The Russians And The Jews

There was a fair audience at the Ghurch of Christ Last eycning to listen to Mr. Yovtcheff in his lecture upon the Jews of Russia. The speaker was a fine looMtag man, and as he appeared in fu.ll Bulgarian or Turkish eostume, and had the make up of a.n kleal soldier, his heavy black mousta.i-.he and fa.-liinnable goatee making him look as fieree as the Turks we have a.11 be&n wont to picture dn our mind's eye. For o.ne whose natóive tongue is so radAcnlly different from our own, he spoke very good Englfeh. He coramoncpd by oonipnrim? the Russian matcon with our own ; the one the very antithesis of the other ; one progressive, en'ightened, forgingi nhead in all the arts and seienees ; the other stagnant, immovable, with its masses ín the darkest ignorance. In Russia., Ohuren and state are allied, the pólice and the priests are one and the czar is the head. The orthodox church of Russia is the Greek church, and the TCicene creed fe its creed. It diífers but ldttle from the Roman Catholcle church of the ■west, but its hdstory is not so bloody. The Crusaders did more hoi-m to the Greek clrarch oí the east tham It ever did to the Mohammedan, The conversión of the Russian people to the belief of the established church has been by military force. The conquered peoples were coaxed at test, ttuee forced by the strong arm of the government to accept its faith and ci-eed. Tlie speaker related a vfeit to a brother and sister in Russia, and liow be attended the Greek church with them one Sunday, aad in place of kneeling in the service where all the others knelt, he remained standing like a true freeman, and what a flash of fire shot out from the eyes of the officiating priest, on'.y to be met with the same flash back again. The speefcer thought there was not much religión just then in either one of them. "W'hen he stepped out of tihat church he walleed int o the embrace of wo gendarmes who stepped up to him and "wanted to take hém to priison, 'but he would uot go, and fSnally ehowed them his American passports, and told them that he belonged to a free nation and would kneel when he wanted to and stand when he wanted to. Finally, by reason of liis brother'g good standing with the pólice and government, he was not arrested, but every minute afterward while iie was on Russian soil he was under pólice surveillance. He gave the incident ïnerely to show how church and state were one and inseparable in Rússia. In all Russia there are nine universdties, 150 gymnasiums for boys and 50 for gdrls. Every instructor is appointed by the czar, amd rigid rules are laid down for them to follow. A farmer's son must be taught to be a farmer, a blackemifch's soa to be a blacksmSth, a shoemaker's son to be a eüioemaker. There must be no deviation from that rule, for it is argued to do otherwise would cause dissatisfaction amomg the peop'e, but it was done to keep the people in ignoTance. There are educated people in Russia but few have ever been courageous enough to oppose the system which keeps the nation from ad■vancilng with other nations of the world. The press is especially oppressed and no item or article appeare in any of tfie papers there that is not passed upon by a censor before it is published. Every newspaper or periodieal that comes into Russia is read, and everything relating to Russia, nnless tn praise thereof, is blotted out. Coming to the Jews, he gave the audience no very pleasant picture of them. They were not admitted into Russia until the 17th century, and sAnce then have been confined to fourteen of tlie western provinces or states. The speaker gave illustrataons oi tlie great simplicity of the Russian common people, and how the Jews lived by taking1 advantage of them. By his teil the ignorance of the common people must not only be dense, but hardly comceivable by people of western natioms. Tlie crnment has tried to convert the Jews. offermg money and favors ; it lias tried giving them la-nds and implememts to make aon agwcultural peopi'ie of them ; 'but everyth-i-ng hBS failed. They will Hm only ty trade, trafl'ic and thcir ivits. They are (Hrt.v. greasy, rile, in personal appcarance. They ne--er wash themseU'es or have theiT clothes cleaned. He redated oí seei'ng one öf them hawkwig lish, whlch were declared to be "nice, fresh flash." A lady stepïing' up to lniy. upbralded him ior lying, statimg tliat the fish were so old they emelled bad. "Oh, no, ladj', it is not the fish yon smell, they a.re frcsh and Mitee, it is me, it is rae, lady, tliat smeHs 'so bad." Thejr would nlways eacriöoe solt' respect lor gum. TJhe BngKsh and the American nat-ons are the only ones expressinsr a.ny pympatiiy for the Jews. "Why ? lïecauso' t.hey know Uittle or nothing about them. Tliere are more Jews in Eoumania witli its 8,000,000 pcopifc t.ha.n in the United States, whlle Kuswa Jias 5,000,000 of them. Tlie speaker was evüdently not a lover oí the Jewteh race, and he Bhowed them up isa a light not all entic'ng. The lecture closed by a resume of the Bfituatlon of affairs in Europe, the object lor which Russia was con-tending, to unito the SIjiíts ; France to regaiin Alsace and Loraine ; with BngLand, Germany, Austria and Italy to prevent any sucli result. It may be decades before any one wül dare to etrèke a blow, but when it does come t will be an awful war, and the map oi Europe will undergo a great change.