The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1886-10-30
RUSSIAN SCHOOLGIRLS.
) Description Of the Class Prom which q;
Sihiiists Obtain Valuable Recruits.

DTrf1Aptf4G o. ttzA-5 rom ~ ffl<ts
Sihiiis,s Obtain Valuable Recruits.
The newcomer had jOurneyed more
than thousand yersts 10 spend her va
cation at home. Looking a: eighteen
younger By at least three years. she
had al the spr.ghtly buoyancy and ease
Of manner that characterize feminine
society in the Russian capital Her
features were strikingly oval; the
snallness Of the nose and mouth rave
the face an almost infantilc expression.
but the forehead was lofty; in merry
moments the brown-black ewes scin-
,'..s,cd ".th Light and motion: the
counteDance, normally pale. flushed
family under excitement. Sophie Vas
silieTBa had teeth Of peculiar white
ness. and laughed with clear. silvery
laugh that to n lover must have
sounded Ike music. A child in man
ners, she was woman in experience,
with strange history and an educa-
ton only to be parallcled in the coun-
try OF her birth. Her earliest memories
were Of the storms Of an inland ocean:
her earliest friends were the kith and
kin Of those Mongol toilers Of the sea
whose khibtkas dot almost every shore
and jslet Of the Caspian. At the age of
ten she was entrusted TO the care OF an
intelligent Russian family in Astrakhan.
and there. three years later, she again I
found herself under the paternal roof.
On the completion of her studies at the 4
local gymnasium. she proceeded to 1t. 4
Petersburg. and had al the time Of nv +
meeting with her. already spent three
years at the '.IIigher Courses for
Women" in the capital.
| found Sophie vassilieyna well ac-
Guainied with general literature and
history. She could converse with lu-
ency in French and German. and had
a critical knowledge Of her own
tongue, fortified by the smatterino
OF ecclesiastical Slavonic usually
entailed by the theological course
in Russian schools. With mod
crn science, particularly chemistry
and astronomy. she was surpris- ,
ingly familiar. Sociology was her IA
yoritc study. Spencer she knew at
first hand. The doctrines Of DARWIN
had reached her by route singuIariy
circuitous. 1t was Pissarey who. in
his natural school to the
rsthetic system Of the great art critic,
bIcllnsky, produced body Of ethical
science. mainly based on the Darwinian
-eyelations, which is TODAY the ground
work of almost all free thought in Rus
ian educational establishments OF
native writers. one for whose compo-
itions she had great partiality was the
loyeiist Dosio.cysky. an author who.
With mastery power of analyzng
motives. painted the suilerings Of the A
DOR, and. himself paralyzed. delighted
0 infiict morbid creations upon his
eaders. Sophie Nassilievna had also
dOpted some Of the ideas of the famous -,
and exile Chern shevsky, II
hose socialistic romance, s.What's 10
Donc?' exerted. even long after its
an enormous influence
pom the Russian youth of both sexes an
ONE of these apparently aggressive 70
'cts mention in order to present a
pc as well as an individual; for this
oung Russian, with a personality
her own, had been moulded
: influences that sway q whole clasr
fond Of change. emf H.
'ntly impractical, easily moved by en- ~
usiasm or Indignation. idealistic in
r views Of life. receptive of new ideas
ID openly cynical in her rejection of
any old ones. interested in human
ture for is own sake. with a strong
tolerance of oppression in all its
rms. Sophie Vassilieyna seemed to
Her from the same nobleness of i'm
lse and meanness of opportunity as
use which afllict her sisters Of the
W generation of Russian women
"au''d Noble. IN atlantic Monthly.
~.