Russians in America.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5142, 10 July 1885, Page 3

Russians in America.

' San Francisco has a very considerable Russian colony, some of whom are among our earliest pioneers. They are, for the most part, a mild people, usually blondes or red bearded, if from the south or west of Russia, the Tartar merging into the German along the border. Among them are many who left their country from political discontent, and not a few of them are students, with a special interest in social questions. The New Odessa colony, comprising about forty of them, endeavored to test the community system of life in Oregon, but did not sncceed, and the scheme was for the time abandoned. " We did not quarrel," said one of the members, " but some expect too much of human nature. We cannot become perfect all at once. Then, although we worked very hard we could not pay the mortgage on our land, for we were too far from market, and bad but little money. No American can understand the poverty and misery that exists in Russia. Even in the south, where tbe conditions are better than in other parts, the peasants live wholly on bread and a sort of whisky, ihe-flcur is mixed with ground bark and lime, and they do not have enough of this wretched food. They wear wieker«.work shoes, and their shirts are dipped in asphaltum to give them thickness, and worn for years without washing. of them live in burrows^ and§«gf hteen hours is a very usual day's work. Yet these people adore the Czar as a divine being, and until -they get over that idea there is little hope for much improvement of their condition. Crimes of violence are very rare among the poorer Russians; they do not draw a weapon at every quarrel. As to the theatened war, Ido not see why poor Englishmen and Russians should slaughter each other with no good result to their class; it is a crime more detestable than all others. I have no sympathy with either Government. The cobles in Russia hold vast tracts of land uncultivated; they are absent at Paris or St. Petersburg, and^ do not care for their poorer countrymen" These opinions and observations are quite general among the educated Russians. Another gentleman added : " A newsboy here will make in a day more money than I ever saw until I became a Mfrgian. The farming people paid their rent .j^bj giving so many days work, and we had bo money." But even in Russia great social progress is going on among her hundred million subjects, though with Nihilists on one side and Imperialists on the other, " the falsehood of extremes" is better illustrated in Russia than in any other country of Europe.