"The Doukhobours did not object to their
leader living such a life. If 'Petulshka'
does it, it Is right; for 'Petulshka' can do
no wrong."
This same Journalist tells how Verlgln,
on one occasion took 800 of his flock down
to the rlrer to baptize them. But before
he allowed them to go down Into the water
he ordered that they give all the money
they had with them to his niece, who stood
ready to hold It. They did, and they never
received it back. But It was right; for
Even the Sabine Women
Could Not Have Done It
The Sabine women, religious fanatics
as they were, would perhaps have never
been able to throw their children over the
high cliff even if the divine thunderbolts
had not intervened. In the days of Herod,
when the command went out to destroy
all infant children, mothers clutched their
babes to their hearts and concealed them
in the most obscure and impenetrable
places so that the Roman soldiers might
never find them. Loyal women of the
Roman Empire would rather have been
killed themselves than to have had a hair
of the head of any of their babes harmed.
The state of mind of the Doukhobours
to-day is such that would tend to make
it more conceivable that they would un
hesitantly kill their own children. Th-..
war and the Russian revolution have made
a tremendous impression on them. They
are extremely radical?politically and
morally. They believe that Czar Nicholas
was punished for his persecution of their
sect.
And, finally and most important, they do
firmly believe that the "Day of Judgment"
is rapidly approaching and they are pre
paring themselves for its coming.
They are wrought up over many things.
Some say that they are wholly craasy.
