Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 187, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1913 — MONKS WANT PUNTS [ARTICLE]

MONKS WANT PUNTS

Clerics Tto on Big Strike to Get Trousers. Economies of Head of Russian Monastery Provoke General Rebellion—--Fixed Ideas” of Head of Institution Starts Trouble. London. —A St Petersburg dispatch says that the monks of St Michael, near Maikop, in the Caucasus, are out on a strike and demand more food, more leisure and a supply of trousers. They are determined to enforce their rights, and as long as justice is denied them services will not be held at the monastery. The bells are silent and the cloisters dark and forsaken. The trouble has arisen owing to the possession of “fixed ideas” by Father Ambrosio, who is the head of the monastery. His ideas do not stop at the ordinary fulfilment of the monks’ obligations to be devout, chaste and temperate. ; V, * ..... _ He has the Impression that devotions are the best substitute for daily bread, and so the worthy father lengthened prayers and shortened rations. In the intervals between the devotions and the ever-decreasing meals the monks are called, upon to perform hard work in the fields. This is found very trying, because the Russian monastery dweller generally possesses a human leaning toward an abundance of food and drink and extended leisure In which to play cards. Given these, he occasionally contrives to find a little time for the devotions that make him a complete monk. But a denial even worse than those already described was inflicted upon the long-sufTering monk of St. Michael. The supreme shock came when Father Ambrosio refused to supply trousers to the dwellers within the convent walls. The ecclesiastical dictator ruled that those articles of apparel were a luxury. The latest cur-

tailment caused much discomfort, and x in cold weather the parades were the source of considerable unpleasantness. The sans culotte regime was endured for a month or so, but a particularly cold day arrived and the strike was resorted to. While working in Undignified garb In the field the brethren of St. Michael’B “downed their tools." The maneuver was skillfully planned, for just at that time a large number of pilgrims had come to the district and monastic services in the chapel of St. Michael’s convent were greatly in demand. The strike was complete and was keenly felt by those at whom it was aimed. The monastery authorities, who, it is said, believe in frugality and economy, are still holding out in the matter of trousers. As for the monks, they get plenty of food from their sorrowing friends and are going about arousing indignation, sympathy and interest at the protest meetings which they address. ' V