Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1892 — THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA [ARTICLE]

THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA

fW»n Ci4 - n n Ar\ Ta TT i ATTrorl K« TV*4up UILUatIOU 18 V IdWdu DJ Iff, TaJmage. Ha Eloquently Refutes the Stories Told Regarding Cruelty and the Cttr’i Merollessness, etc. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn Sunday, and fulfilled his promise to speak again of his recent visit to Russia nnd to refute the cab timnies told of that sented in fuH his sermon would, occupy seven columns of this type. We therefore are compelled to be content with copious extracts and condensations. His text was from II Peter, ii. 10. He said:

Among a most reprehensible crew Peter here paints by one stroke the portrait of those who deligh t to sla h at people in authority... isow we all have a right to criticise evil beliavior.whetlieF in high places orfltnyf but the fact that one is high up is no proof that he ought to be brought down. It is a baJ streak of human nature now. as it was in the lime of the text a bad streak of human nature, that success of any kind excites the jealous antipathy of those who cannot climb the same steep. There never was a David on the throne jthut there was not some Absalom who wanted to get it. There never was a Christ but the world had a saw au.l hammer ready to fashion a cross on which to assassinate him. Out of this evil spirit grow not only individual but national and international defamation. To no country has more injustice been done than to our own if days thalPf|PfP past. Long before “Martin Chuzzlewit” was printed the literature of the world scoffed at every tiling American. Victor Hugo, as honest as he was une mailed in literary power, was so misinformed regarding America that he wrote; “The most singu Jar thing is the need of whittling, with which all Americans are possessed. It is such that on Sunday they give the sailors little bits of wood, because if they did not they would whittle the ship. In court, at the most critical moment, the judge, whittl ng, says: ‘Prisoner, are you guily?’ and the accused tranquilly responds, whittling, 'I am not guilty.” 1 But there is a sister nation on the other sido of the sea now going through the pro ess of international defamation. There is no country on earth So misunderstood as Russia, and no monarch more misrepresented than its emperor. Will it not be in the cause of justice if I try to set right the minds of those who compose this au rust assemblage and the minds of those to whom, on both sides of the ocean, these words shall come? If the slander of one person is wicked, then the slander of one hundred and twelve million people is one hundred and twelve million times more wicked. In the mime of righteousness, and in behalf of civilization, and for the encouragement of all those good people who have been disheartened by the scaudulizution of Russia, I now speak. But Russia is so vast a subject that to treat it in one discourse is dike attempting to run Niagara falls over one mill wheel. Do not think that-tbe-very marked soar k>s -. ies extended me last summer by—UwEmpeffir_.an3Zjlmpress and Crown Prince of Russia have complemented me into the advocacy of that empire, for I shall present you authenticated facts that will reverse your opinions. i thtfgMllUfft llMftlf liln Lqgf inforftrr--m----min ft were reversed.

I went last summer to Russia with as many baleful prejudices as would make an avalanche from the* mountain of fabrication which has for years been heaped up against that empire. You usk how is it possible that such uppa'ling misrepresentations of Russian could stand? lac count for it by the fact that the Russian language is to most an imgassable wall. Malign the United tates or malign Croat Britain or Germany or E ranee, and by the next cablegram the falsehood is exposed, for we all understand English, and many of our people are familiar with German and French. But the Russian language, beautiful and easy to those born to speak it, is to most vocal organs an unpronouncable tongue, and if at St. Petersburg or Moscow anv anti-Russian calumny were denied the most of the world outside of Russia would never see or ’ hear the denial. What are the motives for misrepresentation? Commercial interests -and international jealousy R jssia is us large as atl the rest of Europe put together. Why does not Europe like Russia? Because she hu> enough acreage to swallow all Europe and feel she had only half u meal. Russia is os long as North and South America put together. “But,” says some one, “do you mean to charge the authors and the lecturers who have written or spoken against Russia with falsehood?” By no means. You can find in any city or nation evils innumerable if you wish to discourse about them. Then I bethought myself, Do the people ip America hold the government at Washington responsible for the Ho uestead riots or for railroad insurrections, or for the torch of the vidian that consumers q block of houses, or for the ru flans who arrest a rail train, muking the pa sengers hold up their arms until the pockets are picked? Why, then,. hold the emperor of Russia,, who is os impressive and genial a man as I have ever looked at or talked with, responsible for the wrongs enacted in a nation a population twice os large Tn hum berstnrtoe millions of America? It is must important that this

