, and the reply received 72 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW from a high and well-posted source was: "There is absolutely no truth in it. " My informant added that the Count did give the Government concern occasion- ally on account of his peculiar notions about many things, but this story about his arrest and imprison- ment was not true. Count Tolstoy is at present, as stated in yesterday's St. Petersburg Gazette, not on his estate, "lassnaja Poljana, " in the Government of Rjasan, but in the Busuluk district of Samara, 500 miles east of his home. It would really be well not to be in a hurry to accept as authentic all the news we receive about Russia through the channels above indicated. The ill-feeling of these countries towards Russia prejudices them to the extent that they magnify the dark sides and scarcely mention the bright ones. The London Daily Mail, January 17, 1901, printed the following despatch from Odessa : While journeying north from Livadia, Emperor Nicholas, during a breakfast luncheon at Tula, capital of the Government of the same name in Central Russia, sent a delicately worded message expressing his desire to see Count Leo Tolstoy. Contrary to expectation Tolstoy accepted the invitation and soon appeared at the railway station. In his peasant's garb he presented a striking contrast to the richly dressed entourage of the Czar. Emperor Nicholas kissed him on the mouth and both cheeks, and Tolstoy readily responded. Then a conversation commenced, the Czar asking WITH COUNT TOLSTOY 73 his guest for an opinion upon the imperial proposal for the limitation of armaments. Count Tolstoy replied that he could only believe in it when his Majesty should set the example to other nations. On the Czar mentioning the difficulties of the problem and the necessity for the aid of the united powers the Count softened somewhat and expressed the hope that his Majesty would be able to attain some definite results or at any rate to formulate some workable plan at the conference. The Czar, thanking him for his good wishes, said he would be pleased if Tolstoy could be induced to lend his genius to the solution of the question and the Count rejoined that the Emperor might count upon his co-operation, for he was already engaged upon a work dealing with the question in point, which would soon see the light. Although the remainder of this long country ride abounded in interesting experiences I must touch upon only one or two incidents. Our mid- day meal, thirty versts farther on, was thoroughly enjoyed at the table of Madame Filosoffoff, a sister of the Bobrinskoys, who, with two lovely daugh- ters, had turned away from the comforts of a city home to minister to the poor in this distressed region. Visiting several more villages we came into one, 74 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW a half of whose houses had been destroyed by fire a few days before. Three men fell upon their knees before us in the road, begging for help to rebuild their homes. Next to famine and pesti- lence, fire is the most fearfully dreaded enemy of these people. In a dry time, when a blaze starts among their heavily thatched straw roofs many of the houses go up in fire and smoke together. Count Paul Bobrinskoy, my companion of many days, now about to part with me at the railway station, Kashinow, fell upon my neck and kissed me, just as we are told in the Book of Acts the companions of his namesake, the great Apostle, did, and like the Apostle's friend, I, too, "sorrowed most of all for the words which he spake, that I should see his face no more." I carried with me a letter written by Count Paul to Vladimer Ivanovitch Peterson, the station- master at Riask, five hours' journey toward Mos- cow, written to him that I might be directed to the right train at that point, which was a junction of two lines of railway. I presented this letter on arrival, nine o'clock at night, to a servant of the company. With the aid of a bystander, an English gentleman, who observed my futile Mai and Sophie Peterson. Daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Vladimer Ivanovitch Peterson of Riask, Russia. WITH COUNT TOLSTOY 75 efforts to make the fellow understand that I wished him to give the letter to the station- master, I succeeded in my purpose. The station- master came to me, a fine-looking, tall gentleman, with a military bearing and a most kindly face. The letter evidently contained information con- cerning my mission in Russia, for never before was I the recipient of such a profusion of kind atten- tions even from friends, not to mention strangers. Calling servants, the station-master delivered to one my coat, to another my hand baggage, to a third an order for supper, and telling me in imperfect Eng- lish that I must wait for my train three hours or until midnight, he led me to the station restaurant a first-class establishment, ordered a good supper, opened a bottle of "Roderer, " and as we sat to- gether, took the liveliest interest in all I could tell him of what America was doing for Russia's starving peasants. Again and again touched by some allusion, he rose to his feet, extended his arm across the table and gave me a hearty hand- shake. The lunch over, he took me to his house, introduced me to his peasant cook in the kitchen, showed me over the house, proudly pointed to photographs of his wife, who at the time, with her 76 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW little daughters, was visiting her mother in Mos- cow. He ordered coffee made, set it before me with cakes, oranges, mint drops, and the best cigars I ever encountered in all Europe. He then began to load me with souvenirs giving me a silver Russian coin-holder, photographs of himself, his wife, and his two little daughters ; a quantity of lace and some fancy work made by his cook, and finally an immense bunch of lilies-of-the-valley, Russia's most lovely wild flower. Returning from his dwelling to the station, I was shown a large room in the station, the floor of which was literally covered with human beings, peasant men in their rough sheep-skin gar- ments, asleep. They were a gang of labourers employed by the Government, awaiting transpor- tation by railroad. On the arrival of my train my friend provided for me a special sleeping apartment, furnished with bed, table, and chair, a striking contrast to our Pullman narrow-berth sleepers. He gave orders to have me well cared for, hugged and kissed me, and with a "God bless you" and "God bless America" the train moved off. By noon next day I was again in Russia's Holy City. IX Russia's Jewish People I HAVE been asked if I gained any information in Russia touching the alleged atrocious treatment of political prisoners in Siberia and the persecution of the Jews. Just enough, is my answer, to assure me that there has been exaggeration in some of the reports that have been given publicity as to both these serious matters, and no little misrepre- sentation either through ignorance, prejudice, or malice. The inspiration of such statements, may be attributed generally to political enemies of Russia. Everyone knows how easy it is to mis- understand a matter when but half of the facts and nothing of the underlying causes are revealed. Loyal and law-abiding subjects of the Czar have nothing to fear from the mighty arm of their ruler nor from the prisons of Siberia, for " Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. " I undertake no defence of Russia's penal code, though I might better succeed in that than in any 77 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW effort I might make to apologize for some of our own municipal and State politics and the conse- quent evils and abuses that are even now being endured by our sovereign citizens. The Jew in Russia is not to be understood as identical with the worthy examples of that race who have become good citizens among us. Our treatment of the Japanese in California and of the negroes in some of our Southern States would seem to suggest to us the justice of making full inquiries before passing judgment on the Russian people for their hostility to a certain class of Hebrews. Pierre Botkine, Secretary of the Russian Lega- tion in Washington, in an article in the Century Magazine entitled, "A Voice from Russia, " makes a noble defence of his country against the charge of religious intolerance and persecution on the part of the Orthodox Greek Church in the explusion of Jews. He says: They have not been expelled, as has been charged, but have been restricted as to localities of domicile and as to kinds of occupation ; they have abused their privileges as traders and as lenders of money to the poor until they have become dangerous and prejudi- cial to the people. The peasants, in their weakness RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 79 and ignorance, have in some localities lost all patience, have been guilty of violent excesses, have mobbed the Jews and destroyed their property. They have tried to annihilate particularly all property, which to their exasperated minds, was ill-gotten. And disclaiming all thought of excusing such barbarities, he says: "They can only be regarded as a protest of the people against what they found to be a thraldom to the Jews worse than the serf- dom which had been abolished. " I found the Jews trading in St. Petersburg, just as they do in Philadelphia, with no thought of molestation, and after inquiring of United States officials in that city, and of the best informed Russians I feel inclined to endorse the article in the Century. The London Correspondent of The Public Ledger writes on this subject, August I, 1916, as follows: Announcement in Petrograd by Paul Milsukoff, leader of the Constitutional Democrats in the Duma, that a bill giving Jews equal rights will be introduced in the Duma in November confirms reports current in Jewish circles here for some time. By Russian departmental order the residence of Jews outside the pale already is permitted, and re- cently there was a discussion of the Jewish question by 80 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW the Cabinet Council at imperial headquarters, at which it was understood that the project of introducing a bill in the Duma legalizing this departmental order was favourably considered. The circular issued by Count Ignatieff, Russian Minister of Education, abolishing the system of bal- lot for Jews desiring to enter Russian secondary schools was regarded as an excellent omen for the further enfranchisement of Jews. Alexis Aladin, one of the best-known members of the Duma and now in London, said today that not only was the present report true, but he considered it quite likely the bill for equal rights would be passed. "It is a step of immense importance and one that must arrest the attention of the whole world," said Aladin, "I am unable to reveal all I know, but I am able to say I am confident the bill will be introduced in the Duma and passed. " There recently visited London two prominent members of the Russian Government. Vice-Presi- dent Propopoff, of the Duma, and M. Gourko. Both these men, your correspondent learned in intimate talks, looked with favour on speedy legislation giving the Jews equal advantages with all Russians. Their attitude is extremely significant of the change that has been taking place in the inner councils of Russian affairs since the beginning of the war. Here we have Propopoff, a nobleman and capitalist, swinging around to the idea that the time has arrived to put the Jew on an equal footing with his fellow-men in Russia. As Vice-President of the Duma, he is a RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 81 man of influence; in fact, one of the most promising statesmen Russia ever produced. In speaking with friends here he said that today one does not talk of the "necessity" of giving the Jew equal rights, but of the "desirability." In other words, he maintained that the day had come when Russia was beginning to recognize the importance of the Jew as a vital part of her national life. The reason, he argued, was that the Jew shows himself of real value to Russia in commercial life and is a factor to be reckoned with in the future if Russia is to develop the best that is in her. With him stands Gourko, a forceful leader in the Council of Empire and an assistant minister. These leaders are unafraid to compromise their political success by putting the Jewish question on the basis of a complete settlement of equality of rights. That to my mind is a sure indication of the trend of the Jewish problem in Russia. A friend, who having been strongly impressed by such presentments against Russia as those of George Kennan, said to me, "You know there is a Darkest Russia as well as a Darkest England, and the favouring circumstances under which you visited the country gave you little opportunity to see the dark side; hence you can paint your picture only in warm, glowing tints." Possibly he is not far astray, but I have aimed to present an unpre- 6 82 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW judiced, uncoloured view of things as I saw them. I believe that the nobles of Russia are endeavour- ing to maintain a kind, helpful paternal relation toward the peasant class, irrespective of their religious affiliations, and that in this respect they are the peers of their fellow-Christians in any land. They are struggling with the great civil and social problems of the day in an earnest spirit of broad Christian chanty. If their progress appears to some to be dreadfully slow in comparison with our own, we have but to remember the differ- ence in our forms of government and the dangers involved in sudden, radical political changes, even when those changes are in the line of great reforms. Let us remember the fate of Presi- dents Lincoln and Garfield and McKinley, and be still! We have reason for rejoicing in our constitutional deliverance from a condition that was in violation of the fundamental principles of our Declaration of Independence ; so has Russia for her emancipation of the serfs in 1861, and their deliverance from an hierarchy, which means its people's deliverance from a sectarian yoke and from ecclesiastical domination. I & RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 83 Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins, D.D., in a recent explanation of a Sunday-school lesson, said : Let it not be thought that we are justified in treating the Jews unkindly or critically because the Gospel was preached to the gentiles after the people of Judea rejected it. We can never earn God's love or approval by frowning upon those whom He loved and amongst whom He lived and died. We want to do all we can to make the Jews know that Christ was their Messiah, and those who ill-treat them and are cruel by word or action will not only lose the favour of God, but will incur His displeasure. Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, D.D., has given me the privilege of quoting from his published addresses delivered at Temple Keneseth Israel of Philadelphia. The story of his visit to Tolstoy, 1894, is especi- ally interesting. No one of our Jewish fraternity is to my mind more trustworthy than he in the elucidation of now existing relations between the Russian Jews and their Government. I quote as follows: While within the Russian borders, I was privileged to come in contact with many prominent Russians, one of them, M. Witte, who at that time was Minister 84 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW of Finance and practically at the head of the empire, the Czar, Alexander III., being critically ill in Crimea, where he shortly after died. But of all the men I met none made the impression that was left on me by my visit to Count Leo Tolstoy. It was made possible by Mr. Andrew D. White, the distinguished scholar and statesman, who at that time represented our country at St. Petersburg. He had written and asked the Count to meet me and to learn of the mission that brought me to Russia. The Count's daughter, Tatiana, replied that her father would be pleased to have me visit him, adding that he was just then engaged in hay-making, and, therefore, had not much leisure. To take as little of his time as possible I arranged to arrive in the courtyard of his manor- house at Yasnaya Polyana, late in the afternoon. Approaching a group of peasants that stood at a well drinking water and mopping their brows, my travelling companion, a young Russian lawyer, asked them where we might find the Count. One of them stepped out of the group, and, lifting his cap, said most court- eously that he was Tolstoy: learning my name, he bade me a hearty welcome. From the moment I first gazed upon him he held me captive, and, by a strange psychic power, he has held me enthralled ever since. No wish of mine has been more fondly cherished in the years that have since passed by than that of some day visiting Russia again, and only for the purpose of seeing once more that strangely facinating personality, of listening again to his marvellous flow of wisdom. RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 85 I had often wondered how a Moses, an Isaiah, a Jeremiah, a Socrates, looked and talked, denounced and dreamed : the moment I saw and heard Tolstoy I knew. One hour's talk with him seemed equal to a whole university course in political and social science ; one walk with him on his estate stored up in the listener more knowledge of moral philosophy than could be crowded into a year's seminary instruction. Great as was the power of his pen, immeasurably greater was the power of his living word. In some mysterious way the flow of his speech seemed to exercise a hypnotic spell upon the speaker as much as upon the listener. The speaker seemed at times translated into a super-human being, seemed inspired, seemed to speak words not his own, as one of the ancient prophets of Israel must have spoken when he said the words: "Thus saith the Lord," while the listener seemed scarcely capable of thought or speech, felt his being almost lose its identity and become merged with that of the speaker. The first question Count Tolstoy put to me was from what part of the United States I hailed. Upon my telling him that Philadelphia was my home, he expressed himself as much pleased. He recalled the two shiploads of food we sent from our port, two years earlier, for the relief of the famine-stricken of Russia, of the distribution of which he had personal charge, and he spoke with pleasure and appreciation of Mr. Francis B. Reeves, our fellow-townsman, who had accompanied the food-relief. With even keener delight he recalled that the first 86 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW aid received from the United States was from the Jewish congregation of Sacramento, California, which to him was all the more remarkable from the fact that the district stricken was, through governmental re- striction, uninhabited by Jews. The expression of pleasure turned to one of sorrow when he remarked that Russia had little deserved such generous treat- ment at the hand of Jews and he lived to see the manner in which it was repaid in Kishineff and other places. More than 300,000 Jews of Russian birth are fight- ing today in that country for their fatherland, and tens of thousands of them have laid down their lives in defence thereof. Hundreds of them are recipients of medals of honour for deeds of valour on the battle- fields, in many instances won while fighting against fellow- Jews of Austrian and German armies, thus holding ties of fatherland higher than those of blood or faith. From this loyalty of Jews to countries where they are still labouring more or less under disadvantages, even to such countries as Russia, where they are not yet in possession of citizenship rights at all, may easily be judged what their loyalty must be to a country such as ours, where, almost from the first, every right that was conferred upon followers of other faiths, was con- ferred upon them, the country which, for the first time since they were driven from their original Pales- tinian home, eighteen hundred years ago, they were privileged to call truly their own. The conversation turned to social conditions in the RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 87 United States, and on these matters he displayed an amount of knowledge that was amazing. The more I listened the more I wondered, till finally I could not but ask him how he who wrote and worked so much could find time to keep himself so well informed of a country so far away as the United States. To which he replied, "Your country has interested me even more than mine. I have lost hope in mine; all my hope was, at one time, centred in yours. But yours is a disappointment as much as mine. Were yours the free and representative government you pre- tend to have, you would not allow it to be controlled by the money powers and their hirelings, the bosses and machines, as you do. I have read Progress and Pov- erty by Henry George, and I know what Mr. Bryce says about you in his American Commonwealth, and I have read and heard even worse things about your misgovernment than what they say. "We were all right," he continued, "as long as we were an agricultural people. Our modes of life, then, were simple, and our ideals were high. Politics then was a religion with us and not a matter of barter and sale. We became prosperous; prosperity brought luxury, and luxury, as always, brings corruption. The thirst of gold is upon us, and, in our eagerness to quench it, and to gratify our lust of luxury, our one-time lofty principles and aspirations are dragged down and trampled in the mire. We build city upon city, and pride ourselves in making one greater than the other, and, in the meantime, we wipe out village after village, whence have come our strength and moral fibre." 88 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW He was not the first of the world's great reformers and lovers of humanity to lose heart and to experience spells of despair. Moses and Elijah and Jesus and others had their hours of agony, and prayed that the end might come, and deliver them from their hopeless labours. And many who, like Tolstoy, closed their eyes in the belief that they had utterly failed loomed large in subsequent ages among the greatest of the world's benefactors. Tolstoy has not failed. He succeeded better than he knew. His pathetic death revealed the vast num- ber of followers he had in his own country and in all parts of the world. And had he cared to inquire, he might have known it before his death. He could have seen it from the fact that more books of his were sold than of all other Russian authors combined. He could have seen it in the vast crowds that gathered all along the line, to catch a glimpse of him, when on his journey, a few years ago, to the Crimea, in search of health. He could have seen it in the deputations of sympathizers that waited upon him, and in the streams of congratulatory letters and telegrams that rushed in upon him till suppressed after his excommunica- tion. He could have seen it in the Tolstoyan societies among the students of almost all the Russian univer- sities and among other bodies. He could have seen it among the considerable number of landlords, who made conscientious efforts at following his life, and at adopting his mode of dealing with peasants and la- bourers. Were the yoke of autocracy removed, there would arise in Russia an army of Tolstoyans as vast RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 89 and mighty as the host which Ezekiel in his vision saw in the valley of dry bones. The religion of Russia of the future will be largely that which Tolstoy lived and taught, and it will be the religion of a large part of the rest of the world. Time's sifting process will eliminate whatever is untenable in his system of moral and social and economic philosophy, which sprang more from a flaming heart than from a cool, calculating mind. He had neither the time nor the inclination to work out a synthetic philosophy. He wrote as the spirit moved him, and whenever it moved him, the keynote of all his writing having been, as he said to me, "the hasten- ing of the day when men will dwell together in the bonds of love, and sin and suffering will be no more." There are in the Tolstoyan system of religion the elements of the long dreamed-of universal creed. It will take time for the rooting of it. Mormonism and Dowieism spring up, like Jonah's gourd, and pass away as speedily as they came. A system as rational and radical as that of Tolstoy requires an age for germina- tion. But, once it takes root, it takes root for ever; once it blossoms, it blossoms for eternity. The incident which I am about to relate occurred in Russia, on a July evening, 1894. In the course of the evening meal, which I was privileged to share with Count Tolstoy and his family, a peasant entered with the mail and presented it to the Count. With considerable eagerness he freed a newspaper from its wrapper, and, turning its pages, stopped at one of 90 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW them, and presently gave vent to a number of chuckles. To an inquiry by one of his family as to what amused him, he held up the paper, which certainly presented a strange appearance. Large black ink blotches in several places in each column disfigured its printed matter, and made it look more like a black and white checkerboard than a printed page. Turning to me, he said that the blackening of his articles, or parts of them, was nothing new to him. What amused him was that the unsmeared parts were far more radical than those which the censor's ink roller had made illegible, proving to him conclusively that publications of his were being blackened without even being read, on the theory that anything he wrote must of necessity be dangerous, and bear the censor's mark of disapproval. "I believe, " continued he, "that if I were to publish a copy of the Ten Commandments under my name, half of them would be blotted out as dangerous reading. The fools do not seem to know that by blotting out parts, they whet the reader's desire for perusing all, and incite him to obtain un- tampered copies clandestinely." He then told me that that particular article was one of a series he was publishing, under the title of "Chris- tianity and Patriotism" in a London newspaper, in the Daily Standard I believe, not having been permitted to publish them in the Russian tongue in his own country. In them he showed that Christianity and patriotism are incompatible, that the latter is an artificial creation, skilfully fostered by rulers for their own benefit. On account of it wars are waged, and no end RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 91 of other evils are wrought, and sufferings are inflicted by Christians against Christians, who, religiously, are taught to love each other, to do good to one another, and who patriotically are taught to despise or hate or overreach each other. He regarded patriot- ism as both stupid and immoral, stupid because every country regarded itself superior to all others, and immoral, because it lures nations to possess themselves of advantages at the cost of the others, thus violating the fundamental law of morality, that of not doing unto others that which we do not want others to do unto us. When rulers or diplomats have certain ends in view, some land greed to gratify, they excite enthusiastic patriotism at home by inciting hatred against the country