At Riga a young man, named Berland, went into a clothing-store, chose an overcoat, and then started for the door. When asked to settle his bill, he drew a revolver, covered the clerk, and got away. He was captured and sentenced to death. Another young man, named Danbe, was sentenced to death at Riga for the theft of $5, and two girl accomplices, aged 12 and 20 years, were sentenced to exile and hard labor for life.
I quote this telegram because the Associated Press has never been suspected of pro-revolutionary proclivities so far as I know, and because it indicates the true character of M. Stolypin and his non-temporizing administration.
In thus emphasizing the offenses—not to say crimes—of the present government, I doubtless lay myself open to the charge of anti-governmental bias, yet I believe I am neither guilty of this charge nor blind to the faults, weaknesses, and mistakes of the revolutionary movement. My endeavor has been to present a true picture of Russia to-day, and of the struggle going on there as I have witnessed it. Yet I must point out once more that the responsibility of a government is necessarily of a more serious nature than that of individuals who are the victims of governmental and official lawlessness, and whose life and environment, in spite of all they might do, is made insufferable through the corruption, inefficiency, and general immorality of the officials who are set to rule and to administer the land.
There is a terrible menace, a grave danger, it seems to me, in this prolonged struggle. Where all standards of public and private morality are shaken—where rulers
Catherine Breshkovsky
The first woman ever sentenced to hard labor in the mines of Kara. After spending 23 years in prison and in Siberia she escaped, and after making a visit to America in behalf of her countrymen she has returned once more to her hazardous work in the heart of Russia, where she is now at work disguised as a peasant