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Show I WIN OR' I MEANS I I NEW RAY; I RUSSIA f II Fall of Warsaw Marked f B Beginning of Unshackling of v Oppressed People, Says B Petrograd Writer One of f 1 BA B First Reforms Is the General ft lj Disappearance of the Cruel f and Hated Secret Police B War Is bringing freedom to Russia. B In whatever way the final outcome B may go it will mean that the B shackles will forever be broken B that so long have bound the peas- B antry and have held in oppression B especially the Russian Jews. B That great all-seeing eye of the B (Russian secret police that with one B blink has sent into the mines of Si- B berla hundreds of innocent men and B "wonion has been temporarily blind- B fcd' by the war, and there is evidence B"' that it should forever be closed. B Nothing can be more dreadful to B the innocent or guilty, the rich or B the poor than that dreadful all-see- B Ing eye. B In many ways it ha3 wrought B more damage to the people of Rus- B Bia than even the French revolution m when all that was necessary to send B an innocent ,man or woman to the B guillotine was to but suspect him or B her of having at a distant time fa- B Tored royalty or to have at ono time B been the favorite of one of the no- B "With the secret police of Russia it M lias been but necessary to suspect B anyone of treason against the gov- B eminent to send him orher to per- B petual banishment in the cold, cruel B Siberian region, there to meet his or m her death by exposure or from bru- B tal treatment of the guards. B Every whore in Russia there was B ever that all-seeing eye of the secret H police. Thcro were eavesdroppers B everywhere. One was not safe B from being overheard even in his B own home. Nono knew who were B and who were not in the employ of B the government secret service. B The garrulous butcher or the gro- B cer might be a government spy. The B. doctor might reveal his secret to the B government and cause the arrest of BT his patients. ; SPIES WEBE m everywhere. B, No one was safe in talking to his B neighbor for the latter might be a B epy or a friend of one of the secret B police. A man might discuss with' B bis wife at the supper table his B opinion of the government and the B next day the two might be under ar- B rest and in a week be with the hun- 1 dreds of men and women being tak- B en to the perpetual banishment of B Siberia. B Students in the halls of liberal B education always were suspected B and often made the victims. Eduea- B tion brings upon Itself the power of B clear thinking and clear thinking B; often finds fault with government B and with pblitical system. So even B among the students the secret po- H lice mingled. Their presence never B: was known. B A student might be arrested and B sent on his way to Siberia and vet M the identity of the informer never B revealed. The most popular man in H college might be the very informer. B and yet none would know it. B' 4vThIs system of espionage had just H the opposite effect. Freedom of m thought is prized just as highly in K Russia as in any other country of m the world. Students held secret B meetings to plan reprisal on the m government. The meetings were held m at the dead of night with each fcar- H ing that banishment would be the B result of his connivance. M Although every precaution was H taken none was assured that his m m neighbor to the right or left, tho m man who talked most bitter against H the government and urged the most Bl extreme anarchy, or tho nun who sat silent and nodded approval, was not a government spy, a part of that great secret service the greatest $ and yet the most damaging in all the A world. But now this system of espionage A has passed. Russia is too busy de- w fending herself with her entire male strength to devoto time to the con- fl sideration of possible internal dis- Hn turbance. The majority of her A thousands of secret service men tire shouldering rifles at the front BRINGS INTERNAL M PEACE. g "War has brought internal peace to the, nation. It has liberated her citi- M zens from restraint of speech. It will mean In the future a freedom in W the teaching of the arts and sciences, j education having been practically -aSS'li-f '" ', -78 " RUSSIAN fl' Vl,f , (ft&ff4 ;v'-'!"c. ':. v ' 'f?;'f-'::; -r-. ': ; "-'' 'iT'feS- ' v:- '-' -zzSSr' gpand duke micholas ' A : .; - - V-- '! ,.' ': -.' ?&' . '. vlj Aet r v ...yrv;..!y' ,.... & ' ;. 4tf&MK&r4&:V W 7,i 3APPACK? ON THE PUSSIAN PPONTIEP F jft SJBHHtete, , 'WS MBBSmA t placed under a ban for fear it might cause a general uprising of the people, peo-ple, The majority of Russians are untutored un-tutored and it seems ttio government desires to keep them in that state, A man possessed of knowledge hates nothing more than oppression, and his fiery words may incite a whole army to rloL- Ignorant people are motje tractable." They never have gated from the divine heights that stretched out to their gaze a new vale in which equality and liberty, two of the three great -principles of the French revolution, were displayed. display-ed. They accepted the rigors of the government's dictates, without dissent dis-sent without ever stopping to reason rea-son why. They lived and died In the ignorance the government imposed. im-posed. But with the fall of Warsaw there came tho dawn of a now day for Russian subjects. Under encouragement encourage-ment of the German invaderB the peasants returned to the