1 8 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



" Then you have nothing to complain of about the 

 St. Petersburg government ? " 



The group in the smithy had increased by this time 

 to a half-dozen. The eagerness and intelligence which 

 they all displayed in discussing their own affairs, in 

 striking contrast to their ignorance of the outer world, 

 was something remarkable. It was easy to imagine 

 that if these peasants were only decently educated 

 they would be a different people. They are born 

 village politicians. Their faces were animated and 

 bright, and from their eyes shone a light which was 

 the lamp of an uncultured intelligence, which enabled 

 them to understand, if not to remedy, their grievances. 

 They were extremely good-natured about it all, how- 

 ever. A reform that they were looking forward to, 

 and expecting great things of, was a distinct reaction- 

 ary move in the direction of local autocracy. The peri- 

 odical peasant courts were to be done away with, they 

 said, and in their stead were to be individual officers, a 

 species of cadi, appointed from St. Petersburg. The 

 fact that they preferred to have their cases tried by a 

 single judge, rather than in an organized court, was a 

 significant straw showing the bent of ,the uncultured 

 Russian mind. 



All the lesser cases among the Russian peasantry, 

 both civil and criminal, are decided by the mir on the 

 basis of custom and common sense, though it is very 

 certain that the justice meted out by the elders and 

 starostas of the mirs is, like the collection of the taxes f 

 too often a warped and unjust thing, manipulated by 

 the intriguers and wire-pullers of the commune. It 

 was plainly evident that the group of poor ragamuffin 



