Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1884-09-19
TIE AHERAGE RUSSIAN.
a Capital FellO,O TSu He IUcks HIS shirt
Ia.

- SuRtut RSttOU AHt AO ANOnS heo ofssAa
IN.
From the London Telegraph
As for the Russians being" barbara
ans" and to O great extent incurably |
barbarous, that is o position susceptible
of great deal of argument from many |
points of view. The most familiar, most
ad captandum, and perhaps the most
unjust theory is that even the better
educated and refined of Russians are at
the best only coated with thin neei
of civilization. The great master OF
cynical terseness in expression, Prince
Bismarck, has lent the immense weight
of his celebrity and his repute for fur
reaching sagacity in judging the charac-
ters of mankind to the vcneering" and
" barbarian" hypothesis in his famous
dictum 1.-THE Russian is capital fel.
low till he tucks his shirt ill.," 10 un.
derstand the tremendous force of this
merciless resume of the Muscovite char
acter one must have lived in Russia.
Ivan Ivanovich the mouiik-peasant,
droschky-driver, mechanic, porter, Ia
borer, or what not-wears his shirt
usually red cotton one-outside his
other garments. All those familiar with
Russian humanity know Ivan Ivauovich
to be, on the whole, "capital fellow.
He is frank, brave, generous, affection.
ate and docile. He is fervent devotle
of the grossly idolatrous rites of the
Russo Greek Church which some Angh
can ritualists are Insane enough to think
can, without much difficulty, be brought
into communion with the Church of En-.
gland He is grossly ignorant; but he
has the most reverence for the offices oil
the church, and does not think the worse
of his Pope or priest when, in his vii
lage, he is occasionally called upon to
assist in carrying home from the dram
shop the ecclesiastic dead drunk, on a
stretcher. Ivan himself gets tipsy when
ever he has the chance Of doing so but
he is the best natured of sots, and too
much beer or vodka scarcely ever makes
him riotous or pugnacious. Inebriety
rather incites him to the shedding OF
maudlin tears, or to an excess of piety
in expectorating to the right and left in
order to exercise the devil.
Truthful he can scarcely be said to be.
He has been too recently slave to be
able to understand the moral culpability
of telling lie, but he is passing honest.
He is in fine, "good wood" capable of
being seasoned and fashioned to many
useful purposes, and no is in particular
industrious, patient and submissive. He
is not very inventive, but he has cur
iously strong initiative faculty, almost
Chinese in its concentration and labor
ious fidelity to the thing to be initiated.
Thence he can be taught to be an ad-
mirable cabinet-maker, an inlayer, an
EVANGELIST, q pottery-painter, and Q
worker in metals. Similarly, his woman
kind are the most skillful of embroider.
ers. He is very domesticated, and very
fond of his children, although he occa.
sionally thrashes his wife. OF strong
liquor, as 1 have limited, he is passion
ately fond: otherwise he is content t.
live on the simplest and coarsest fare
White bread he seldom tastes "bricl
tea" is, after corn brandy, his favorit'
beverage; half-pickled ogurtsi, or dwar
sucumbers, enter largely into his diet
and, with bad drainage, help to give hin
typhus and the cholera; and he Gu
sleep anywhere-the top of q stove L
his most chosen resting-place-quite in
different as to bed-clothes. There is NJ
drawer soldier than Ivan Ivanovich whei
he is drawn for the CONSUMPTION, an
cropt and shaven, and put into holden
gray gaberdine, with spiked helmet o
: his head and rifle in his hand. ORES
: him up in gaudy livery, powder h
head, and put silken hose on his bi
calves, and he will make as stalwart an
3 as obedient lackey. Put him on IL
e box of droschky, a sledge or carriag'
IL accouter him in blue caftan, with
sash round his waist and fur cap o
S his head, and let him hold the reil
d squarely, and he will drive you throue
o the snowy perspectives" Of st. Peter
l burg for hours and hours-aye and VIZ
/. unmurmuringly outside the house whe
l. you are visiting, or the restaurant
re which you are dining, say from 8 in I
II evening until Q or in the morning.