to be victimized, and deluded citizens murder and cripple each other by the thou- sands, paralyze their respective country's commerce and industry, bring untold sufferings upon countless innocents, in the belief that they are serving their own best interests, when they are only gratifying diplomats' ambitions, or rulers' covetousness, or assuring the permanence of parasitical dynasties. Patriotism, therefore, is the strongest ally of rulers in the promotion of war, and in the prevention of the earth-wide establishment of the brotherhood of man. I must confess that I was somewhat taken aback by his severe strictures on patriotism, which I had, up till then, regarded as one of the noblest sentiments of the human heart, and I, therefore, ventured, later in the evening, when seated with him in the arbour, 92 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW to ask for some further light on this new, and to me startling, teaching. Complying with my wish, he related how, a few years back, a well-known French agitator visited him, while on his mission to Russia to prepare the ground for a Franco-Russian alliance. This visitor frequently referred, with sentimental pride, to the sacred pledge he had given himself and his country never to cease agitating for war with Germany until France redeemed her lost military glory. He pleaded for the Count's espousal of the proposed alliance, claiming that, as a patriotic Russian, he must recognize the wisdom of crushing or weakening so powerful a neighbour as Germany. His pleading met with no success. Tol- stoy showed him the absurdity of his arguments. Germany defeated France at Sedan, he said, because France had defeated Germany at Jena; and if France were to defeat Germany now, it would only mean that Germany would have to defeat France sometime in the future. To his argument that France was duty-bound to liberate the people of Alsace and Lorraine, and to restore them t6 where they belonged, Tolstoy answered that these two provinces had belonged to Germany seven hundred years, and that that country had only reconquered what was her own. As far as the people are concerned they are no less free and happy under German government than they were under French. Barring a few hot-heads, they would rather be left at peace than see. their lands again made the scenes of horrible war. Tolstoy then asked the Frenchman whether he considered himself RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 93 a Christian. Upon receiving an emphatic "yes" for answer, he asked him how he could reconcile Christ's teaching of love and forgiveness with his own thirst for revenge ? He replied that patriotism is as necessary as Christianity, and both must be cherished alike, even if, at times, they are diametrically opposed to each other. Striking an attitude, he added, "In church, I am a Christian, in politics I am a French patriot!" ' Together they proceeded into the fields, where they came across a peasant. Tolstoy stopped him, and, calling him by name, told him that his guest wanted him and all the Russians to help France to fight Germany. "Fight for what?" asked the peasant. "To get two provinces back," answered Tolstoy, "which France lost a quarter of a century ago. " The peasant stared at the stranger, and finally, turning to Tolstoy, asked, " Is he a fool or does he think we are fools, " and away he went. "Who was the wiser of the two," Tolstoy asked me," the simple-minded, simply clothed, labour- bronzed, unlettered Moujik, or the well-fed, well- groomed, white-skinned politician, with a silk hat, long coat of latest cut, and patent-leather shoes? That peasant's answer was the voice of the people; the politician's was the serpent's voice. As the peas- ant spoke, so think the people in their hearts, until the serpent's tongue beguiles them into doing what they would never think of doing were they following the bidding of their conscience. "If patriotism is as innate as is generally claimed," continued Tolstoy, " why do nations go to such trouble 94 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW in inculcating it ? Let them stop compelling people to swear allegiance to every new monarch, let them cease saying prayers for him, celebrating his birth- days, placing his pictures in public halls, and his monument in public squares, printing his name in capital letters in prayer-books, calendars, and text- books, imprisoning people for speaking ill of him, dazzling the people's eyes and befogging their minds by means of pomp and show and glitter, crowns and sceptres, gaudy uniforms, military bands, medals and ranks, fireworks and triumphal arches let them cease doing such things and they will soon discover how much patriotism is inborn, how much of it is of spontaneous growth, and how much of it is forced upon the people. "Patriotism, therefore, as commonly understood, " concluded Tolstoy, "is for rulers a means for gratifying their lust of land or power, and for the people a renun- ciation of their God-given intellect, a surrender of fundamental teachings of their religion. Conceived in that sense, patriotism is but a form of slavery, and the patriot often but his monarch's executioner. End this blind patriotism, and you end war at the same time, for people will then be no longer willing to sacrifice themselves for the aggrandizement of their ruler, or of his diplomats or of his military chiefs. Remove this blind patriotism, and the profession of the diplomat will be gone. There will then be no quarrel between nations which arbitration courts will not adjudicate. Remove this blind patriotism, and nations will establish their cause by the law of Poor Peasants. RUSSIA'S JEWISH PEOPLE 95 right instead of by the force of might. Remove blind patriotism, and you will enthrone religion among the nations. Let people cease to be false patriots, and they will become true Christians. " X Russia's Religion THE spirit of true religious liberty is working like good leaven within their institutions as they now exist. The Kingdom of God is within them. Toleration of all religions which do not violate public morality or good order exists in Russia, and not to profess the Orthodox Greek faith, the national religion, does not disqualify for the en- joyment of any civil rights. James B. Reynolds recently wrote in the Chris- tian Union of New York as follows: Last year in Russia I met a number of people prominent in the Russian Church, and heard much of the spirit of their leaders. There certainly has been a decided awakening in recent years. Of Father Antonio, now at the head of the great theological seminary near Moscow, I was told how he often gathered his students together and gave them informal talks on personal piety, such as theological students rarely receive and greatly need. In talking with the wife of the military governor of the district of Moscow, 96 RUSSIA'S RELIGION 97 I was much impressed with the genuine respect which she showed for the Russian clergy, especially as her own ideas of personal religion revealed a depth of spiritual life commanding the highest admiration. In a long chat with the Countess Tolstoy about many features of their national life, I gained the impression that she also felt that there was at least a strong and growing element in the Russian clergy which sought to command respect by broad and thorough scholarship and practical love and sympathy for their fellow-men. In conversation with a young tutor of the Moscow theological seminary, I certainly gained the impres- sion of one well posted on his subject, which was the philosophy of religion. Doubtless many may feel that the Holy Synod is severely repressive within the Orthodox Church as well as without, on all "tendencies of modern thought"; but just now certainly they cannot be conceded to have a monopoly in that line of business. The Russian Church shows the deficiencies of a State Establishment whose theory is to include all men within the pale of the Church, and then make Chris- tians of them afterwards. This naturally leads to unworthy clerical as well as lay members. But there has been progress. I believe a majority of the leaders of that division of the Christian Church are conse- crated men trying to do their best with the mighty responsibilities of their position, and I agree with Mr. Gribaye'doff in saying of the Russian Greek Church: "It has a great mission to perform, and, on the whole, is doing its work nobly. " 9 8 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW The peasants as a rule are religious, in the best sense of that word, for they are always willing to divide their loaf of bread with the pilgrim and stranger. They are devoted to their faith and to the performance of their vows whether as members of the Orthodox Greek Church, as in the case of the great majority, or of the numerous Protestant sects existing and thriving under the protection of the Government. They recognize God's sover- eignty, but have never learned the great under- lying principle of all religions that have been of great help to humanity in every age, that the Almighty Ruler works in the affairs of men through human agencies, of whom He only requires that they shall be co-workers with Him, seeking to know His laws and then conforming their own laws and lives thereto. They are very suspicious, therefore, of every effort to change the existing order of their lives. Often they resist measures to stay the progress of disease and to arrest the approach of death lest thereby they be contending against the will of God. If a child falls into a river or brook they make no effort to save its life, believing that God has ordained that it should die in that way. This conviction not only robs them of every incen- RUSSIA'S RELIGION 99 tive to use their own free wills and intellectual faculties to advance themselves and their children in the scale of civilization, but it carries them into the outer darkness of a blind fatalism. They firmly believe that their Emperor is the vicegerent of Almighty God. They are generally loyal, therefore, to the "powers that be" while they are meekly submissive to their desperate lot. Conspiracies against the Government are rarely fo- mented among them, but in so far as they are ever discovered, they are traced to the official classes or the military, or to men of the universities. But whilst holding their Emperor in highest reverence, the peasants are wont to regard the under officials and in some measure the clergy with feelings akin to contempt. Their ability to discriminate, how- ever, between their real friends among those dignitaries and those whom they regard as mere incumbrances, is quite remarkable. Men on their knees on the street curbstones pray- ing before an Icon are examples of their church loyalty. On entering the door of a post- office everyone is obliged to remove his hat and bow before the Icon; and even when en- tering a bank, business office, or shop, the hat ioo RUSSIA THEN AND NOW must come off, particularly if there are ladies in the building. Among many appreciative letters that I have received are the following from Counts Paul and Vladimir Bobrinskoy: BOGORODITSK, TULA GOVT., 3 August, 1892. MR. FRANCIS B. REEVES. DEAR SIR: It was with the greatest pleasure I read your letter and would have answered long before but I had much work attending the harvest in the farms. I was so glad to know you had a happy journey and carried away a good impression of our country. I am sorry to tell you that since you left us a very strong dysentery broke out even among the grown-up people; the babies were carried off in great numbers, as the food this year was far from being suitable to withstand this disease. As regards the crops it is most lamentable; the rye and the wheat in some localities and in ours also were dried up from want of rain and next December we expect the distress to be greater than that of last year. And to complete the scourge we have already some cases of cholera in our district. It was distressing for me to read in today's paper that in one of the districts south of the river Don, 900 took the cholera and 500 of them died of it. We are very busy in pre- paring hospitals and different preventative means to RUSSIA THEN AND NOW 101 battle with that fearful disease. It was so sad that the Red Cross and the Zems too had to spend the money that would have gone towards relieving the hungry for the cholera preparations. I am very sorry to give you so many bad accounts of our poor country, but we feel also that your sympathy and interest will be a great encouragement for us. This year I shall not be able to accomplish my great desire of visiting your beautiful country, as it is my time of military service. Thank you for your kind remembrance of us all and believe me, dear sir, Yours gratefully, PAUL A. BOBRINSKOY. BOGORODITSK, GOV. OF TULA, RUSSIA, 12 March, 1893. MY DEAR MR. REEVES : I am very sorry that I could not find time until now to write and thank you on my own behalf and on behalf of my uncle, R. Pizareff, for your kind help in our work this second year of famine. The Petersburg American Relief Committee, with the Hon. A. D. White at its head, has sent me 3200 roubles, R. Pizareff 3600 roubles and my cousin Andrei Bobrinskoy, 3200 roubles, in all 10,000. I trust you will transmit to the Mayor of Phila- delphia and to the Philadelphia Committee our very sincere thanks for this most timely help. Through you I have also received 70 roubles 50 copeks (37 dollars 37 cents) from a Sunday School 102 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW class. Pray tell the children that their truly Christian Charity will go to help the sick with hunger typhus, who are very numerous this terrible year. Allow me to express once more my most hearty thanks and believe me Your