country shall have right ideas concerning Russii, for aotong all the nations this/side of heaven "Russia is America’s best friend. There has not been an hour in the last seventy years that the shipwreck of free-in-stitutions in America would not have called from all the despotisms of Europe and Asia a shout of gladness wide as earth and deep as perdition. But whoever else failed us, Russia never did, and whoever else w®S doubtful, Russia never was;’ Russia, then an old go vernment, smiled on the cradle of our govern - irent while yet iu its earliest infancy. Empress Catharine of Russia, in 1776 or thereaboufcs.offered kindly interference that our thirteen colonies might not go down under the cruelties of war. Again, in 1813, Russia stretched forth toward us a merciful hand. When -our dread ful civil war wasraging atid the two thunder clouds of northern and southern valor clashed, Russia practically said to the nations of Europe, “Keep your hands off and let the brave men of the north and the south settle their OW.n"i^6«MlblGß»” : : I stood on New York Battery during the war, as I suppose many of you did, looking off through a magnifying glass upon a fleet of Russian ships. “What are they doing Ibere?”I asked, and so every one asked. Word came that anther fleet -of Russian ships wasj in San Francisco harbor. “What does this mean?” our rulers asked but did not get an immediate answer. In these two American harbors the Russian fleets seemed souud asleep. Their great mouths of iron spoke not a word, and the Russian flag, whether floating in the air or drooping by the flagstaff, made no auswer to our inquisitiveness.

Not until the war was over was it found out that in case of foreign intervention all the guns and the last gun of these two fleets in Now York and San Francisco harbors’ were to open in full diapason upon any foreign ship that should dare to interfere with the right of the Americans, North and South, to settle their own controversy. 1 But. for those fleets and their presence in American waters there can be no doubt that twoof the mightiest nations of Europe would have mingled in our fight. But for these two fleets the American government would have Keen to-day only a name in history. I declare before God and the nation that I believe Russia saved the United States of America. And now Fffropose to do what I told the emperor and empress and all the imperial family at the palace of Peterhof I would do if I ever got back to America, and that is to answer some of the calumnies which have'been announced and reiterated and stereotyped against Russia. Calumny the First—The emperor and ail the imperial family are in perpetual dread of assassination. They are practically prisoners in the winter palace, and trenches with dynamite have been' found dug around the winter palace. They dare not venture forth, except p eceded and followed and surrounded by a most elaborate military guard.

My answer to this is that I never saw a face more free from worriment than the emperor’s face. The winter -are said to have been charged with dynamite, and in which the imperial family are said to be prisoners, has never been the residence of the imperial family oue moment since the present emperor has been on the throne. -gThe winter palaeri has been changed into a museum and a picture gallery and a place of great levees. He spends his summers in the pala-e of Peterhof, fifteen or twenty miles from St. Petersburg ; his autumns at the palace at Gratschna, and his winters in a palace at St. Petersburg, but in quite a different part of the city to that occupied by the winter palace. He rides through the streets unattended, ex- | cept by the empress at his side and the driver on the box. There is not j a person in this audience more free j from fear of harm than he is. His subjects not only admire him but almost worship him.

