The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-08-22
OUR STORY TELLER.
A "TARTAR FIGHTv AT KAZAN.

~ David Kerr in Lippncotts MagaZine.J
Roosha? Why, yes, ought to know
something about Roosha, seein' Pve
lived there, of 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 a workin' man to git on, I'd
say to him, list as say to you now,
"Go to Rooshaw Why SO? says you.
Well, jist this way. You see, cotton
mills and mowin'-nachines and steam
plows and sich 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 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 same-well, he cum
out here bout ten years ago, and went
TO some place on the Volga, with some
crack-jaw name. or other that l 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 gifts
q 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
II that amt gittin' on, 1 should iist 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, i can tell yer, if you
was to go into one O. them hot work
rooms on a roastin' day in July, with the
thermometer anywhere you like above a
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 so had jist got to try it themselves
for a day or two. Then, ag'in, most
likely there's only one road from your
place to the nearest town, and jist when
you want to send off your stuff I'll come
on pourin' rain for ever so long, and the
whole road III be nothin' but plash and
mash, like a 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 al
home, but nasty jabberin' row, jist as
il 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 fol
much2 says you. Well, that depend;
pretty much on how you look at it
When you've once shown 'em how to dc
thing they'll do it every bit as well a.
yourself, but they take powerful dea
o. showin', they do. You see, the
Rooshan has his way of doing every
thing, and tryin' to teach him any othel
way is as bad as eating soup with one
pronged fork. And then to see hov
thick some of 'em arel Why, they ma,
well be brave in battle, for it 'ud take
precious clever bullet to get through on,
OF their 'eads, it would. Here's one sam
pie for yer: A friend o. mine in Moske
had got Rooshan servant-one o. then
reg'lar Dereuenshis {" villagers "), and s,
ONE day he sends him TO the shop witt
two o. them twenty-kopeck pieces Isl,
and one. half pence), tellin' him to bu,
bread with one and butter with t'other
OF goes the chap, and never comes bacl
ag'in; 80 at last his master goes to SCI
what's up; and there he finds Mr.. Iva
at the door of the shop, holdin' out tn
money in one hand and scratchin' hi
head with the other, as if he'd forge
his own name, and couldn't find hissel
nohow. "Oh, BARN" ("master ~, say
he, in a voice like a fit o. chollerel
whatever am / to do now? I've bee
and mired the two pieces, and now
don't know which was the one for tn
bread and which for the butter"
AS for the Tartars they're troublesom
in another way. They make prim
working men-there's no denyin' it, an
i had ought to know, seein' l was over
gang of 'em myself for more'n a year
but they're the hot-bloodedest lot as eve
] saw yet, and reg'lar born imps fc
fightin', and when they git up shind,
look outl / can speak, for saw the bi
fight betwixt them and the Rooshans
Kazan bout three years ago, and if yo
cares to hear the story tell yer jist no
it all happened.
You tell me as you've been to Kazal
and no, o course, you'll remember thi
the Tartar Town." as they calls it, lii
mile or two east of the reg'lar Roosbs
quarter; and midway between 'em a d,
gully (leastways it's dry in the SUNNI,
time, but you should jist see it arter Il
spring thaw y with little bridge over
Now, the Rooshan gangs and the Tart
gangs, a-comin' from their work, used