CALEDONIAN SPORTS.

Evening Star, Issue 8718, 9 January 1892, Page 2

CALEDONIAN SPORTS.

The execrable weather enjoyed during the performance proper of this year's Caledonian games necessitated the postponement of two or three events. The directors arranged, therefore, that these should be deoided to day; and, with real Caledonian generosity, added a prize-list of some L4O to be competed for in eight or nine extra events. The holidays being to-day well over, the weather in the morning resumed an appearance which was sufficiently "set one" to allure a large multitude to the scene of the games. Their confidence was, as usual, misplaced, and the weather went far to spoil the pleasure of the afternoon. The Ordnance Band's presence on the scene mitigated the misery of the damp to a large extent, but the ultimate attendance was entirely spoiled by the weather, as was the punctuality of the programme, which should have started at two, out was delayed by stress of weather till soon after three o'clock. The following are the results : Handicap Back, 120 yards.—Prim, L2 and LI; 10s given to winners of heats (prizetakers excepted). First heat—This proved a very hollow affiir, W. Samson (Byds) winning, with F. W. Brady (7iyds) second. Bodgers (syds) was the only other starter. Time, 12} sec. Second heat—Four towed the mark viz., A. E. Thompson (%ds), M. Williams (syds). E. T. Watt (7yds), and W. Baird (7Jyds). and a capital race was won by Baird, with Williams seeond. Time, 13sec. FINAL. Ba-rd ... ... ... 1 Samson ... ... ... 2 Williams and Brady also started. Won easily. Time, 12£aec. Biorcts Hakdioap, ono mile and a-half (Roadster).—Prizes: Trophies value L2 2* and LI Is. S. B. Stedman (scratch) ... 1 G. AL Kingston (scratch) ... 2 J. Thomson (160 yds) 3 K. A. Swing (160 yds) 0 The track was very heavy owing to the fall of rain. From the outset it was evident that the race was oonnued to the scratch men, who raced side by side neatly throughout the journey. Carrie retired after going a mile. Entering on the final round Kingston forged ahead, but at the far side of the ground Stedman was again (n ths van. Kingston actually got in front half way up the straight, bat the Taieri representative riding with great gamenesß managed to tqaeeze home, after an exoitingjrace, with an advantage of about three inches. Time, Sm'n s£sec. Geand Champion Wbestling Competition. Open to all comers. Two styles (Border and catohas-catoh can). Caledonian rules. Six competitors or no third priae. Best of three in each style.—Prizer, L 9, L 4, and L2.

Ba : rd Bamßon

Through the default of G. Robertson, J. M'Kianon won a falL T. Bonntag and M. Powley were the next contestants, and after a considerable amount of fiddling about in the Border style Powley scored a fall off his opponent.

In the catch as-catch-can Btyle the straggle between the two men was very severe, alternate advantage being gained for some time on either hand. Eventually Powley scored another fall after a quarter of an hoar's batd work. Handicap Eace, 350 yards. Prizes, 12

and LL W. Balrd (12yds) ... M. Williams (Byds) ... A E. Thompson (scratch)

The other starters were K. T. Watt (12yds) and W. Samson (10yds). The last-named did not finish. Time, 42jec.

The Horrors of Famine in Russia.

The latest despatches from the interior are more alarming (telegraphs a St. Petersburg correspondent of the 'Telegraph'). The Angust frosts have completely destroyed the barley crops, which constitute the staple food in Archangel, and in the extreme North the rainß have annihilated crops.

