Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/183

Rh fine voice, came to Moscow, and found a place in the chorus at the opera-house. She gradually rose to a high position, and was earning a large salary, half of which she sent to her master. Out of caprice he ordered her back to the estate, where she resumed the drudgery of a peasant life. He refused all offers of compensation, and said his serf should do what he wished.

"Another serf had established a successful business in Moscow, where he was employing two or three hundred workmen. The master allowed him to remain there for years, taking for his compensation a large part of the serf's earnings, and finally, in a fit of anger, ordered the man home again. The man offered to pay a hundred times as much as he could earn on the estate, but the master would not listen to it, and the business was broken up and ruined.

"Things went on in this way for two or three centuries. Various changes were made in the laws, and the condition of the serfs, especially of those belonging to the Crown, was improved from time to time. At last, in 1861, came the decree of emancipation from the hands of Alexander II., and the system of serfdom came to an end.

"It was not, as many people suppose, a system of sudden and universal freedom. The emancipation was gradual, as it covered a period of several years, and required a great deal of negotiation. The land-owners were compensated by the Government for their loss; the serfs received grants of land, varying from five to twenty-five acres, with a house and a small orchard, and the result was that every agricultural serf became a small land-owner. Private or Government serfs were treated alike in this respect, and the condition of the peasant class was greatly improved.

"Since they have been free to go where they like, the serfs have crowded to the cities in search of employment, and the owners of factories and shops say they can now obtain laborers much easier than before. Manufacturing interests have been materially advanced along with agriculture, and though many persons feared the results of the emancipation, it is now difficult to find one who would like to have the old state of things restored.

"Russian emancipation of the serfs and American abolition of slavery came within a short time of each other. Both the nations have been greatly benefited by the result, and to-day an advocate of serfdom is as rare in Russia as an advocate of slavery in the United States."

Frank read to his cousin the little essay we have just quoted; then he read it to the Doctor, and asked whether it would be well to insert it in his journal.

"By all means do so," the Doctor replied. "There are not many 12