Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-03-02
A CONGRESSMAN ABROAD.
Sunset Cox's Observations in Foreign
Lands.

hlSHV, anu stopping W IalK u minute,
asked what it had cost him to see Eu
rope. at cost just my congressional
salary of $1,000 to pay mine and my
wife's expenses, and make a journey o.
eight months around the great circle
of Europe. We went to Constantine
pie, to Egypt, to Palestine, to Russia
to Norway and Sweden, and, of course
went where we liked in Middle Europe
For that amount of money we stopped
at the very best hotels, had the bes
rooms and attendants, and had tht
best commissiOnaires to show us about.
"Were yon good deal troubled will
vermin, bed.bugs, etc. p
"Well, some. All the south of Eu
rope, the north of Africa, and Asia, OF
course, have their pests. You begir
TO feel it at Constantinople. thinl
we were plagued more by sand fly
along the eastern coast of the Mediter
ranean than by leas. Those spitefu
dies kept my wife in as great a state Of
exasperation as she ever shows"
Speaking of the mail-seryice, Mr.. Cox
said: 81 wrote good many newspa
per letters, and all of them came
through safely but that one in which
described my presentation to the sultan
1t was the most interesting that
wrote. That never came to hand, and
| never could write it again. Lew Wal
lace, our minister, obtained the presen
tation for me, while my ife was al
lowed, without my company, however
to go to the seraglio, and to see the fe
male life of the sutan's household"
GLOW did you find the consular ser.
vice of the United States. Mr.. Cox?'
81 was very agreeably surprised at
its excellence. Or c)nsuls all along
that coast, as far as | observed, were
observing, shrewd, goo fellows, many
of them badly III derpaid. Gen. Lew
Wallace is man OF both literary and
worldly talents, and makes "A very
good minister. ! could find nothing
of cOnsulates in st. Petersburg. One
of the best fellows | found was at
Christiana, Norway, lie was getting
only 5000 a year out of his fees
Since | came back | have had him
raised to 1000 Il year. We finished
the foreign service last Saturday. |
am on the appropriation committee,
you know"
"Vhat do you think of Russia, Mr.,
Cox?'
"Well, Russia is in very bad con-
dition, arising from the want of an in
dustrial and self supporting society.
The government has picked out per.
sons in every province in Russia and
educated them thoroughly, given them
lne technical educatiOns, for its war
purposes, in the engineering, in the
languages, so as to make them accom-
plished tools of the czar. Now, these
men have no occupation in Russia af.
ter they are educated. There is literal
ly nothing to do where they reside.
They have had no business experience,
Consequently, they become nihilists.
Nihilism in Russia is the effervescencc
of the intellect demanding more and
better institutions than naked despot-
ism; demanding a career, congenial oc-
cupation, freedom Of speech and Of ac.
tion; in short, it is education detest-
ing absolutlsm and idleneSs. The COM
mon people of Russia are devoted to
the czar, They call him their faith
er. The cabman that drove us around,
the laborers, all the bottom stratum of
society, are loyal to the soul, and will
kill men if he says anything against
their holy and dread master, the car
But these educated, uuninching nihil.
lists mean to transform that society to
the likeness of Europe and America
or to perish with it,"
"AIr. Cox, do any of them in Europe
live as well as we do in the United
StatesP"
"No; there is no country like this
anywhere, yet the wholly commercial
character of our life sometimes ia
tigues the BRAIN"
The same evening | talked to an ac
complished American lady who has
just returned from several years ab
sence in Europe. Said |: Are you
not glad to get back to Washington p
81 was glad to get back to America,
she said; "but | do not know that
can say the same about Washington
This is a pleasant cline, and a stranger
to political society is for a while enter
tanned here until she has seen some
thing larger and more real, This
country gives no rest to the sole of The
feet to a person in pursuit of rest. II
is one eternal tramp, tramp, tramp
But in Washington, where there is
perhaps, more repOse than in any othel
American society, one is struck after {
return from study and quiet in Europe
with the unsubstantiality of the polit
ical society. 1t seems that everybod,
is waiting for somebody else to die ant
get his office. The restlessness of &C
tion here becomes the restlessnes
of dependence and of small of
fetal ambition. There are no peculi
arities in American society Of repose
full kind. AS soon as people max
money in America they rush into fin
clothes and grow more particular abou
their society. You take an Italian
watering place, and you will see tn
Oldest families in Europe, like the Or
SIMS and Colonnas, come up and pu
away all their fine clothing, and wea
straw hats and sit out on the beach
hardly distinguishable from fishermen
The most American-like woman say
at an Italian wateringplace was tn
widow of the late King Victor En-
manuel, who was his mistress man
years, until he found himself about +
die, as he thought, and the priest
would not give him absolution till h
married this woman. Old Victor En-
manuel left two hundred illegitimat
children, Of course not by the sam
mother, who were all provided for il
the civil list of the state, according t
his demand while alive. This madar
was an ignorant peasant girl of grea
personal beauty. She came out ever
day in a cavalcade, with her dres
decolette, her bosom and throat an
arms covered with diamonds, rubie
and precious stones, and her dress a
magnificent as the wife of New Yor
politician in Tweed's time, while sh