In Novgorod even potatoes are dearer than apples, and no fodder can be obtained for cattle. Horses are offered for sale for 2a or 3s, and colts for 3d per head. The straw in the thatched roofs of the houses is being utilised for fodder. Cattle are dying in numbers on the roadsides. The Government regulations, made with a view to assisting peasants, are producing more harm than good. Complete confusion prevails in consequence of the various Ministers contradicting orders issued. The authorities are beginning to refuse material aid to peasants, and even to supply them with seed oorn ; hence immense tracts of land are laying in a state of waste, and fears Are entertained that a scarcity of corn will be felt next year. Again, the cattle plague has broken ont in several plaoes. The clergy are suffering terrible hardships, and in Borne parts they are joining the army of beggars. Women are selling themselves to support their chil- '•• dren. No work is to be had even on the Volga, Everything is in a state of stagnation. The shares of the Steam Navigation Company have greatly fallen. The new loan of 125,000,000 will be only a drop in the ocean. A large deficit is expected in the Budget, and, to make matters worse, the million loads of rye promised by the Governor of a neighboring provinoe by way of loan to the suffering Russian district, and on which the Ministry relied, are not i forthcoming. They do not exist. This disI covery is oausing great consternation. The famine is expected to reach its acme in November. Even now the peasants are indignant at the attitude taken up by the I Government and the apparent indifference of the Czar, who has not yet contributed to relieve their wants. From the several districts of Saratoff, Samara, and Vyatka resolutions of the peasants have been received by the Ministry, in which the peasants declare that if the Czar will not support them now in their need they must take the law into their own hands, They add that they have supported the Czar and his " tshinovks" in luxury long enough. The Minister hesitates to make representations to the Czar or advise him to relieve the wants of the people out of his private purse. Telegrams just received announce that partial risings are taking place. In the course of a poßt letter from St. Petersburg, the correspondent of the ' Telegraph ' reiterates his statement that the Government were well aware, as early as but spring, that the country was on the eve of a famine. Some oorn grew, but the greedy corn merchants made haste to export it, and when the people interfered the Government tardily forbade the exportation of rye —the staple food of the corn-eating classes—but, like the proverbial oow that first yielded the milk and then put her foot in it, the measure was frustrated by the few weeks of grace accorded to the merchants, who shipped more com out of the country in two, days than they had ever done before in one week; and, what is sadder still, the enormous quantity of rye which arrived at the ports a day or two or three days late, and which the authorities ordered to be sent back, was left lying and rotting till it had to be destroyed as useless for man or beaat,

For the corn spirited away by ghoulish speculators—mainly Orthodox Christians, not Jews—are substituted articles of diet the consumption of which seems explicable, only on the hypothesis that man's digestive powers are as ample as those of the ostcioh. Daring the past two months the flour-mills of Sara to ft' have been selling thousands oj sacks of "sweepings" ana refuse to traders in the villages and towns on the Volga, who in turn sell them to Bach of the peasants as are fortunate enough still to possess something to barter for them, The landowners refuse to give this " hanger* food" to their cattle, because, without satisfying the craving for food, it invariably Jiroduces spasms and swellings, which are recently the symptoms of a fatal disease. The latest telegrams from Zazin state that the most loathsome and deleterious ingredients are being pnt in the bread baked for the people in that city and government Despatches from the interior, dated September 21, are of a uniformly depressing character. The exorbitant prioas fetched by rye are still increasing, and threaten to become prohibitive even for corporate bodies snob as the Zemstvos. Sunflower seeds are being sold in waggon loads ('Novoe Yremya,' No, 8,577). Bread made of straw chopped fine, bran, and an admixture of, rye is a godsend, to obtain Which thousands of human beings would sell their very souls. Powdered tree bark, flavored with ground peas, ia_ esteemed an excellent food by men who work as if their bodies were made of some

Incorruptible metal. " Hanger - bread, made of dried dang, tree bark, powdered peas, and gooeefoot, U not only not apnrned, but greedily grabbed np. In one dbtriot alone of the government of Simbirsk, 37,850 itarved human beings rose up en masse to leave their huts and go out into the wide world in the hopes of finding what was denied them at home, in another district of the same government (Karsoons) 50.000 peasants petitioned the authorities to let them migrate or emigrate. Thonsanda are applying for permits to emigrate to China, concerning whioh country the most fantastio conceptions prevailideas as ohildish as those whioh drew Dick Whittington to London. The sight of these armies of beggars straggling through the country is, says the 'Novoe Vremya, harrowing to a degree. They drift into towns already overstocked with workmen and would-be workmen—as into Kertcu, for instance, whither they came orowding liku locusts; but, finding neither work nor foocs some of them encamped in the Mithridatp Hills, and others took refuge in the subterranean caves (the • Wetk ') In Nijnt Novgorod the quays and landing-places &ro literally black with them. Pity for those dear to them occasionally induces a husband to murder his wife, or a mother to put her children out of pain. Suicide hai becomo so rife sinco tho famine began that the journals have drawn attention to it.