THE JEWISH POPULATION. 207 



appears that from 1863 to 1881 the number of drink 

 shops was reduced by degrees from 257,531 to 146,000. 

 A spontaneous movement, with details of which I was 

 furnished at the time, led to the destruction by the 

 peasants of many kabaks, or drinking shops, in view of their 

 emancipation, for enjoying the full benefit of which they 

 maintained drunkenness must cease. Previously the Baron 

 had to support the aged serf ruined by drink, now it would fall 

 upon his family and neighbours to do so ; and a clear head 

 aii J a firm hand they said would be needed to enable 

 thorn to make the most of their anticipated freedom. 

 Thus they reasoned, and upon these views they acted 

 somewhat riotously. Madame Novikoff writes : 



'After the death of the late Emperor the movement 

 against drunkenness suddenly reappeared even stronger 

 than before. In the outburst of sorrow caused by that 

 ' Parricide ' (as it was sometimes called by the lower 

 classes;, many village communes determined, as a sign of 

 their grief, to close the drinking-shops. In three places 

 in the government of Pskov a resolution to this effect- 

 was signed by 227 heads of families, and it was decided 

 to close compulsorily all the public-houses, which have 

 been taking 50,000 roubles a year from the population. 

 In the government of Penza, where the governor has 

 energetically striven to close these shops, the villagers 

 declared in favour of abolishing them for ever. Three 

 villages in the government of Vilna, moved chiefly by 

 religious motives, did the same thing. General sympathy 

 greeted that movement, for, as a rule, the smaller the 

 number of drinking-shops the greater is the prosperity of 

 the place. According to an interesting monograph of 

 MM. Bektieff and Khvostoff on the economical position 

 of Yeletz in the Ural, an examination of nineteen com- 

 munes showed that, as a rule, the number of ruined 

 homes corresponded to the number of public-houses 

 in a commune. They mentioned two places as examples. 

 The village of Jarnova possessed 203 homesteads and 

 three public-houses. The soil was good ; the holdings 



