Show ROVING PEASANTS N DEMAND DEMANDING LAND a Arm Arn Army Y of o f Idle Men Whom Czar 5 Has Cause to 1 a a Fear I.- I. t.- t. t-f t y 4 CONDITION MOST PITIABLE e 1 P fI AR in III London Landon Times Describes Jc t CIr Clams of or 1111 Whit J Menace u c t- t 1 Ji Pence of of la s t i t tO tl 29 9 Further 29 g lt t uon r or on t I enact enact- Tau grul greul i Ih u L is j b being I I JUU In 1 is hi thrown n by Dr DI Macken- Macken I 1 i lp e In ht tho to Times where I h ho I discusses the tho ce I i 01 t the lic peasant He lie Is now non living In the open air all with a a. L company which Is one contingent contingent con con- of oC a vast host of oC of oC trekking trekking trek trek- king agriculturalists He Ile Is 13 with a band who left lert their homes months ago according lo to the annual custom lo to sock soak works olI on then the crops In other parts pans of fir th th- empire The They arc ago now returning All II told he says they Iho are nearly twice as numerous and they mn may prove IK as Influential as all the Hie workmen In Inthe Inthe the towns of oC whom so much 1 Is heard and th the return of oC this army of or laborers laborers labor labor- ers CIS from Crom their In all quarters f rs of oC the th gin may 1111 have ha results not less CHR important than those that have havo already followed the repatriation of the j of soldiers soldier from Crom the l Par Far ar I East ast Th The lot of or those e wanderers says Nays I Dr Wallace I Is miserable enough God Gull GodI I knows Most Jost of or them therm arc im- from Little Russia and the tho steppe provinces Some I or of them travel tra as IUS far as 1000 I Thc They are nrc absent from Crom their villages from Cram two to sl six sit months and antI th their lr Ir avI average average av av- av- av wige v ge is ill 18 rubles of or which they I lave f f a i n minimum outlay of oC 21 1 rubles for passport and foo food coil 1 en on route ionic This I haves 17 li rubles which makes cs an nn average avert aver er age te wage of or ti ii kopecks or t J cen cents ts a tl tIny day Some tra travel el by train In I fourth class o or on o-n the slowest st Vora boats bouts purl pert of or the lh way but s sT T u on oil foo foot They spend lI ih night I vh r thy y happen t lo be bo wh when n darkness f hit fall ill They suffer able bIt privations from flom hunS hunS' hunger r sold heat boat rand and sickness and finally If Ir I the lw he sur survine ur- ur vine th they tl destination with all their strength spent l before thc they have begun work Iund I IN Their Ivo us land the those these t peasants cr cry Nor do th they y dream of or at- at t. t Ing 1111 any of the tho present landowners rs whom they ma may dispossess At the bottom bottom bot bot- tom of or their hearts is the ineradicable It conviction that n a man mun who works on the land has n a natural right to it Il it which If It put In the tho balance a against t t all the positive laws haws of property make ri th them m kick the tho beam We c are aro the tho Lords Lord lh they y say and the land Is ours ourn Yes tt they ey still believe in the Lord Lod and antI before they thy lie Ill down on empty stomachs stomachs achs BehM on the steppe the they themselves them- them selves gel by lh tin the sign of or the iho cross to the Divine DI care They believe c. too In lh th the nl Blessed Virgin and antI iho tho saints and anti in and heaven avon von and hell 1 This Is steppe over which they wander loses Itself inthe in m the th dim horizon where the earth and nn sky mingle Ie and are ure lost and there Is a mystical rn background encompassing th these se wanderers wanderers' Yves lives In the midst of or which arc are superstitions portents and antI signs Jn n tho the Rossi to revolution what is those these role roC It was w-ns discovered tI to me b by a man who had been t the he companion companion com corn panion of my for tyro tv daj days s. s lie Io forced d his company upon oie we for while I was waN driving across A the iho country he hl sprang upon m mo me from Crom behind bo- bo hind hindI a I 1 tree rt and mode mulo the demand which almost t with Im I hud long lone t to lands hear hoar hand up Even Rv n If It I F had hatI s a n revolver I should not nol have vc fired l for Cor I could have havo blown the wretch out of existence with a pun puff of oC smoke from Crom my cigarette I J have seen pitiable specimens of humanity in In my day dy but hut none ever over stirred lit my compassion com com- compassion pa passion t-o t profoundly ly n as this man nai I cheerfully cheerfull gave him tho few rubles ruble 1 I had II and sonic bonic of or my cigarettes As 8 lit III smoked he told me Iris j history I l Tor or n a political offence he ho hail had been pr provided provided pro pro- vided try an administrative order with wh what r the peasants ants appropriately call a passport t r-t which forces Corces him to hea b bo he boa a perpetual wanderer on the f face c of r the earth or such Huch part of It as Uti Is under the thc dominion of the czar reporting himself at specified pollee stations as us ashe ushe he goes Ioe along nIong and forbids rill nil the czar czars s N subjects to give him shelter for more than one ono nl night hL It is the tho curse of Cain and certainly this mans man's punIshment punIshment punishment pun pun- rs greater than ho hr can cun bear benr although h his sin was wag not murder but merely complicity 11 In lu printing some II- II legal lit literature rl which the government Great numbers o o oo these wandering I peasants are sometimes to in he be found Count nuu mussed massed EtI to- to together On 2 May y 9 for example ex cx- x- x ample o of them gathered at It the St St. Nicholas fair In and where there are arc mh missionaries wolves Ill lu are e also nho found tI These hes peasants ur are arc being made r propagandists of or the faith u Uy ly the end of Oc- Oc OcI I tuber r will hae returned tin they tilt hu e to their dilates 14 wll with vi IIi h literature in t their wul- wul I lei Il in th l memories nortes and bitterness bit bit- in their hearts a at firebrand t r i r man |