There are cranks in Russia, but ■ have we not had ourChar’es Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth? “But,” j savs some one, “did not the Russians kill the father of the present Emperor?" Yes, but in the time that Rus- i sia has had one assusination of Emperor America has had two Presidents ossasinated. “But is not the Emperor an autocrat?” By which you mean, has he not power without restriction? Yes. but it all depends upon what use a mau makes of his power. Are you an autocrat in your factory, or autocrat in your store, or an autocrat in your style of business? It all depends on what use you make of your power, whether to bless or to oppress, and from the time of Peter the Great—that Russian who was the wonder of all time, the Emperor who became incognito a ship carpenter that he might help ship carpenters, and a ma hunic that he might helD mochanics, and put on poor men’s garb that he might symfiathize with poor men, and who in lis last words said: “My Lord. I am dying. Oh, help mv unbelief!" —I say from that time the throne of Russia has, for the most part, been occupied by rulers a-t beneficent and kind sympathetic as they were powerful. Calumny the Second—ls you go to Russia you are under the severest espionage, stopped here and questioned there, uud in danger of arrest But my opinion is that if ft man is f disturbed iu Russia it is because lie i ought to be. Russia is the only place in Europe in which my baggage was

- ' • - -v-4, - - not examined. I carried in my hand, tied together with a cord so their titles could bte seen. a pjte of eight S or Jen books, all of them from lid to lid cursing Russia, but I had no trouble in taking with me the books. There is ten times more difficulty In getting your luggage through the American custom house than througo the Russian. Ispeaknotof myself, for friends intercede forme on the American wharves and I am not detained. I was several days in Russia before I was asked if I had any pass[port at alt. . —__ __ _ Depend upon it, if hereafter a man believes be is uncomfortably watched by the police of St. Petersburg or Moscow it is because there is something suspicious about him. and you yourself bad better, when he is around,look after your silver spoons. I promise you. an honest mao or an honest woman, that when vou go there, as many of you will—for European travel is destined to change its cQurse. from southern Europe to the northern regions—you will have no more molestation or supervisal than in Brooklyn or in New York or the quietest Long Island village. Calumny the Third—Russia and its ruler are so opposed to any other religion except the Greek religion that they will not allow any other; that nothing but persecution abd imprisonment and outrage intolerable await the disciples of any other religion. But what are the facts? I bad a long ride in St. Petersburg and its suburbs with the perfect, a brilliant e fleient and lovely map; who is the. higest official in the city of St. Petersburg, and whose chief business isc to attend the Emperor. I said to i him, “I suppose your religion is that of the Greek church?” “No,” said he; “I am a Lutheran.” “What is yqur religion?” I said to one of the higliest and most influential officials at St. Petersburg. He said “I am of the Church of England.” Myself an American, of still another denomination of Christians, and never having been inside a Greek church in my life until I went to Russia, could not have received more consideration had I been baptized in the Greek church and all my life worshiped at her altars. I had- it demonstrated to me very plainly that a man’s religion in Russia has nothiug to do with his preferment for either office or social position. The only questions taken into consideration are honesty, fidelity, morality and adaption. I bad not been in St Petersburg an hour before I received an invitation to preach the Gospel of Christ as I believed it. Besides all this have you forgotten the Crimean war, which shook the earth, grew out of Russia’s interference in behalf of the presecuted Christians of all nations in Turkey? Calumny the Fourth —Russia is so very grasping of territory, and she seems to want the world. But what are the facts? During the lost century uud a quarter the United States have taken possession of everything between the thirteen colonics and the Pacific ocean, and England, during the same length of time, has taken possession of nearly three million square miles, and by the extent of her domain has added two hundred ; and fifty million population, while j Russia has added during that time j only one half the number of square miles an (Fallout eighteen million of j population England s advance of domain of two hundred and fifty ; million against Russia's advance of domain by eighteen million. Calumny the Fifth—Siberia is a' den of horrors, and to-day peop’e are driven like wild, dumb cattle; uo trial is afforded to the suspected ones: they are put into quicksilver mines, where they are whipped and starved, and some day find themselves going around without any head. Some of them do not get so far as Siberia. Women, after being tied to stakes in the street, are dis- I robed and whipped to death in the ! presence of howling mobs. Offenders hear their own flesh sizz under the hot irons. •But what are the facts? There are no kinder people on earth than the Russians, and to most of them cruelty is an impossibility. I hold in my hand a card. You see on it that red circle. That is the government’s seal on a card giving me permission to visit all the prisons of St. Petersburg, as I had expressed a wish in that direction. As the messenger handed this card to me he told me that a carriage was at the door for my disposal in visiting the prisons It so happened, however, that. I was crowded with engagements and I could not make the visitation. But do suppose such cheerful permission and a carriage to boot would have been afforded me if the prisons of Russia are such hells on earth as they have been described to be? j But how about Siberia? My an- . swer is, Sibenu is the prison of Rus- I sia, a prison more than twioe the size of the United States. John Howard, who did more for the improvement of prisoners and the reformation of criminals than any man that ever lived, his name u svnonym for mercy throughout Christendom, declared by voice and pen that the system of transportion 6f criminals from Russia to Siberia was an admirable plan, advocating open air punishment rather than eiulungeoament, and also because it was taking all offenders hundreds of miles away from their evil companions. John Howard, ufter witnessing the plan ofdeportation of criminals from Russia to Siberia, commended it to England. , If a man commits murder iq Russia he is uot electrocuted as we electrocute him, or chokeJ to death l>v a halter as we choke him to death. Russia is the on y country on earth from which death penu.ty has been

