Fighting the Famine in Russia.

Manawatu Herald, 15 March 1892, Page 3

Fighting the Famine in Russia.

I ♦ i Dr Dulon has given the public an ! account of how Count Tolstoi, the ! great Russian author, is helping to j fight the famine. The Count is in the Dankoosky district, moving about from house to house, from village to village, from canton to canton, i gathering information about the needs of each family and individual, feeding the hungry, tending the sick, comforting those who have lost their bread-winners, and utterly forgetful of himself. Hail, rain, snow, intense cold and abominable roads are nothing to him. Not content with these efforts, he despatched his two daughters and three of his sons to co-operate in the work of relieving the hungry, while Countess Tolstoi is receiving subscriptions in Moscow, carrying on a large correspondence, and distributing alms to the destitute. " I happened to be in the Countess's house at Moscow," writes a correspondent, " the day on which her letter appeared in the liussian Gazette. People of all classes and conditions were coming up on foot or in carriages, entering the house, crossing themselves before the icons, putting packets of bank-notes upon her table, and going their ways. In a short space of time the table was literally covered with bank-notes Scarcely anyone would consent to take a receipt for the money. The Countess was engaged in sealing up these offerings and sending them off at once to her sons and daughters, who are in charge of the tea-stalls { and corn -stores in the famine-stricken districts. In that one day, to my knowledge, several thousand roubles were thus collected." " I have just been in two of these soup booths. In one of them which is located in a tiny smoky hovel, a widow is cooking for twenty" five persons. When I entered, I saw a numerous assemblage of children sitting very sedately, holding lumps of black bread over their spoons, and dipping them into the shtshee (a kind of Spartan broth made of sour cabbage) Their food' is composed exclusively of this shtsliee and black bread, which is rarely varied by cold beet-root soup. Round about stood a number of old women, patiently waiting for their turn to come. I entered into conversation with one

of them, but no sooner had she begun to tell me the sad story of her life than she burst into tears, and all the other poor creatures forthwith commenced to cry in unison. It seems that the poor things are kept alive by this gratuitous soup, and by this alone. They have absolutely nothing at home, and they are ravenously hungry by the time this, their dinner hour, comes round. Here they get a meal twice a day, and this, inclusive of fuel Costs from Is 8d to 2s 5d a month for each person. Count Tolstoi has opened twenty two such soup kitchens in fifteen different villages."