most obedient and thankful servant, VLADIMIR BOBRINSKOY. Mr. W. Barnes Steveni, special correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle, who had made a tour through famine-stricken Russia early in 1892, wrote as follows of his visit at the home of the Bobrinskoys : On one of their estates they had established a priute or Children's Home. This the Count took me to in the afternoon. I found there dozens of children, whose appearance bore eloquent testimony to the kind treatment they had received. Some of the parents, the Count told me, had died from cold, hunger, or disease; the others were totally unable to provide for their offspring. In the management of this home the Countess Bobrinskoy an exceedingly pretty and refined lady found plenty of congenial and womanly occupation. In spite of the atmosphere of the place being anything but fresh, she, personally, saw that the wants of the little ones were properly attended to. "We are care- ful," she said, "not to admit the little starvelings to RUSSIA THEN AND NOW 103 the home without first washing them thoroughly with carbolic and water. We feed them on milk, bread, and various farinaceous foods, and find that they flourish so well on this diet that it will be necessary for us, before we send them back to their parents, gradually to accustom them to the harder fare which will be their lot. A sudden change of diet would be sure to produce disastrous results. " I am glad to say that the Bobrinskoys practice what they preach. They are all staunch teetotalers. I was not, therefore, surprised to find that they were held in high esteem by the peasantry. To find this good feeling existing between a Russian noble and his former serfs gave me the greatest pleasure, especially as my preconceived notion of the Russian aristocracy was that that body was an idle, worthless set. My experiences during my journey have convinced me that this view was erroneous. The present crisis, I am glad to say, has proved that there exist in Russia many nobles of whom any country might be proud. That so little change should have taken place in the relations between the Bobrinskoys and the peasantry since Alexander II. issued his edict of emancipation is greatly to the credit of this family. It was with much regret that I left the hospitable roof of the Bobrin- skoys. I shall never forget the unceasing kindness which they showed to the distressed around them, and to me, not only a complete stranger to them, but a foreigner as well. Such noble-minded people fully deserve the high position which they hold amongst the principal families of this country. 104 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW CZAR ALEXANDER III. SENDS BEAUTIFUL GIFTS TO THE PHILADELPHIA RUSSIAN FAMINE RELIEF COMMISSIONERS The 2Oth of May, 1893, I received the following telegram from Prince Cantacuzen, Russian Am- bassador to the United States: WASHINGTON, D. C. MR. FRANCIS 3. REEVES, 20 S. Front. I would be very pleased to see you on the 27th of May, 1 1 o'clock, on board Russian Flagship, Dimitry Donskoi, in Philadelphia, to tender to you in presence of our brilliant sailors and on Russian soil a souvenir his Majesty, the Emperor, ordered me to give in his name to the American gentlemen who visited Russia during the trying year 1892, with hearts and hands full of loving help. Will you kindly pass same invita- tion to Mr. Biddle and Mr. Blankenburg, as I don't know their addresses. CANTACUZEN. The day named, May 27, 1893, was the tenth anniversary of the coronation of the Czar, Alexan- der III. The flagship, Dimitry Donskoi, was accom- SHIPS WITH GIFTS 105 panied by another Russian warship, the Rynda, both of them anchoring in the Delaware River, dressed in holiday attire with flags from stem to stern. Cannon roared the Imperial salute, and Philadelphians were treated to the unusual spec- tacle of warships of a foreign nation celebrating one of its most important holidays. Prince Cantacuzen presented to the Relief Com- missioners the following letter, all of them being present excepting Mr. Blankenburg, who at that time was in Japan: RUSSIAN IMPERIAL LEGATION, WASHINGTON, May 27, 1893. DEAR SIR: Before leaving my country for the United States I had the great satisfaction to receive a special order of His Majesty, the Emperor, my most gracious Sover- eign, to present tokens of His Majesty's gratitude to the American citizens, who, moved by philanthropic and friendly feelings towards the suffering population of our country, came over to Russia last year and attended personally the distribution of the aid, for which they contributed largely with the generous American people. I avail myself of the presence of our men-of-war in Philadelphia, from which harbour sailed the first ship with flour for Russia, to tender to you, dear Sir, on the day of the Coronation of Their Majesties, this case 106 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW containing a piece of Russian art, as a remembrance of the feelings you left behind you. Very sincerely yours, CANTACUZEN. MR. F. B. REEVES. Bishop Nicolas, of San Francisco, the prelate of the Russian Church in America, conducted the service, which was one of the highest of the church. He was assisted by Fathers Andronik and Irakli, the priests of the Donskoi and Rynda. The portable altar which the flagship carried, with pictures of saints and other paraphernalia, was set up on the starboard side of the gun deck. The crew of the vessel, with Admiral Kaznakoff, Captain Zelenoy, the Grand Duke Alexander, and other officers at their head, were ranged on the deck before the altar. Detachments of the officers and crew of the Rynda occupied the port side of the deck. Bishop Nicolas wore vestments of purple, with the peculiar Russian hat with its black veil. The best singers of the vessels formed a choir, and a large part of the service consisted of the intonation of the liturgy. The service lasted over an hour and closed with the Bishop's blessing and prayer for the royal family of Russia. Heavily Gold-Plated Punch Set. On top of the case is a brass plate on which is engraved MR. F. B. REEVES IN REMEMBRANCE OF YOUR VISIT TO RUSSIA 1892 SHIPS WITH GIFTS 107 Then, at a word from the Admiral, a round of cheers for the President and the people of the United States was given, and the band played Hail Columbia, while all remained uncovered. The gifts to the Commissioners were as follows : For Rudolph Blankenburg, a bowl and salver, gilt and enamel, the tone of the latter ornamenta- tion being blue. To F. B. Reeves, a punch bowl about seven inches in diameter, five drinking cups, a large platter and a ladle. All were of silver, heavily gilded and beautifully figured. To Colonel A. J. Drexel, Jr., a Russian "loving cup" of gilded silver, with lid and handle, about a foot in height. To Dr. Biddle, a silver-gilt enamelled cup. Each present rested in a satin-lined box of polished oak, which bore on the outside a plate having the name of the recipient and the sentence : "In remembrance of your journey to Russia, 1892." Gifts from the Czar were presented also to the following named gentlemen who had rendered valued services in the relief work of America for Russia: C. M. Reeves, S. Klopsch, Dr. Hubbell, io8 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW W. C. Edgar, E. S. Phelps, and Rev. Dr. T. De- Witt Talmage. This majestic event of international courtesy did not terminate with the presentation of these gifts. A luncheon was given from one o'clock to three o'clock P. M., by Admiral Kaznazoff to the repre- sentatives of the Russian Government at Wash- ington ; his American guests (among them all who had received gifts), and a few of his officers. The day's festivities were followed by a brilliant illumination of the Russian ships with coloured electric lights, which an admiring crowd viewed from the shore. From the stern of the Donskoi there was a continual display of fireworks. On the flagship a large initial "A," the first letter of the Czar's name, was topped by a crown of coloured lights. After the luncheon a party of ladies, chaperoned by Mrs. A. J. Drexel, Jr., was taken aboard the flagship. One of her officers said that over a thousand people had been on board and that the visitors greatly outnumbered those received when the ship was in New York. " It is no annoyance," he added, "we came here to see you and for you SHIPS WITH GIFTS 109 to see us, and another Russian warship may not visit the United States for years. Your gracious help for Russia proves that your city is rightly named Philadelphia 'Brotherly Love. ' " XI The Abolition of VodKa AT the time of my visit nothing was said about the peasants' addiction to strong drink and the resulting drunkenness and desperation. Vodka had not apparently been given its proper place in their tale of woe. Its recent abolition by Czar Nicholas, universally approved by all his official representatives and Russia's best people, has proven that vodka should then have been cursed as one of the real underlying causes of destitution when a year of drouth was followed by crop failure. No greater blessing has ever been conferred upon Russia than that heavenward march of the Czar abolishing vodka from his realm. Its prohibition, adopted as a war measure, is likely to continue after the war, according to reports from Petrograd. Before the war, vodka was almost universally used by the Russian masses. Many women, and even children of tender years, no THE ABOLITION OF VODKA in consumed the fiery liquor, while men used it in quantities almost unbelievable. The peasants are now more prosperous than ever before the war, and this is attributed to the saving of the large sums formerly spent for vodka. Madame La Marquise, now faithfully serving the Red Cross Mission, in an article recently pub- lished by the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, said: One of the transformations that have been work- ing to make Russia an interesting study for other peoples deserves universal cognizance. When the Czar's ukase forbidding future use of the Muscovite whisky vodka, was put in force la marquise attended in state to see the execution of the preliminary step to the "water wagon. " At a given hour all the casks of vodka stored in Suwalki were taken to a neighboring hill, where a formal ceremonial inaugurated the end of the demon. The enormous casks were "stove in," the liquor coursed down the hillside in torrents; the regretful topers, as a last tribute, flung themselves prone on the ground and swigged till they were insensible. When they could take no more, they rolled in the stream on the ground. Obviously the Czar realized what he was doing when he ventured to cut off by a stroke of the pen the cup that doesn't cheer but bestializes, as the sequel proves, for the Russian economists are cheering the empire with the incredible word that the ii2 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW savings bank deposits have gone up a billion rubles since the water-wagon replaced the bottle. Nor is the money gain all ; the peasantry left at home, through age or infirmity, have redoubled in working power. Russia, the land the Teutons disparage, proves to be the only nation in existence capable of decreeing and maintaining a reform which other nations don't venture to tackle boldly. John H. Snodgrass, Consul General at Moscow, said that according to statistics gathered by a reputable newspaper, the consumption of vodka during the months of July, August, September, and October, 1914, was only a little more than one- tenth what it was during the same months of 1913 before the Czar's ukase against intoxicants; and adds: It is observed in the manufacturing concerns that labour has become much more productive than before. Formerly at the Moscow mills many workmen would not appear on Monday, and a number of those who did were unfit for duty in consequence of their Sunday excesses. This is no longer the case; both the quality and quantity of labour performed have improved. XII WHat THey Saw in Russia After VodKa Left 1 By Margaret Wintringer WHILE in London a letter of introduction secured for me an interview with Baron De Heykind, the Russian Consul General. I found the baron a somewhat stern but courtly man of distinguished military appearance. I told him how the Czar's ukase had been welcomed in the United States, and a look of pride, and even exaltation, softened the naturally stern countenance. "It is the greatest and grandest national edict since Moses gave a moral code to the Jewish people," he declared proudly. "Not since the world began has any people taken such an advanced step. Our Emperor has taken the place in the twentieth century that your Lincoln held in the nineteenth century. Only it is greater to free men from themselves than from bondage to others. No one, except the Saviour of men, ever essayed that before." He spoke with simple reverence. "It is a miracle," he continued, "the strength of the army and the growth of the nation since indul- 1 By permission of The Continent. 