The Penn's Grove record., 1883-12-01

return. When parting for any length
of time it seems to be the custom {,
shake hands three or four time.
and men often kiss each other good
bye?"
Bread is made of rye flour
is very dark, almost black, ant
always sour. This, if eaten by two
persons, with salt, is a sort of covenant
of friendship between them. Tea is Z
favorite drink, is served very hot and il
glasses. Russians take two full meali
a day, at noon and in the evening, con
tenting themselves with a very scanty
repast in the morning. As for ourselves
during our stay here, we have oul
meals at the Russian club house, which
is also q sort of eating house for the of
6cers and their families. Our meals
according TO the phraseology of the
place, consist of breakfast from IL NJ,
till 2 z. NJ, dinner from 8 TO 8 p. NJ.
We get our supper next morning al
home. AT the club house we have
been RECALLED with white bread which
has the virtue of being sour, a kind Of
light brown bread which is net sour,
cabbage soup for each meal, with a rare
change to some other soup, large GU
cumbers picked in brine and then
soaked until but very little taste of any
thing remains in them, potatoes. fish,
beef, fowl, and with what the Chinese
waiter termed ''ydung cow" Cabbage
IS used largely by the Russians as an
article Of food several times on great
occasions instead of the regular cab
bage soup, the broth was served in a
separate dish accompanied by a good
big piece OF cabbage pie. Lovers of pie,
consider a cabbage pie excellent. For
dessert we were sometimes favored with
what we could call by no other name
than ''the five kinds OF fruit" consist
ing of raisins, prunes, figs, dates and
dried apples, all stewed together.
Yesterday was a grand holiday, be-
ing as the Russians told us the empe-
ror's name day, meaning, we suppose,
the anniversary of his christening.
Bells were rung places of business were
closed, churches held service, soldiers
were on parade, bands were playing
flags were flying, rain was falling, and
altogether we had a fine time. During
a review of the troops, SIX large glasses
of champagne were brought out and
taken by as many officers, who, in turn
standing before the mel, said something
in a very loud voice; themen were then
told to ''hurrah,o which they accord
ingly did while the officers drank the
wine. Judging from the number of
intoxicated meh to be seen ON the street
in the afternoon and evening the men
must have had their wine after the re-
view. AT noon a salute was fired by
the gunboats in the haTbor. The En-
glish fleet of eight ships has been here a
week and there are several Russian
men-of-war in the port, so the salute
was a sounding one.
AT one end of the town are the in
fantTy barracks; at the other extremity
are the marine barracks. In conneo-
ton with the latter is "a hospital EN-
ploying fifteen physicians. The gov
eminent has a building here for re-
pairing t0rpedoes and is erecting IL dry
dock. We were invited one morning
by the officer in charge of one of the
torpedo boats to go on board to witness
the practice of torpedoes. Before GO
ing to the boat we We're shown through
the building where the men were at
work upon those terrible Instruments
OF war. The ones shown us are called
ON account of their shape, the fish tor
pedo. They are made of steel, are
cylindrical in form. tapering at both
ends, are nineteen feet long, weigh
about nine hundred pounds and %
here about three thousand dollars. 4
The material used for exploding them
is ~pyroxyline, an explosive cheaper than
gunpowder, the amount used for one
torpedo costing ten dollars, or less. In
practicing with them on the boats they
are so arranged as not to explode,
After being well oiled to prevent their
rustIng i'll the sea water, tney are pro-
jected from a large tube by means OF
compressed air, and go rushing through
the water, leaving a foaming track be-
hind them. The compressed air with
in them prevents their sinking, and
they are taken up and used again. /
am sorry not to be mechanic enough to
give you a description of their eonstruc-
ton, but there are too many skilled
mechanics IN America for me to attempt
such a task for their reading.
l. There are two farms belonging to the
governments "a short distance from
town, as well as other farms belonging
to private individuals. But of fruits
we have none except those brought
from China and Japan. Vegetables
are few. Cattle are largely imported
from Corea. The sunliower in all its
beauty is grown, not on account of the
aesthetic qualities for which Oscar
Wilde cultivated the tender plant, but
for a more practical purpose. The
people use the seeds as an article OF
food.