STUNDIST CONVERTS TO ORTHODOXY.
THE Russian press, and especially that portion of it devoted to the interests of the orthodox church, is very jubilant over the alleged return of 250 Stundists to the bosom of the true church. We have taken considerable pains to investigate the truth of these newspaper stories of recantations, and we have it now on undoubted authority that the Stundists who have returned to orthodoxy, and about whom so much fussy joy has been expressed, number exactly twenty-nine. They are peasants from the village of Kanev, a district in the province of Kief, and are twenty-nine of as poor specimens of Stundists as could well be found—weak-kneed, timid creatures, who have been frightened and cajoled into the step they have just taken. Their conversion and the story of what happened afterward are interesting as illustrations of the gentler tactics pursued by the mighty Russian Government and Church to win back erring schismatics. For some time previous to their joining the church these men have attracted the favorable notice of the priests and the local police. It was observed that they were by no means strict Stundists. They had ceased to attend the secret Protestant meetings; they were frequently seen in the village drink shops; and although they themselves did not attend the services of the village churches, they sent their wives and children. The priests visited them and promised an easy penance and a hearty welcome back to the church; the police called on them and showed that by their conversion to orthodoxy they would escape impending measures against the Stundists of a terrible nature. The blandishments of the priests, the potency of the vodka, and the terrorism of the police converted these twenty-nine Russian peasants. The priests were very proud of it all. Magnificent services were gotten up in the local churches, and the recreant Stundists stood before the people and received absolution. Dinners were given in their honor; they were fêted and feasted; for days there was beef and brandy galore. But fresh honors were in store for them. They were informed that they must visit Kief—Kief, the holy city, the bourne of the orthodox Russian pilgrim. Free tickets to travel on the Dnieper were procured for them; and, dressed in their Sunday best, they steamed up the river, everywhere received with ovations. A special service was prepared for them in one of the holiest of the orthodox sanctuaries; boys with beautiful voices sang them the pathetic hymns of the church, and priests in gorgeous vestments asked the intercession of the Virgin and all the saints on their behalf. They were then conducted to the Metropolitan, with whom an interview had been prearranged. This old gentleman, one of the most rigorous and cruel of the inquisitors of Stundism, received them with benign parental smiles, gave them ghostly warning and counsel, blessed them each and severally, permitted them to kiss his own particular icon, and presented each with a book about the saints and things of that sort. Of course they could read, as they had once been Stundists. There was more to follow. A pleasant awe fell upon the pilgrims when the police conductors informed them that the governor general would receive them. The excitement was intense. In this country we can hardly gauge the immense distance between a Russian peasant and a governor general. The peasant cringes and creeps before the village policeman, the policeman before his district chief, the district chief before the governor, the governor before the governor general. And so the pilgrims felt as a simple countryman in some distant State might feel when he receives a special invitation to a brilliant function at the White House. Count Ignatieff, the governor general, was most gracious, chatted in a brotherly way to his visitors, asked about their families, and so on. Then he gently admonished them for having left the church for which so much Russian blood had been shed. "Why did you leave us?" he asked plaintively. "It was all through reading the Bible," one of them answered. "That cannot be," the count replied; and, walking over to a bookcase, he took out a magnificently bound copy of the Russian Bible. "I possess a Bible, and yet I remain firmly orthodox." Then the count took the peasants of Kanev all about his palace and showed them the curiosities. They stolidly tramped behind him, their eyes blinded with the splendors of everything. He then bade them an effusively friendly farewell, and presented each on departing with a valuable little cross to be worn on the breast. They'll remember this pilgrimage to Kief for many a long year, and talk of it proudly to their children; and possibly a few more feeble brethren will follow in their steps; for it is not every day that a holy Metropolitan and a brilliant governor general receive simple peasants from the steppe.—Corr. N. Y. Independent.