Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1891 — RUSSIA’S AWFUL FAMINE. [ARTICLE]

RUSSIA’S AWFUL FAMINE.

The Stricken District Half as Large as United States. And Hu Four Million Inhabitant*—Fes pie Starving by the s Hundred*. It may be truthfully Said that tha news which comes from the famine stricken districts’ of Russia docs not in the degree de. tract from the horrors of the condition that now confronts thousands upon thousands of the Czar's subjects. What the outcome of the sal state of affairs will be no one can predict, and it will be a bold statistician who attempts to estimate the number of deaths that will resniufronu starvation and cold during the coming winter. The area affected by the famine composes a section of the empire equaling in size nearly half the area of the United. States, and a very low estimate places the population of this part of the country at four million souls. The government provided for the distribution of large quant ties of seed grain in the distressed provinces, but the distribution of tills grain has been greatly delayed through various circumstances, not the least of which is the extreme difficulty of transporting anything, particularly at this season of the year, to somo of the more distant provinces In many districts no winter sowing whatever has been done, and consequently the inhabitants have nothing to look forward to, even if they should be so fortunate asTo manage to sustain life during the winter. The only hope that they will be able to exist, through the coming winter lies in the fact that the government is taking the most energetic measures to help the sufferers, and it is believed that -under the direction of the new central famine committee, of which the“Czarwicb is president, the methods of relief will be more systematic and effectual. In some provinces the, grain given by the government lias reached its- destination, batilt has been so long delaved en. route that its arrival was too late to benefit many of those for whom it was intended. Enfcoblcj by their long abstinence from nourishing Lrod hundreds of people could not stand the cold which, at this season of the year, is very intense, and they perished miserably. In the province of Kazan, which lies in the eastern p«jrt of European Russia, and where the chief crops are wheat and rye, 12 per cent, of the tillable area has teen left unsown Similar conditions prevail in Kieff, in Vo ' ronozch, and in Kherson, all provinces which usually produce immense crops of cereals. ~ The hunger-stricken peasants are daily becoming more lawless and acts of brigandage are occurring more, and more fre‘ quently. A wealthy merchant w-as captured by a band of these peasants in a village near the Kolga, it being their inten tion, His believed,to hold him for a ransom, and thus obtain money to buy food for theipselves and their families. The band was making away from the village with their captive when the alarm was given, and the villagers hastened to the rescue of the prisoner. The brigands were soon overtaken by their pursuers,but they would not release the merchant when called upon to do sd. On tho contrary, they drew pistols and threatened to kill any one who attempted his rescue. The villagers, nothing daunted by these threats made,an attack upon the brigands, and finally, after a pitched battle, released the merchant and compelled the brigands to seek safety in flight. Two of the wouldbe kidnapers were captured by the vil!agers.