I had only just despatched the last of the preceding pages of this paper when the dreadful news came of a new committed in regard to the Russian people by those light-minded men who, crazed with power, have appropriated the right of managing them. Again coarse and servile slaves of slaves, dressed up in various dazzling attires—varieties of Generals wishing to distinguish themselves, or to earn the right to add one more little star, fingle fangle, or of ribbon to their glaring get-up, or else from stupidity or carelessness—again these men have destroyed amid dreadful sufferings thousands of those honorable, kind, hard-working who feed them. And again this iniquity not only does not cause those responsible for it to reflect and , but one hears and reads only about its being necessary as speedily as possible to mutilate and a greater number of men, and to ruin still more families, both Russian and Japanese.  
More than this, to prepare men for fresh of this kind, the perpetrators of these crimes, far from recognizing what is evident to all—viz. that for the Russians this event, even from their , military point of view, was a scandalous defeat—endeavor to assure people that these unfortunate Russian men—lured into a trap like cattle into a slaughterhouse, of whom several thousands have been killed and maimed merely because one General did not understand what another General had said—have performed an act of because those who could not run away were killed and those who did run away remained alive. As to the fact that one of these and cruel men, by the titles of Generals, Admirals, drowned a quantity of peaceful Japanese, this is also described as a great and glorious act of heroism, which must gladden the hearts of Russians. And in all the papers are reprinted this awful appeal to murder:—
 
“Let the two thousand Russian soldiers killed on the Yalu, together with the maimed Retvisan and her sister ships, with our lost torpedo-boats, teach our cruisers with what they must break in upon the shores of base Japan. She has sent her soldiers to shed Russian blood, and no quarter should be afforded her. Now one cannot—it is sinful—be ; we must fight; we must direct such heavy blows that the memory of them shall freeze the hearts of the Japanese. Now is the time for the cruisers to go out to sea to reduce to ashes the towns of Japan, flying as a dreadful along its shores. No more sentimentality.”
 
The work commenced is continued. Loot, violence, murder, , theft, and, above all, the most fearful fraud—the distortion of religious teachings, both and —continue. The Tsar, the chief responsible person, continues to review the troops, to thank, reward, and encourage them; he issues an edict for the calling out of the reserves; his faithful subjects again and again lay down their property and lives at the feet of him they call, only with their lips, their adored . On the other hand, desiring to distinguish themselves before each other in deeds and not in words only, they tear away the fathers and the bread-winners from their families, preparing them for slaughter. The worse the position of Russia, the more recklessly do the journalists lie, transforming defeats into victories, knowing that no one will contradict them; and they quietly collect money from and sales. The more money and of the people is to the war, the more is grabbed by various authorities and speculators, who know that no one will convict them because every one is doing the same. The military, trained for murder, having passed years in a school of inhumanity, coarseness, and idleness, rejoice—poor men—because, besides an increase of their salary, the slaughter of superiors opens for their . Christian continue to invite men to the greatest of crimes, continue to commit sacrilege, praying God to help the work of war; and, instead of , they and praise that who, with the cross in 40his hands on the very scene of murder, encouraged men to the crime. The same thing is going on in Japan. The Japanese go in for murder with yet greater , owing to their victories; the Mikado also reviews and rewards his troops; various Generals boast of their bravery, imagining that, having learned to kill, they have acquired enlightenment. So, too, the unfortunate working people torn from useful labor and from their families. So their journalists also lie and rejoice over their gains. Also probably—for where murder is elevated into every kind of is bound to flourish—also probably all kinds of commanders and speculators earn money; and Japanese theologians and religious teachers no less than the masters in the techniques of armament do not remain behind the Europeans in the techniques of religious deceit and sacrilege, but distort the great Buddhistic teaching by not only permitting but that murder which forbade. The Buddhistic scientist, Soyen-Shaku, ruling over eight hundred , explains that although Buddha forbade manslaughter he also said he could never be at peace until all beings are united in the loving heart of all things, and that, therefore, in order to bring into harmony that which is it is necessary to fight and to kill men.
 
41
It is as if there never had existed the Christian and Buddhistic teaching about the of the human spirit, the of men, love, , the sacredness of human life. Men, both Japanese and Russians, already enlightened by the truth, yet like wild animals, , worse than wild animals, throw themselves upon each other with the sole desire to destroy as many lives as possible. Thousands of unfortunates groan and in cruel sufferings and die in agony in Japanese and Russian field hospitals, asking themselves in bewilderment why this fearful thing was done with them, while other thousands are already rotting in the earth or on the earth, or floating in the sea, in . And scores of thousands of wives, fathers, mothers, children, are their bread-winners; uselessly destroyed. Yet all this is still too little; new and newer victims are being prepared. The chief concern of the Russian organizers of slaughter is that 42on the Russian side the stream of food for —three thousand men per day to destruction—should not be interrupted for one minute. The Japanese are with the same thing. The are being driven down into the river in order that the rows behind may pass over the bodies.
 
When will this cease, and the deceived people at last recover themselves and say: “Well, go you yourselves, you heartless Tsars, Mikados, Ministers, , priests, generals, editors, speculators, or however you may be called, go you yourselves under these shells and bullets, but we do not wish to go and we will not go. Leave us in peace, to plough, and sow, and build,—and also to feed you.” It would be so natural to say this now, when amongst us in Russia the weeping and of hundreds of thousands of mothers, wives, and children, from whom are being snatched away their bread-earners, the so-called “reserve.” These same men, the majority of the reserve, are able to read; they know what the Far East is; they know that war is going on, not for anything which is in the least necessary to Russia, but for some dealings in strange land, leased lands, as they themselves call them, on which it seemed to some speculators to build railways and so gain profit; also they know, or might know, that they will be killed like sheep in a slaughterhouse, since the Japanese possess the latest improvements in tools of murder, which we do not, as the Russian authorities who are sending these people to death had not thought in time of furnishing themselves with the same weapons as the Japanese. Knowing all this, it would indeed be so natural to say, “Go you, 43those who have brought on this work, all you to whom war is necessary, and who justify it; go you, and face the Japanese bullets and mines, but we will not go, because we not only do not need to do this, but we cannot understand how it can be necessary to any one.”
 
But no, they do not say this; they go, and they will continue to go; they cannot but go as long as they fear that which ruins the body and not that which ruins both the body and the soul. “Whether we shall be killed,” they argue, “or maimed in these chinnampos, or whatever they are called, whither we are driven, we do not know; it yet may happen that we shall get through safely, and, moreover, with rewards and glory, like those sailors who are now being feasted all over Russia because the Japanese bombs and bullets did not hit them, but somebody else; whereas should we refuse, we should be certainly sent to prison, starved, beaten, exiled to the province of Yakoutsk, perhaps even killed immediately.” So with despair in their hearts, leaving behind a good rational life, leaving their wives and their children,—they go.
 
Yesterday I met a Reservist soldier accompanied by his mother and wife. All three were riding in a cart; he had had a drop too much; his wife's face was swollen with tears. He turned to me:—
 
“Good-by to thee! Lyof Nikolaevitch, off............