ORTHODOX CHURCH AND PRIESTS. 3 11 



that the only night I spent in a sectarian village is 

 among the most vivid impressions of the ride across 

 Russia. 



Every traveler in Russia has noticed this same dif- 

 ference between the sectarian communities and those 

 of the Orthodox peasantry. It admits of only one ex- 

 planation. The Orthodox moujiks of Russia are at the 

 present day, in spite of the vaunted emancipation of 

 the serfs, the veriest slaves that were ever chained to 

 the earth. No negro in the United States was ever 

 owned and exploited as is the average Orthodox peas- 

 ant of Russia in 1890. He is owned jointly by a pair of 

 hard taskmasters, of which one exploits his body and 

 the other his soul. Of personal, political, or religious 

 liberty, he is about as destitute as he was when he 

 was a serf. If now and then one peasant of excep- 

 tional brains and energy manages to better his condi- 

 tion, thousands are materially worse off than they ever 

 were before. The moujik has simply changed masters. 

 The rod has been taken from the nobles and placed in 

 the hands of the tax collector. And the latter, having 

 no personal interest in him beyond exacting Caesar's 

 tribute, often spares him less than his former master 

 did. 



His spiritual master, the Orthodox Church, instead 

 of sending him a benevolent, religious gentleman for a 

 pastor, spiritual teacher, and guide, who would teach 

 him temperance and morality, and cheer and encourage 

 him in the hour of adversity, saddles him with a knav- 

 ish servile, who encourages him to drink vodka, and 

 bargains like a horse-dealer with him over the price of 

 baptizing his children. 