8 ii4 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW gence in alcohol has ceased. Our soldiers face the foe more bravely ; wounds are no longer feared, they heal so quickly and those long winter marches, they have been made without vodka. " It was hard to realize that I was talking to an officer of the imperial army and a member of the Russian aristocracy, when the consul general enthusiastically referred to the democratic application of the Czar's ukase to prince and peasant, staff officer and common soldier alike. It was all so different from the spirit of military caste and privilege that has grown up in our own republican army. The grog ration of the soldiers gave way to a money allowance in 1912, and early in 1914 a new order provided for monthly and even weekly temperance lectures in the army. The Russian government, which is ecclesiastical as well as political, has always esteemed the sale of intoxicants iniquitous and has never recognized the trade's right to compensation. When as a measure of protection to her people, Russia took over the vodka traffic in 1894, sne did not reimburse the liquor sellers; and the present local option laws provide for the refund of a proportionate amount of the license when prohibition takes effect previous to the expira- tion of the license of any retail dealer. I had just read an article on Russian prohibition in an American magazine, and I ventured to refer to the charge that denatured alcohol and other even more poisonous substitutes had taken the place of vodka, to the grave danger of the Russian people. RUSSIA AFTER VODKA LEFT 115 The statement was vehemently denied. " If it were so, I would know it," he said," for I am in daily receipt of government reports and they all say that never was Russia so sober. You manufacture much in America," said the consul general, "and this [referring to the magazine article] was manufactured in your country. It is one of the lies of the trade. It is natural to lie when the truth will hurt; Madame need not believe that I know nothing of such evasions. " " But since I came here I have been told that many people have died in Russia from drinking methylated spirits," I urged. The answer came with startling emphasis. "Let them die! It is better for Russia that they should die. They are a disgrace to their country and a burden to their wives and children. We cannot kill them. Let them kill themselves. Why weep over the death of a few old drunkards when, under our most gracious Emperor's beneficent ukase, Russia is saving millions of youth from a degraded life and an ignoble death? When these drunkards go, there will be no boys to follow them. Russia is facing the future. She will conserve her youth. " To my blundering inquiry as to whether he was following the Cz'ar's example, the consul general replied frigidly and with hurt pride: "Madame, I am a devoted and loyal subject of Russia's most noble ruler." The woman's viewpoint on this interesting subject was gained one bright April day in Paris, when Ma- demoiselle D'Aubigne", daughter of the author of ii6 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW the History of the Reformation, suggested a call upon Madame Louise Kruppi, who had just returned from a tour of Russia. Madame Kruppi is one of the noted women of France. Through the establishment of trade schools, she has enabled soldiers' wives and widows to become self-supporting. Already classes have been formed in fourteen trades and professions. Her visit to Russia was partly a government mission to gain information from the technical schools for which Russia is famous, which would advance her own undertaking. Like Professor Simpson, she prefaced the interview with the confession that she went to Russia neither a prohibitionist nor teetotaler. "And now," she piquantly explained, "I am both. I am everything that will bring to my country the blessings I found in Russia. At first it was hard to give up wine, but if, in a city of two millions, one can- not get it, one must do without; and it was so in Petrograd. Moscow was as bad, I mean as good," was the smiling correction, "for one could not get it there. " "Oh," she replied to my suggestion, "they have temperance drinks, but they are frightful!" The statement was accompanied with a charming moue and with an expressive shrug of the shoulders. And then madame suddenly became grave. " It is strange, is it not," she mused, ' ' that in France we not only drink but think wine. Nothing is good that is not wine. But that is a mistake, as I learned in Russia. The temperance drinks were nice, very RUSSIA AFTER VODKA LEFT 117 nice If you did not taste them, " she added mischiev- ously. "I could drink anything and like it that would bring to French women the happiness I saw among the Russian women. "They seemed to have become young again. Per- haps," Madame Kruppi said laughingly, "it was because since there is no vodka, marriage is so much cheaper. When vodka was furnished the guests it cost from 60 to 100 francs; now the wedding feast may cost but 30 francs. So now, the young couples can marry. "And then family life has become beautiful, for the Russian is not unkind to his wife and children when he is without vodka. Since alcohol, the twin sister of lust, has disappeared, the shackles have fallen from many poor white slaves; and while war has in- creased prostitution in all other I countries, in Rus- sia the evil has diminished nearly one half. Women should remember that and enter the fight, for with one blow they strike the two worst foes of womanhood. "And then prohibition will give the vote to women," Madame Kruppi added. "Already the Council of the Empire has actually adopted a bill that would have given women the right to vote in local option matters. And to make prohibition secure, the vote will surely come to woman. "The people are saving money. They are turning the "empty vodka shops into savings banks. They are spending money, too, for new clothes for them- selves and new gowns for the women. Yes, and they ii8 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW are buying meat twice a week instead of twice a month." Madame Kruppi, who is actively interested in the establishment of free libraries in her own country, was greatly impressed by the intellectual awakening that has followed the Czar's ukase. "The craving for drink has been replaced by a thirst for knowledge. The people are reading books and playing on musical instruments. France, Italy, Britain, and Germany," she declared, "have given their art and literature to the world; but Russia has yet to give and some day she will lead the world. Because she has cleaned herself and shown herself strong, hers will be a clean art, and a virile literature, while the happiness of her people will banish the sombreness which has characterized both in the past." XIII Russia's Great Revolution THe True Story of tKe World's Most Gigantic Temperance Experiment I By Margaret Wintringer A great army drunk and a small army sober, and the dramatic defeat of that great army, was one of the big factors in Russia's fight for temperance. America should study Russia's experience because in the more than twenty years of that fight the great Empire tried " every restriction which the frantic friends of a doomed traffic are clamorously urging in our own country" before the great culmination in the Czar's famous ukase. No experiment tried out in the temperance labora- tory of Europe during the present war has excited such a world-wide interest as that which has wrought the regeneration of Russia. So marvellous and yet so simple, it made a strong psychological appeal to the strain of mysticism inherent in the Russian peasant. It was like a fairy tale, in which the ukase of the Czar was the enchanted wand which transformed by its magic power that ragged, sodden peasantry into an awakened princess 1 With permission of the Sunday School Times. 119 120 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW robed in a noble ideal to become his consort iu the preservation of Russia. The romance of it, the dis- covery of themselves, awakened in the Russian people a great patriotism and a depth of religious feeling never before manifested by any nation. The story is so athrill with romance, inspiration, and dramatic action, that it only awaits a master mind in Russia for interpretation into a great Homeric epic. But to us the story of the temperance movement in Russia is of significant interest, because it is the most gigantic experiment ever undertaken in tem- perance reform, affecting as it has nearly two hun- dred million people and extending over eight million square miles of territory. The work began twenty years ago, and never before was reform inaugurated under more propitious and satisfactory conditions. Removed from fanaticism by its conservatism, assured against failure by auto- cratic power of enforcement, financed by an Imperial treasury, and clothed with respectability by the Church, Russia's scheme for temperance reform be- gan most auspiciously. It was not even hampered by the necessity of returns on the investment, for the government took over the vodka traffic without any form of compensation to the sellers. Never were such gala days as when Russia opened her state vodka shops in 1894. Grand-duchesses par- ticipated in the inaugural ceremony, and bishops blessed the drink. Princes and princesses and other titled folk acted as bartenders in serving bottles of RUSSIA'S TEMPERANCE EXPERIMENT 121 liquor that bore the seal of the state and whose purity was attested by the government. In fact, every restriction which the frantic friends of a doomed traffic are clamorously urging in our own country was tried out in Russia during the nationalization of the traffic. The rules governing its management read like the recommendations of a Model License League. Vodka was sold for off-the-premise consumption only in corked and sealed bottles, and not a cork- screw or drinking vessel was permitted in a vodka shop. Its sale was prohibited to children and drunken persons. Wage-earners were protected through the early closing on pay-day of all vodka shops near factories. They were closed also on certain religious holidays and all days when the village Council met. The traffic was made so respectable that school- teachers withdrew from the profession of learning to become managers of vodka shops. The government lent its prestige, and patrons were required to remove their caps on entering, as in other Imperial offices. The government even provided counter attractions to its own liquor business. There were restaurants where beer and light wines were served only with food orders, and tea parlours, concert halls, and other places of resort where the people might meet for social intercourse apart from intoxicants. A portion of the profits from the sale of vodka was devoted to an educational temperance campaign; and during the year that saw the opening of the state vodka shops, seventy thousand seven hundred tern- 122 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW perance lectures were delivered under government auspices to audiences totalling seven and one half million people. To safeguard the movement from fanaticism, the government prohibited the formation of societies advocating prohibition and set aside further profits from the new venture to the support of a national temperance society which adhered strictly to moder- ation. Two uncles of the Czar joined the movement and the moral uplift of the saloon began under ideal conditions. One may wash a black cat, but one cannot make it white. So the plunge into respectability failed to remove a whit of the blackness of the liquor traffic. Within two years the would-be reformers learned that restriction is a foe to profit. The number of vodka shops was increased, the restrictions were withdrawn, and thereafter the business was run for revenue only. During nineteen years of nationaliza- tion the revenue from the sale of vodka doubled, but the consumption increased threefold. Restriction illogically forced vodka shops upon villages that had heretofore been immune from its ravages; and the inculcation of moderation resulted in such inebriety among children as to demand investigation by the Moscow City Council. In a word, Russia's effort for the moral uplift of its people through the government control of drink brought about the degradation of the nation until its drunken- ness resulted in ignominious defeat by a people whom it outnumbered ten to one. d I RUSSIA'S TEMPERANCE EXPERIMENT 123 From the mobilization of Russia's troops to their defeat at Port Arthur, the contrast between a great army drunk and a small army sober was presented with such dramatic force that the Russo-Japanese war might have been enacted as a movie with a moral. The Czar visualized the lesson and added to the war films "the mournful pictures of popular debility, household distress, and neglected business, the inevitable consequences of an intemperate life" revealed in a journey through his Empire in 1913, dur- ing which convictions were formed which six months later resulted in the famous prohibition ukase. In a letter to his minister of finance, the Czar affirmed that the journey which will ever be memora- ble in the annals of Russia was "accomplished with the help of God " and who can doubt the affirmation? The beginning of the war found Russia with a shortage of war materials and without the industrial means to provide them. The evils of vodka had grown to such proportions that in one year infant mortality had mounted to four and a half million; the ranks of her workmen were depleted by one million deaths from alcoholism and the sequestra- tion of eight hundred thousand criminals in jails. The shortage of munitions and the lack of industrial material could not be remedied at once, but the drain on the nation's manhood could be stopped by a word. The word came and it was heard throughout the world PROHIBITION ! And yet but a day before you would have been told in Russia, as we are now told in the United 124 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW States, that prohibition was impracticable, and chiefly for the same reasons: the necessity of the revenue for the support of the government, the impossibility of enforcement, and the inopportune time to burden the government with a drastic re- form. But the impossible was the only possible remedy. Under instructions from the Czar, all wine shops, beer saloons, and vodka shops were closed during the