Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-02-13
AN AMERICAN ABROAD.
Sunset Cox Gives Some Charm
Ing Views of Oriental
Lands.
A Fresh, Crisp View of Nihilism
in Russia, and the Cause
Thereof

WASHINGTON, February As. s
Cox passed me on the street last night
and stopping to talk a minute | asked
what it had cost him to see Europe
ut cost just my Congressional salary
of $1,000 to pay mine and my wife's
expenses and make journey of eight
months around the great circle OF
Europe. We went to Constantinople,
to Egypt, to Palestine, to Russia, to
Norway and Sweden, and, of course,
went where we liked in Middle Eu-
rope. For that amount of money we
stopped at the very best hotels, had
the best rooms and attendants, and
had the best COMMISSIONERS to show
us about"
Were you good deal troubled
with vermin, bedbugs, etc.?"
"Well, some. All the south Of Eu-
rope, the north of Africa, and Asia, Of
course, have their pests. You begin to
feel it at Constantinople. l think we
were plagued more by a sand-hy along
the eastern coasts of the Mediterra-
mean than by Aeas. Those spiteful flies
kept my wife in as great state Of ex
ASPIRATION as she ever shows"
Speaking Of the mail service, Mr..
Cox said;
II wrote a good many newspaper
letters, and all of them came through
safely, but that one in which | de
scribed my presentation to the Sultan.
1t was the most interesting that |
wrote. That never came to hand, and
l never could write it again. Lew
Wallace, our minister, obtained the
presentation for me, while my wife
was allowed, without my company,
however, to go to the Seraglio, and to
see the female life of the Sultan's
household.
How did you find the Consular
service of the United States, Mr.
Cox?"
II was very agreeably surprised al
its excellence. Our Consuls alone
tina. coast, as far as l observed, were
observing. shrewd, good fellows, many
of them badly underpaid. General
Lew Wallace is a man of both literary
and worldly talents and makes very
good Minister. l could find nothing
of our Consulates in st, Petersburg
One of the best fellows found was al
Cbristiana, Norway. He was only get.
ting $500 a year out of his fees. Since
| came back l have had him raised tt
$1,000 a year. We finished the for
eign service bill last Saturday. an
on the Appropriating Committee, yoJ
know"
What do you think of Russia, Mr.
Cox?"
well, Russia is in a very bad con
dition, arising from the want of an
industrial and self-supporting society
The government has picked out per
sons in every Province in Russia anC
educated them thoroughly giving then
fine technical educations for its wa
purposes, in the engineering schools
in the languages, so as to make then
accomplished tools OF the Gar. Now
these men have no occupation in Rus
STA alter they are educated. There i
literally nothing to do where they re
side. They have had no business ex
perience. Consequently they becom
Nihilists. Nihilism in Russia is tn,
effervesence Of the intellect demand
ing more and better institutions thai
naked despotism; demanding career
congenial occupation, freedom o
speech and of action; in short, it i
education detesting absolutism an
idleness.
THE common people of Russia ar
devoted to the Gar. They call hin
their father. The cabmen that drOv
US around, the laborers, all the bot
tom stratum of society are loyal t
the soul, and will kill man if he say
anything against their holy an,
dreaded master, the Gar. But thes
educated, unainching Nihilists meal
to transform their society to the like
ness Of Europe and America or t
perish with it.
"Mr. Cox, do any Of them in Eu
rope live as we'll as we do in tn
United States?"
No; there is no country like thi
anywhere, yet the whole commercia
character Of our life sometime
fatigues the brain"