farms they had loft to seek protection from what they believed would be tho terrible ter-rible reprisals of tho oncoming foes. Poland is back at work, just as peacefully and naturally as if there . had been no war. Tho Germans have injected some of their "kultur" among tho people peo-ple of Poland and wherever they have gained 'Russian territory they have impressed the natives with the thought that Germany does not intend to take their land or drive off their sheep. They have found the German soldiers as a rule kind and considerate. Their fears have vanished van-ished and today they are back as peacefully "at work as if their soil was not trod by the foot of an alien , foe. BETUBX OP REFUGEES. . All day long may be seen the carts 'of the returning refugees. There are miles of them on tho wide highways. The whole country side for 40, miles west of Warsaw and 100 mllcs'to the east is streaming with them. If their homes used to be around Low-wicz Low-wicz or Bolimw they come from tho northeast and if they lived out on tho great plain to the east and southeast south-east then they make tho start homeward home-ward from the Praga side of the Vistula. Vis-tula. From Lowicz to Brcst-Litovsk there is not a main road that is not crowded with men returning to their farmB. When darkness begins to fall they draw their wagons off the road and the women who arc stiff with cold and weariness swing themselves them-selves down from the mountains of household goods on which they have been riding all day and the men who havo, been driving since ;dawn go methodically about unhitching their tired beasts. If there is any water to be had the women have their' fires ablaze, the water heated and do their washing wash-ing on the roadside. Most of thorn are barefdot, but that is from custom rather than from deprivation. The women wear a sort of a turban. They display quiet fortitude and what may .have been said of their suffering does not come from their lips when one addresses them. That the quiet, uncomplaining attitude at-titude of these peasant refugees is not merely the result of stolidity, is proved by their tenderness toward one another. They do not run with cries and groans to help one another. anoth-er. They just give. It is not true that they are patient solely because they are Incailablo of realizing how badly off they are. They do realize it. but they do not waste time on the thought. They drag out tho cart, load the bedding and the provisions and tho babies on to it, hitch up . the team and push on toward home. It they find homo standing they, in their own words, give thanks to the good God. If it lies level with tho ground they begin sorting the bricks. HOME 31EASS 3I0BE. Often on the homeward Wav night overtakes than whllo they still aro far from any village. . Then th'cy; ' .: ..-afc,-5'-. ' V . j? 5Sr si&S '3&- sc?45&k$xM L -HITOPBIBBB2rtBi3s55 f f RUSSIAN APTJLLEpv IM -r-. I "l 5 P make the cheerful bivouac and snuggle snug-gle close to their fires to await the coming of tho dawn. Sometimes they do not surrendpr to the darkness but push ahead. They go through rain, they pass dreadful nights with their children crying, their horses half dead and their food supply almost exhausted. Yet when they finally reach their farms and find tlieJr homes. still standing, their barns unburned and their haystacks untouched their joy knows no bounds. They thank the Germans, they utter prayers of praise for them for having left what little they had remain unharmed. They start their farming anew and even- with shot and shell shrieking about them in tho numerous engagements en-gagements they continue their plowing plow-ing confident that the new dawn has seen Its way in Russia. Thus hayo things changed in the Empire of the Czars. Even the Jews have won their share of liberty and no are allowed to hold land and to SfnrlMC ucatil institutions. Before they had been closed off from the heights of knowldcge. The government gov-ernment had considered it dangerous danger-ous for them to have learningfor learning in those days meant an- wgs who with the dawn of enlight-?rcat enlight-?rcat thing that all education leads ir POlitlcu,ly andrSg! . So any way the war may find Hi yunifS?,a'v111 havc Pfl'"d ?ntl nr Vii0 ormans win tho peasants peas-ants of Poland and Russia win reeling the crowning j"y of havin more freedom than jthoy or their .inB cestors ever felt before hfiJ ,7 tho attitude of German it seems ?i acquire Russian or roilili toiS; ot-to deprive the conquoSdWhSf rlbhls to pursue apeacefui' living, 1 : It seems the Germans and Aus- ; ! trlans have brought some of their I "kultur" into Russia and it may be useful to that nation and its people fj t inthe future. g They have introduced among this g stolid raco some of their own joys f F? and pleasures. They have taught the TM Russian peasants that there is some- A ft thing more in life than working all W. ? day and sleeping all night. They Jj iJavc taught tho childron many 1 things. Th,ey have introduced scicn- U tific knowledge that will bo of great Ifc help to tho people. They havc taught 1, a them useful things bow to make ft & toys, how to do a. hundred and one I; $ things that never had been known to - thorn before. $ So the great dawn has come to ills Russia and with it has forever ran- lljffl ished the secrot police and tho spy MM system-banished by tho great dawn ' YK2 of,. freedom that the invaders have w g carried' into Russia. I y p. |
