sand, and in Belgium 518, in Russia it barely
reaches 265. It is computed that in the government of Pultava alone, by
no means a populous district, not less than one hundred thousand persons
are absolutely disabled by various chronic complaints. Out of the
forty-nine millions of the laboring class, the "raw material" of the
Russian army, fully fifty per cent. are practically unfit to serve. The
statistics of the average duration of human life are even more terribly
significant. In England and Northern Germany, according to the best
authorities, every man lives, on an average, about 40 years; in Southern
Germany, 38 years; and in France, 36. In Russia, on the other hand, the
average, even in the healthiest regions (_i.e._ the north and west),
varies from 27 to 22 years. Along the banks of the Volga and in the
south-east provinces generally, where the conditions of life are less
favorable, the proportion falls as low as 20 years, while in the
governments of Perm, Viatka and Orenburg it is only 15.

In whatever way this glaring evil may be explained away by native
apologists, it really springs from two very simple causes--insufficient
wages and popular ignorance. The miserably low scale of wages among the
artisans of the great towns has long since become proverbial, but in the
agricultural districts matters are even worse. The ordinary wages of the
Russian "field-hand" are as follows: Laborers by the day, 37-1/2 kopecks
(about 25 cents) per diem; by the month, 23 kopecks (15 cents); by the
season, 17 kopecks (11 cents); in harvest, 75 kopecks (half a dollar).
For this pittance the peasants toil from twelve to fifteen, and often
sixteen, hours a day; and, thanks to their insufficient food, the
constant strain soon begins to tell. A few seasons of such overwork and
their strength breaks down altogether, while, instead of the substantial
diet needed to recruit it, their scanty fare is still further diminished
by the countless fasts of the Greek Church, occurring twice, or even
thrice, a week. Hence, upon the first outbreak of fever or cholera the
poor creatures perish helplessly, thousands upon thousands, while the
St. Petersburg fashionables, yawning over the printed death-roll,
languidly wonder why the lower classes are so careless of their health.
Nor are the calamities entailed by superstition less deplorable than
those which spring from poverty. Those who have seen, in the villages of
the interior, new-born infants plunge