mobilization of the army. Instead of going off drunk, as they did during the war with Japan, the soldiers were sober, and they were moved with a rapidity that thwarted the plans of the enemy. While beer held sway in Great Britain, retarding the progress of its troops and delaying the juncture with the French army, to the loss of Belgium and the peril of France, prohibition sent the Russian army to the front with such despatch that Germany was forced to divide her forces between the East and the West, to the salvation of Paris and, it may be, of London. Then followed the Czar's ukase prohibiting the sale of vodka during the war. At almost the same time the Czar's veto was given to local authorities to prohibit the sale of beer and wine. This is done by petition of the people in a prescribed form, and secures the prohibition of the sale of beer, wine, and any form of intoxicating liquor in the district in question, within a maximum period of three months. There is no question of compensation, only the re- fund of a proportionate amount of the licence fee in RUSSIA'S TEMPERANCE EXPERIMENT 125 cases where the order of prohibition takes effect before the expiration of a retailer's licence. With surpassing unanimity the country districts, and even the cities, have availed themselves of this form of local option. Petrograd and Moscow were among the first cities to take advantage of entire prohibition. Thousands of communes banished all forms of drink, and great stretches of the country became absolute prohibition territory. Prohibition in Russia is not an autocratic decree, as some would have us believe, but a movement of the people as well. The appetite for drink gave place to a desire for sobriety; and, enacting the role of Oliver Twist, the Russian people petitioned their Czar for "more." They wanted perpetual prohibiton. The "Little Father" and his subjects were of the same mind, for he quickly responded with the famous telegram: "I had already decided to prohibit for ever in Rus- sia the government sale of vodka." XIV Teetotal Russia FROM John Foster Fraser's Russia of To-Day, I quote the following: Russia is never going to be drunken again. Alco- holic beverages have been prohibited, and the Russians are getting used to teetotal beverages. They are quite pleased with themselves. All stores where brandy, whisky, vodka, champagne, wine, beer, or liquors were sold have been locked and sealed by the authorities. The liberty-loving Briton, sitting in a restaurant and fancying something more potent than mineral water, casts his eyes upon the glass cases behind the counter where are marshalled rows of bottles of "the real stuff, " but locked up and forbidden. He revels in imagination of the time he will have when he returns to England. There is a good deal of cold weather in Russia, and there used to be much drunkenness. Before break- fast the Russian workman, feeling cold, would gulp down a bottle of fiery vodka which cheered him and then fuddled him. Indeed, all classes might be de- scribed as heavy drinkers. There was plenty of de- bauchery and sometimes there were horrible tragedies. 126 TEETOTAL RUSSIA 127 But generally the Russian in his cups was not aggressive. He was not quarrelsome. He did not want to fight everybody. His mood was rather to roll around and slobberingly kiss all whom he met though it might have been preferable if he had wanted to fight. Anyway, Nicholas II., an Imperial Lloyd George, but with the power to do what he wills, conscious that a vodka-soaked Russia was not the correct thing while the greatest war was being waged, said there was to be no more alcohol sold. And it was so. Dealers have been ruined. But Rus- sia is not a land in which to babble about compen- sation. The nation was declared, by Imperial rescript and by the order of the authorities, to be teetotal. Of course, there was a good deal of groaning amongst the 120,000,000 white Russians. For now, if any brandy or wine is needed for medical purposes it has to be bought at an apothecary's, but only on a magis- terial permit, and the magisterial permit is granted only on a medical certificate. A good many people, used all their life to a little liquor with their meals, became ill; but they recov- ered. Those with the hunger of drink upon them have taken to drinking methylated spirits and other things that are evil for the inside. Many have died from excess of methylated spirits. The majority of folk have to be content with drinking tea and the number of glasses of tea, deliciously refreshing, the Russian and his wife can consume puts into dimmest 128 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW shade the lady who "swelled wisibly " in Mr. Dickens's novel. For the rest the table beverage is kvass, which can be made out of soaked black bread, or white bread, or squeezed cranberries, or indeed anything and you can drink quantities of it and never get any forrader. A couple of centuries ago or more, Mr. Giles Fletcher, "a quaint author," wrote about "The Russe Common Wealth" "the poorer sort vse water and thinne drink called Quasse, which is nothing els but water turned out of his wittes with a little branne mashed with it." Russians never were alight-hearted and jolly people. When they drank alcohol they did it after the manner of all Northern nations, as a serious business. And drinking a lot of chorni kvass, the swillings of soaked black bread, is no doubt for their good. But it does not promote sparkling conversation. My purely per- sonal experience was that after several stout doses of kvass with my lunch and dinner I began to feel this was a sad world, and that I had better get myself to a monastery. But my depression somewhat evapor- ated when I abjured kvass, and went the racket on orangeade. Night life in the cafe's or public gardens used to be a thing of joy in Russia. With excellent restaurants and bands and wine there was sparkle about mid- night. But there is lowered gaiety not all due to the war when champagne has to be replaced by stuff which is like ginger-pop from which the cork escaped yesterday. ; Philaret. 128 RUSSIA THEN AND shade the lady who "swelled wisibly " \. novel. For,J.he rest,4&e table ^yer,ae -is k\ . _ Philaret (Theodore, Nikitich Romanov), Metro- can be made our of soa&ea DlacE Dreaa.or v. ' ' polite of Moscow. He exerted a great influence upon the domestic affairs of Russia during the ^ C $dri6 bushels per acre. This was a good year in Russia, and might be com- pared with the same year in the United States, when there were planted 49,601,000 acres, producing 15.2 bushels per acre, or a total of 753,000,000 bushels. These figures demonstrate that there are ample financial resources for the extension of Russia's agriculture, such as the opening up of new territory, the improving of live-stock, the planting of orchards, the developing of fertilizers, and all those things di- rectly incidental to a larger acreage and more scientific cultivation; but there are incidental tasks which will require large units of capital that cannot be taken directly from the agricultural community. The country has insufficient facilities for the economical transportation and storage of grain; and up to the present time the losses from this source have been on a tremendous scale. However, at the outbreak of the war the government had under way a construction 160 APPENDIX program for eighty-one elevators, of a capacity of 34,860,000 bushels; and an additional program of seventy-seven elevators, with a capacity of 37,650,000 bushels, has been agreed upon and authorized. But even as now planned, the elevator system is by no means adequate, and the whole system of grain han- dling and transportation will need radical reformation. Cotton, Fruits, and Meat Products Russia today is producing in Central Asia more than two thirds of the cotton required by Russian spindles. To grow her total requirement, and develop an export industry, necessitates the extension of the irrigated territory in Turkestan. The climate, soil, and water are there, and even the engineering has been done to a large extent, so that all that will be required to make Russia independent of foreign production will be capital for the extension of an existing and successful industry. Even when this is accomplished, the need for capital will be only in- creased, as Russia will occupy a geographically favour- able position for supplying the great cotton textile demands of Central Asia; and if sufficient cotton can be produced, there is no economic reason why her textile industry should not be correspondingly ex- tended. This reasoning applies also to the other textiles. Today large quantities of flax and wool are exported in the raw state. To convert the export of these raw materials into manufactured products will eventually call for large expenditures. APPENDIX 161 The Crimea, the Caucasus, and Turkestan are in every way adapted for the growing of all kinds of fruits, but the fruit industry cannot be extended and the products marketed without the establishment of refrigeration service, which is today practically non-existent in Russia. This would also apply to the dairy and poultry industries of Siberia. The raising of food animals is an important activity throughout the Empire; and Russia has more sheep and goats than the United States, nearly as many cattle, and about one fourth as many hogs. Recently much attention is being given to scientific breeding, and some progress has been made in feeding for food results, but there is no organization of the industry beyond the farms. Australia can put mutton on the market in Russia cheaper than the home-grown product can be obtained, because in Russia all animals are sent as live freight to the point of slaughter; the economies from centralized slaughtering plants and the handling of the dressed product under cold storage having not been yet introduced. Opportunities in Lumbering and Mining Russia is practically the only country in Europe having an excess of timber over and above its own requirements. While Sweden, Norway, and Austria- Hungary still have a surplus, of recent years it has become so small as to be almost negligible. Russia is the great timber reserve of Europe, and while in 1913 she exported timber to the amount of $84,000,000 she still has not begun to realize upon the possibilities 162 APPENDIX in her timber trade. The Englishman's definition to the effect that timber was "an excrescence growing upon the earth, chiefly useful for paying off the debts of one's ancestors," will be particularly applicable to the Russian forests. The demand for timber in Europe following the war must necessarily be greatly in excess of normal. It is stated that after the earth- quake in Messina, in 1913, Italy's timber import increased 22 per cent, over the average for the previous five years. If this is any indication, Russia will have a wonderful opportunity to realize the latent wealth of its forests. This will mean an enormous outlay of capital for the building of railroads, port facilities, steamships, sawmills, pulp mills, and all of those things incidental to the manufacture and transportation of timber products. Russia has already taken steps to attract foreign capital to the mining industry, by reforming its taxa- tion laws and granting more liberal concessions, and by facilitating, as well as granting government aid to, the importation of improved mining machinery. She will necessarily continue to stimulate in every way the production of gold and the other precious metals. Her known copper deposits make her practically independent of international production, and the best authorities agree that her mineral fields have not begun to be exploited. The Need for More Railways One of the chief essentials underlying the whole problem of economic progress and realization of na- APPENDIX 163 tional energy and labour is the expansion of the rail- way net of Russia. An adequate railway system is absolutely indispensable for bringing out the natural resources of any country, and the extension of the railway system of Russia cannot be economically accomplished without a full development of her metal- lurgic industries. Even before the war there was a growing feeling in Russia that her railway system was not commensurate to the economic needs of the country; and since that time this has become too self-evident to be questioned. The total railroad mileage in Russia is 47,000 miles. An idea of what this means, in the way of unserved territory, can be obtained by comparing it to the railway mileage of the United States, which country, while only one third as large, has 260,000 miles of road. This means that Russia, on the basis of square miles, has only 5 per cent., and on the basis of population, only 10 percent., of the railway mileage of the United States. This has been fully discussed, and its importance under- stood, in Russia ; and it seems to be considered as the initial problem to confront the country at the close of the war. The government commission has already examined and sanctioned the building of a total of 16,776 versts, at an estimated cost of 1,466,000,000 roubles, and at the beginning of the present year this program was further enlarged by the sanctioning of an additional 3000 versts, at a cost of 266,000,000 roubles. So the country is already officially pledged to the con- struction of about 20,000 versts, or 13,333 miles, while projects are under consideration for official action that 164 APPENDIX will bring this up to about 17,000 miles, at an esti- mated cost of over a billion dollars. It is the declared purpose of the government, pro- vided capital can be obtained from the international money markets, to enter upon a policy of construction that would produce approximately 5000 miles per year. It