I driven, except in case of high treason. Murdere s and desperate , “, ttDB are seM to the hardest parts of Sibera, but no man is sent toSiberia or doomed to any kind of punishmeQ!'in Kuss a until be has affair tnal. So fair as their being hustled off m the night and not knowing why they are exfled or punished is concerned, all the criminals in Russia have an open trial before a jury just as we have ih America, except in revoitfriomtry ;or r.otous times, and you know in America at such limes the writ of habeas corpus is suspended. I But bow about the knotit,the cruel Russian' knout, that comes down on the bare back of agoni ed criminals ? Why, Ru sia abolished the kuout before it was abolished’from our American navy: But how about the po htical prisoners hustled off to Siberia ! According to the testimony of the most celebrated literary enemy of Russia, only four hundred and forty-three pjiitical prisoners were sent to Siberia in twenty veurs. How many political prisoners did we -Ml:»» prison pens during our four years of civil war ? Well. I will guess at least one hundred thousand America s one hundred thousaud po lit’cal prisoners versus Russia’s four hundred and forty-three political prisoners. Nearly* all these "tour" hundred and forty-three of twenty years were noblemen or people desperately opposed to the emancma tion of the serfs. And none of the political prisoners are sent to the famous Kara mines. For the most part you are dependent for information upon the testimony of prisoners who are sent to Siberia. They all say they were innocent. Prisoners always are innocent. Ask all the prisoners of America to-day, “guilty or not guilty?” and nineteen out of twenty will: answer, “not guilty.” Ask them how they like their prison, and how they like sheriffs, and how they like the Government of the United States, and you will find .these prisoners ad mire the authority that qrre ted them and punished them just about as much as the political prisoners of Russia like Siberia. But you ask how will this Russophobia, with which so many have been bitten and poToued, be cured? By the God of Justice blessing such books and pamphlets as are now coming out from Professor de Arnhud, of Washington; Mr. Horace Cutter, of San Franeiscp: Mr. Morlill, of England, and by the opening of our American gates to the writings of some .twentyflour of the Russian authors and authoresses, in some respects as brilliant as the three or four Russian authors already known , —the translation of those twentvfour authors, which I am authorized from Russia to offer free of charge to any responsible American publishing house that will do them justice. Let these Russians tell Iheir own story, for thev are the only ones fully competent to dp the work, as none but Americans can fully tell the story of America, and as none but Hermans can fully tell the story* of Germany, and none but Englishmen can fully tell the story of England. and none but Frenchmen can fully tell the story of France,-Mean-while let the international defamation come to an end. Cease to speak evil pf dignities "merely because they are Presiden ts—andlof r Emperors tnerely because they arMEmperors. And may the blessing of God the Father, and God the Son and G< d the Holy Ghost be upon all the members of the imperial househ dd of Russia, from the illustrious he id of thairfamHy^down- -to~tbe-Princess, seven years of age. who came skipping into my presence in the palace of Peterhof last summer! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men! •***