THE FAMINE IN RUSSIA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6414, 26 March 1892, Page 2

THE FAMINE IN RUSSIA.

THE PEOPLE FLEEING TO ST. PETERSBURG. PEASANTS LIKE WILD BEASTS. LIVING IN HOLES IN THE EARTH

Late letters from St. Petersburg show that tho telegrams which pa3s the Censorship do not depict half the horrors of tho famine. In the province of Samara, the Government official who went to carry relief to the village found it deserted, but nearly every house contained a corpse, and in some of them several. In Penrea the people could be seen praying for death. Suicide, however is infrequent, no matter how terrible the situation. The Government is already finding it difficult on account of the enormous drain of the famine to meet other expenses, and some official salaries are already in arrear. Work, however, is being pushed by the navy yards, and on military roads, the starving peasantry being largely employed for the latter purpose. On tho 13th February 16,000 more persons from the famine stricken districts had taken refuge in St. Petersburg, and were quartered on the various householders. An English correspondent writes from Saratov on March. Ist that crimes of violence in the valley of the Volga are of frequent occurrence. Clergymen's houses have been robbed and the bodies of murdered men are found on the high loads. Caravans of merchants are escorted by armed forces. Villages in the Government of Samara that were prosperous in 1886 are now plunged into the deepest misery, and the population has been decimated. In one village 2765 of the 7356 inhabitants have migrated. Of those remaining 1250 are dependent on charity. In three months the people of this village lost 4038 head of live stock. They are indebted to the State in tho sum of 72,380 roubles. Similar conditions prevail in other villages. Forty thousand acres of land are idle in the province of Samara owing to the want of seed. A large number of German colonists live in holes in the earth for warmth. They eat bread made of wild hemp seed, the carcasses of horses causing severe nausea. The famine is changing the peasantry into wild beats.