is highly improbable that any such exten- sive program can be carried out, with the result that only those projects presenting the most attractive opportunities to capital will be taken up. What this means to the steel industry in Russia is apparent when we consider that each mile of road requires approximately two hundred tons of metal. Further- more, the existing railroads, while well constructed, are designed to bear only a light unit of transportation. With long hauls and heavy traffic, Russia is being forced to the large unit of transportation adopted in this country, which will require re-laying the existing roads with heavier rails and the strengthening of all right-of-way structures. It will be prohibitively ex- pensive for Russia to import railway metal, owing to the high cost of transportation, therefore the pace of her railway development will be determined not only by the readiness with which capital is obtained, but by the extent and speed of the enlargement of the steel industry. The country is fairly well supplied with coal, and it has iron ore in very great abundance. At the present time the development of both coal and iron is by unrelated and comparatively small units; ade- quate and economical results will not be obtained until the whole industry is organized along comprehensive APPENDIX 165 lines and the raw materials linked together by special transportation facilities. The Steel and Coal Industries In addition to soft coal, which Russia is seeking to conserve for the steel industry, the largest anthracite deposits in Europe are located in European Russia. The production of anthracite has been comparatively small. During the year ending July, 1914, the output was only about five million tons, although there was a shortage of fuel at Moscow, but 650 miles distant. The production of these coal fields has been by one- shaft mines, by small companies. There is no resident mining population, the work being done almost entirely by farmers coming to the mines at the season of the year when they are not employed upon their farms. As a result the cost of producing anthracite is about twice what it is in this country. The government has recently adopted the policy of conserving soft coal for the steel industries, and to that end has made regu- lations requiring the use of anthracite for all industrial boilers and railroads, after a certain date. This will greatly stimulate the use of anthracite and necessitate the placing of the mining upon a more comprehensive and economical basis. The foregoing are simply isolated illustrations of the needs for capital in Russia. There are other impor- tant ones, such as hydro-electric development, muni- cipal and interurban transportation, harbour works, canals and ship-building, and possibly still more im- 166 APPENDIX portant is the additional general working capital necessary to finance the incidental commerce and trade that is a part of a great progressive movement. RUSSIA'S FINANCES AND COMMERCE The Guaranty Trust Company of New York has published a brochure with the above title and has given me consent to incorporate extracts from it in my book. Russia's financial, agricultural, and manufacturing conditions, as they loom up at this time, October, 1916, are very important and interesting. Following are the extracts. It is probable that Americans know less of Russia than they do of any other country with which they trade. We have learned little about her except through hostile powers whose advantage lay, for one reason or another, in dwelling on what was bad and in passing lightly over what was good in the Empire. Few of us have more than a vague realization of the great strides in industry and civic development made by the Russian people before the war. It is undoubtedly wise in estimating the future of Russia to use the past as a measuring stick, but in doing so it is well to bear in mind the probable effects of the present war. The volume of export business which has been developed from the United States to Russia during the APPENDIX 167 present war is arousing among our bankers and manufacturers a spirit of very thoughtful interest as to the advisability and possibility of establishing the foothold they have gained, so that they may con- tinue their connection after the restoration of peace. In spite of the Revolution and the Japanese War the gold reserve in the Treasury and the State Bank increased from approximately 1,100,000,000 roubles in January, 1904, to approximately 2,175,000,000 roubles on December 31, 1913. The following table shows theXamount of public Russian debt at the nominal value of the securities outstanding at the end of each year from 1903 to 1913: Roubles Roubles 1903 6,651,836,000 1909 9,054,619,000 1904 7,081,746,000 1910 9,030,206,000 1905 7,841,164,000 1911 8,957,875,000 1906 8,625,560,000 1912 8,858,054,000 1907 8,725,523,000 1913 8,824,523,000 1908 8,850,782,000 Thus, after 1909, each year showed some reduction in the net amount of the outstanding debt of the Empire. The following indicates the increase in receipts in ordinary state revenue in Russia: Roubles Roubles 1867 415,000,000 1912 3,105,917,000 1897 1,416,000,000 1913 3,417,000,000 1908 2,418,000,000 168 APPENDIX It is interesting to note that the first increase of one billion roubles after 1867 required thirty years, the second increase of one billion roubles between 1897 and 1908 required eleven years, while the third in- crease of one billion roubles between 1908 and 1913 required only five years. For the year 1913 there was a general surplus of 69,600,000 roubles of all receipts both ordi- nary and extraordinary over all expenditures in the budget. Deposits in Russian banks and state savings banks increased almost steadily from 2,500,000,000 roubles in 1904 to almost 6,000,000,000 roubles in In the same period the number of State Sav- ings Banks increased from 6417 to 8160, and the number of depositors increased from 4,854,000 to 8,597.000. Per capita state expense of Russia as compared with other important European powers in 1903 and 1913 is indicated in the following tables: 1903 1913 Germany 58.9 67.3 France 36.0 52.6 Austria-Hungary 27.7 42.1 Great Britain and Ireland 35.1 40.0 Italy 21.1 28.1 Russia 15-2 19-5 Per capita size of state debt of Russia as compared with other important European powers in 1903 and 1913 was as follows: APPENDIX 169 1903 1913 Prance 291 308 Great Britain and Ireland 145 179 Italy 143 150 Germany 116 142 Austria-Hungary "5 132 Russia 48 52 The increase in her national debt should encourage the development of her vast but hitherto almost untouched natural resources, so that that debt may be promptly and easily paid. The tremendous effort being put forth to manu- facture munitions and supplies for her armies should mean the establishment of a domestic manufacturing organization incomparably superior to any that existed before the war. The decrease in state revenue due to the abolition of the vodka traffic has been accompanied by an unparalleled increase in savings bank deposits and efficiency of labour. The withdrawal of the Teutonic organization that, before the war, practically conducted the industry and finance of Russia at first almost paralysed the operation of the Empire, but taught the people the folly of depending in peace too much on citizens of a foreign country which might become at any time an enemy power. Railway, Postal and Telegraph Service, etc. The amount of freight carried by the railways of Russia increased from 164,484,000,000 Ibs. in 1904 to i 7 o APPENDIX 255,168,000,000 Ibs. in 1912; during the same period the freight receipts increased from 457,000,000 roubles to 736,000,000 roubles. The number of passengers transported on Russian railways increased from 107,500,000 in 1904 to 192,- 600,000 in 1912, and the cash receipts from passengers increased during the same period from 117,100,000 roubles to 193,000,000 roubles. The revenue from state railways increased from 567,937,000 roubles in 1909 to 813,604,000 roubles in In 1914 there were in course of construction 1907^ miles of state railways at a cost of 427,61 1,505 roubles. In addition to the state railways, the total length of joint-stock and private railways authorized for construction in 1913 and 1914 was 8218 miles at a cost of 977,394,062 roubles. It is true that the financing of many of these joint- stock and private railway companies has never been completed owing to the war and other causes, but the figures indicate the activity in railway construction which existed before the outbreak of hostilities. The share of the state in the profits of certain pri- vately owned railway companies increased from 1,720,000 roubles in 1909 to 26,584,000 roubles in The income from postal revenue increased from 58,- 176,000 roubles in 1909 to 79,065,000 roubles in 1913. The income from telegraph and telephone revenue increased from 29,613,000 roubles in 1909 to 40,733,- ooo roubles in 1913. APPENDIX 171 Agricultural Products A comparative table of the production of f our cereals in the United States and Russia in the year 1913 follows: Russia United States Bushels Bushels Wheat 955,98o,ooo 763,380,000 Oats 1,222,875,000 1,121,768,000 Barley 562,800,000 178,189,000 Rye '. 999,5 14,285 41,381,000 The harvest of potatoes in Russia for 1913 was 78,246,000,000 Ibs. (1,304,100,000 bushels). The output of sugar from the beet root in Russia in 1913-14 was 3>3 2 5,595>47 2 Ibs. (1,662,797 tons). The output of tobacco in Russia in 1913 was 248,472 pounds. The output of cotton in Russia in 1913 and 1914 was 1,025,640 bales. Attitude of the Russian Government towards the Development \of Education and Industry as Evidenced by Appropriations 1903 ion Increase Per Cent, of ROUBLES ROUBLES ROUBLES Increase Government Railroads 416,300,000 591,700,000 175,400,000 42 Department of Trade Industry 40,200,000 60,900,000 20,700,000 51 Department of Transportation, exclusive of Government Rail- roads 32,900,000 52,800,000 19,900,000 61 Department of Posts and Tele- graphs 39,100,000 80,000,000 40,900,000 105 Department of National Edu- cation 39,400,000 142,900,000 103,500,000 263 Department of Agricultu.e 31,500,000 135,600.000 104,100,000 330 i 7 2 APPENDIX From the New York Evening Sun, January 19, 1917. COUNT ILYA TOLSTOY TELLS THE STORY OF THE GREEN LITTLE STICK PLANT- ING THE WORD THAT WILL PUT OUT THE FIRE UNCHRIS- TIAN TO KILL Count Ilya Tolstoy, who resembles his father in his stature, blue eyes, nose, and beard, and is in the United States to expound the ideas of the great Russian novelist, says that the answer his father would give for the solution of the burning problems that vex the world today is in a word of four letters. The failure to comprehend this word is responsible for the form patriotism takes and the European war. It is a word carved on a green little stick, which is said to be buried in the Yasnaya Polyana, and about which the Count talked in an interview today. Count Tolstoy, moved by this word and a growing understanding of America, spoke out in a way that was unusual for a European on American soil for the first time. That very popular question, "What do you think of New York? " was not put to the Count in that form. His comment in answer to another question as to the similarity between America and Russia was gentle and sympathetic. "America," he said, "is young, as young as Russia and equally unsophisticated. Your people are very impressionable, readily moved. It is in marked con- Copyright Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. Miss Florence Fair Giving her Aid to Make the Russian Bazaar a Success. APPENDIX 173 trast with the terrible moral decline of old Europe in all domains of spiritual endeavour, art, music, litera- ture, which was so prophetic of the present war. In many ways I feel that Russia and America are very close. " A RUSSIAN FAIRY STORY Count Tolstoy has written a fairy story about the green little stick, a story which his father heard, one which concerns the woods where his father is buried. The story is all about the one all-important word love. "My story has no setting in time or space," said the Count today. "It was long ago when mills were on the spot and men dug ore from the depths of the earth. Ages passed. The soil became black, mixed with slag. Two boys roamed through the woods tell- ing each other stories. They were talking of love, how all men will some day become brothers. Niko- lenka wrote a word on a green little stick, and said that before men could become brothers this word must be known. That was ages ago, when the stick was buried, and the boy said that whoever found the stick would make all men happy. "After the passage of time peasants came to the slope and dug a three-yard grave at the summit and the next day when a multitude of people gathered, they lowered the corpse of a gray, robust, old man. Behind the slope a hare builds his lair. "Then night comes. The whole western horizon is purple-red with fire. The sky is bathed in blood. 