The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-08-31
OUR STORY TELLER.
A "TARTAR FIGHT" AT KAZAN.

IL David Kerr in Lippncott's Maga
Roosha? Why, yes, ought to know
something about Roosha, seein' Pve
lived there, off and on, this fifteen year
and more; and if young man was to
come to me and Ak me where's the best
place for workin' man to git on, I'd
say to him, jist as / say to you now,
eco to Rooshal" Why so? says you.
Well, jist this way. You see, cotton
mills and mowin' machines and steam
plows and SIGH are quite new ideas out
there; and they haven't got the trick of
workin' 'em properly, not yet; so that
any man as has not got it is pretty safe
to get anything he likes to ak in the
way O. wages. Why, knowed a man
once-common factory-hand he was
when he started; couldn't read nor
write, nor nothin'; but he had his wits
about him all the sam--well, he cum
out here bout ten years ago, and went
to some place on e Volga, with some
crack-jaw name or other that I can't
reklect. The first year he was there he
got as good pay as an overseer at home
next year he was overseer himself; two
years after that he owned his own mill,
he did; and now, jist t'other day l gits
letter from him to say he's goin' home
ag'in, with money in both pockets, and
a-goin' to buy a big house and bit of
ground, an / don't know what all. And
if that amt gittin' on, should jist like
to know what is?
But you mustn't think, neither, as it's
all jist as easy as supping porridge; it
amt that, nohow can tell yer, if you
was to go into one O. them hot work
rooms on roastin' day in July, with the
thermometer anywhere you like above
hundred, you'd feel more like lynn
down in the shade and havin' drink O.
beer than workin' hard for nine or ten
hours on end. They say we overseers
have an easy life of it. | wish them as
says 80 had jist got to try it themselves
for day or two. Then, ag'n, most
likely there's only one road from your
place to the nearest town, and jist when
you want to send of your stuffitll come
on pourin' rain for ever SO long, and the
whole road ii be nothin' but plash and
mash, like dish of cabbage soup and
there the stuff'll have to lie idle for
weeks and weeks, and you've jist got to
grin and bear it. And in them parts,
instead of one good pelt and have done
with it, it keeps on drip, drip, drip, for
days and days, in a sneakin', half and
half kind O way, as if it hadn't the
pluck to come out with good hearty
pour. The very thunder don't make a
good round-mouthed peal like it does at
home, but nasty jabberin' row, jist as
if it was a-tryin' to talk French. And,
altogether, it is place to try a chaps
temper; it is, indeed.
Are the native workmen good for
much? says you. Well, that depends
pretty much ON how you look at it.
When you've once shown 'em how to do
thing they'll do it every bit as we'll as
yourself, but they take powerful deal
O showin', they do. You see, the
Rooshan has his way of doing every
thing, and tryin' to teach him any other
way is as bad as eating soup with a one
pronged fork. And then to see how
thick some of 'em are! Why, they may
we'll be brave in hattie, for it I'D take
precious clever bullet to get through one
of their leads, it would. Here's one SAM
pie for yer: A friend O. mine in Mosker
had got RooshSn servant--one O. them
regular Dereverashis {" villagers ~, and SO
one day be sends him to the shop with
two O. them twenty-kopeck pieces (six
and one half pence), tellin' m to buy
bread with one and butter with t'other.
OFF soes the chap, and never comes back
ag'in; so at last his master goes to see
what's up; and there he finds Mr.. Ivan
at the door of the shop, holdin' out the
mon y in one hand and scratchin' his
head with the other, as if he'd forgot
his own name, and couldn't find hisself
nohow. ooh. BARN" ("master ~, says
he, in voice like fit o. chollerer,
whatever am to do now? I've been
and nsired the two pieces. and now |
don't know which was the one for the
bread and which for the butter"
As for the Tartars they're troublesome
In another way. They make prime
working men-there's no denyin' it, and
l had ought to know, seein' was over
gang OF 'em myself for more'n year
out they re the hot-bloodedest Lot as ever