174 APPENDIX War! Shadows of the oaks lie upon the snow when a ghost rises from the grave. In his hands he holds a little green stick. The ghost roams through houses, humble huts and hamlets, speaking the word to every- body and everybody understands. But the West still burns: is still aflame. The ghost hurries his steps to the westward. Confused and disconcerted people rush by. He wanted to tell them the word, but his feeble voice was drowned by the roar of thunder in the fumes of smoke. After gazing long on the furnace the ghost wended his way back to the slope of the seven oaks. And the fire will be extinguished because the green little stick is there. "I cannot express in any other way the message of my father to humanity. The ideas of Christ that were understood as my father understood them are eternal ideas. They are not ideas that change with time, so I cannot speak about what should be a message to the people with reference particularly to America. In such an effort I should be obliged to restrict my ideas. That is why I do not speak about peace between nations and the politics of nations because the idea of Christ is wider. His teaching was not peace simply. His teaching was love. All political questions are changed by time and space and Christian ideas as my father understood them are eternal and they do not change with time. So I would say to Americans or any other people, the only way to understand my father's ideas is to rise to the height of a moral understanding of life in the terms of eternal truth, which were given as a guidance for all. APPENDIX 175 KROPOTKIN GRIEVES HIM "I must say that I have been astonished by Prince Kropotkin, who has been many times quoted as say- ing that a defensive war is justifiable. I am very much astonished. He was very close to the ideas of my father, and I am sure my father would not approve any war because his views on war were the result of his understanding of the gospel, of the idea of love and non-resistance. "After The Hague Conference he said that it had become evident that so long as there existed govern- ments with troops the abolition of wars and of arma- ments would be impossible. These words sound as though they were very close to all Europe, which now seems to wish the abolition of militarism. " I am here to speak now at a time when the ideas of Christ have been forgotten. I find it my duty to remember these ideas and the teachings of my father, which were the ideas of Christ. "It is too deep a question to consider now whether the men in the war are in their hearts growing toward or further away from Christianity. But broadly speak- ing, one can only exclaim that men cannot be Christians who are engaged in killing others. How can one hold that men who are engaged in killing are Christians when Christianity itself is the principle of love. The only way to be a Christian would be to refuse to fight. As war is evil I do not believe the war can lead to any good, and I do not look forward to reforms as a result of the war. " i 7 6 APPENDIX Count Tolstoy's first lecture is scheduled for to night at Carnegie Hall. "I am not unaware," he said, "that there is a very great spiritual movement in America, because I know my father had many friends here, and he received many, many letters showing that there are many people here who hold the same views on religion as he held." He referred to the fact that his father was always more interested in America than in Europe, and to his own eagerness to understand America better by com- ing into close contact with the people in the workshops and conditions under which they labour. Postscript 177 Postscript JUST at the closing of the printers' work on this, book cablegrams from Petrograd came to us day and night with the startling revelation of a great revolution overtaking the Russian Govern- ment under the inspiration of a people believing that their day of redemption from a monarchial government has come. Upheld as they were by the Duma, Czar Nicholas peacefully surrendered his crown and decamped. . Never in the world's history has there been so great a triumph of democracy over aristocracy, of republicanism over a Kingdom with so little sacrifice of human life. The Czar's quick, peaceful abdication of his throne, his unavoidably by hereditament, is evi- dence of a head and heart inherited from his father, Alexander the Third. It is well known that the revolt was the resultant of the conviction that the Czar had purposed a separate treaty of peace with Germany. 179 i8o RUSSIA THEN AND NOW Russia's emancipation from the dreadful scourge of intoxicants had changed their vodka-soaked, rum-dumb subjects to sober, clear-thinking, patri- otic reformers, the force of whose nationalistic power, wrought through the Duma, has freed Russia from what tlireatened to be a surrender to Germany. The following letter from my esteemed friend, Mr. Wharton Barker of Philadelphia, throws light upon the situation up to its date, March 21, 1917, and I am indeed pleased to have it in the conclu- sion of my story as it relates to Russia of today. LETTER FROM WHARTON BARKER March 21, 1917. MY DEAR MR. FRANCIS B. REEVES: Because you ask me to make a statement for publi- cation in your book upon Russia about to issue, of my views of the cause and consequence of the revolution in that country, I do so. For forty-two years I have known Russia and Russians in a way open only to a very few Americans; in a way not open to Europeans at all. Because of German influences on the Emperor Alexander II. Russia was silent and inactive while Prussia fought and despoiled Denmark, Austria and France. Bismarck made Russians believe that an Imperial Germany must be to stop British aggressions & E 8 b b o > o rrn ! E J g "9 X POSTSCRIPT 181 upon Russia, and so came the Triple Alliance of Ger- many, Russia and Austria immediately after the crea- tion of the German Empire. German influence made Russia accept defeat at the Berlin conference after the war with Turkey and so the Treaty of San Stef ano was cast aside and almost all that Russia had fought for was denied her. It was German influence that forced Count Witte to negotiate the famous German-Russian Commercial Treaty that reduced Russian manufac- turers to almost ruin and that brought no relief to the Russian farmers. It was German threats that held in Russia armies that should have been sent to Asia to fight the Japanese and made the Czar Nicholas II. accept at the Portsmouth peace conference a peace of humiliation. It is not necessary to speak of more sinister German work, in international politics. The Russian Emperors, The Russian bureaucrats, more properly called German-Russian bureaucrats, have dominated for centuries the Russian government and policies, not only without, but also within, the Empire. The Army and the Navy have too often been used to further plans of the German intriguers who came to Russia with the German Princesses who became Em- presses of Russia. All of these intriguers had to be given places of power and wealth and of course high standing at the Russian Imperial Court. So long as British statesmen, bankers and merchants were blind to the aggressions that they thought Russia made upon British rights, they did not see that when the Emperor Nicholas I., prior to the Crimean war, pro- posed the division of Turkey between Russia, France, 182 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW Great Britain and Italy, that he saw the German menace and sought to secure permanent peace from his proposal. When Edward VII. came to the throne of England he concluded not to be only a figurehead and, appreciating the German purpose to destroy the British Empire, he sought and succeeded in establish- ing the Entente between Great Britain, France and Russia and so came the alliance. When Germany failed because of the resistance of Belgium to overrun France before Russia could mobilize, Germans knew that defeat in the war was inevitable unless Russia was taken out of the alliance they fought. For more than a year the German entourage of the Emperor Nicholas II. has been hard at work to accomplish this end. Russians who believe that this German influ- ence must be cast out have fought this Court intrigue until the climax was reached when they demanded the abdication of the Czar Nicholas II. and of other Romanoffs who were heirs to the throne, and the es- tablishment in Russia of rule by the Duma, the crea- tion of a democratic republic, with religious and civil liberty secured. The whole Russian people knew that this internal condition could not be unless Germany and her allies were conquered and Prussian militarism destroyed and so they have pledged themselves to Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium and Servia that they will con- tinue the war with a vigour so sustained that victory for the allies will be sure. The democrats of Great Britain, France and their allies know that victory for them in the great war is POSTSCRIPT 183 sure because democrats are now and will continue to be in control of the government of Russia. I believe this statement will answer your purpose. Yours very truly, WHARTON BARKER. EVOLUTIONARY REVOLUTION A good thing about the Russian revolution is that it is not revolutionary. No reports come of confiscations or chateau burn- ings. The gutters of Petrograd are free of blood. There is no guillotine. The czarina, under suspicion as another Marie Antoinette, lives safely within her palace. Life and property are secure. The army is urged to greater loyalty to national self-defence. The Russian people have rid themselves of the rule of an essentially alien autocracy. They have scat- tered the archives of the secret police. They have made a beginning toward eliminating internal race hatreds, and Russian, Pole, Finn, and Jew are to have equal rights. But so far no further. The change is great, but Russia is not to be made over at once ac- cording to the principles of social revolutionists. A republic Russia may have, but a republic that the extreme Socialist fumes at as of the bourgeoisie. There are political democracy and liberalism, but not yet communism. The less the haste of Russia the greater is likely to be her speed. If a Jacobin party shall arise and over- throw the Girondins of the Duma, it is almost certain a counter-revolution will occur, even as it occurred in 184 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW France. Liberty is beautiful, but to man order is the primal necessity. In the hard task of choosing be- tween liberty and order the human animal selects order as of the greater value. The old conditions in Russia will never come back, but if there is to be a steady pressing forward toward the realization of the dream of social justice it is to be by recognizing the expediency of conservatism rather than by emphasiz- ing radicalism. Man is many things, but never wholly consistent or rational, and the Russian shares the defect of the species. The way to attain 100 per cent, justice is to get 50 per cent., and then 60 per cent., and so on with gains whose slowness maddens the logical. In America, where many victims of Russian auto- cracy have found refuge, a disposition exists to mis- read what has occurred and thus to lay the foundations for disillusionment. Liberalism won in Russia be- cause it slowed up enough to get in step with the ideals of an army whose officers are of the classes and whose rank and file is largely composed of ignorant and superstitious peasants. The Russian intellectuals, having exploited theory, will do well if they play in practical affairs the rdle of opportunism. The evolu- tionary revolution of Russia is brilliantly successful, but its prospects will darken if its leaders accept the advice plentifully given to them by American friends. Realism is the keynote of Russian literature, and realism should be the central thought of Russian politics. The New York Globe. POSTSCRIPT 185 FOUR GOOD DEEDS OF THE CZAR No event of the war has pleased us more than the news that Mr. Nicholas Romanov had retired to private life. We trust that he will be able to spend the rest of his life in peace and quietude, for as an individual he does not deserve the enmity which progressive Russians have felt toward him as a czar. Few czars have been better; most of them have been much worse. It is impossible to say in how far he has been personally responsible for the good and evil of his reign, but there are at least four acts that are ascribed to him for which Russia owes him a great debt of gratitude. The first was the calling of The Hague Conference. This did not accomplish what he hoped for : the reduc- tion of armaments, the elimination of the brutalities of war, and the maintenance of world peace, but it was a great step forward in the promotion of international- ism and the idea of it is now dominant in all plans for future peace. The second was when he called the representatives of the people to assemble in a Duma. It may be said that this was forced upon him by a threat of revolution but, nevertheless, it was against the advice of the con- servative court party that he made this concession to popular demand. The first Duma was a chaotic and incompetent body, but from it has grown the present level-headed and efficient parliament. Thirdly, on the outbreak of the war he exercised his autocratic power and banished vodka from Russia. This meant, as his financial advisers pointed out, a 186 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW loss of nearly half a billion dollars just when money was most needed. But it was a wise act, for it saved the country much more than the cost of the liquor and made the people prosperous in spite of the war. That the revolution was effected with so little rioting was due to the elimination of alcohol. Finally he deserves credit for the last act of his reign his resignation. When he was met at the ancient free city of Pskov by the representatives of the Duma with an edict of abdication ready for him to sign, General Ivanov advised him to refuse, saying: " There is only one thing to be done. Open the Dvina gate and let the Germans clean out the canaille of the Duma. " But the Czar said: " No, I will never betray my country to maintain my throne." Not so did Louis XVI. and Louis XVIII. and Francis Joseph and many and other sovereign act in similar situations. Against the long list of crimes which are charged against czardom these four beneficent acts at least are to be credited to Nicholas II. The Independent. 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