The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1889-05-24
THE RUSSIAN IN WAR.
A Prince as "a Private soldier In the Ps
NOUS pleXnn InmpaiKn.

Prince as "a Private soldier In the Pa
nous PIeyDa Campaign.
II may seem "a paradox, but the Rus
slams are the most democratic people
In Europe Every officer was the corre-
spondcnt's cOmrade. Prince Shakos-
ky, the ill-conditioned General who
made such mess Of tho July Plcyna,
was the only exception ] ever knew.
If the samOvar was In service the
officer shared his tea with the corre-
spOndent; in the middle Of II battle, IL
the officer had n couple OF sandwiches,
he would offer one Of them to the cor
respondent. From the highest TO tho
lowest, in regard to military informa-
tion, the Russians were incredibly
frank; the correspondent never had TO
ask questions as TO situation, DISPOSE
tions or Observation-Disclosures in re-
gard TO those matters was volunteered
TO him. Tho only secret they ever
had-and ! must own they kept it well
was in regard 10 the point at which
tho crossing OF the Danube was to DO
made. SkObeleir "had not the faintcst
idea" although couple OF hours
previously he had been rcconnoitering
tho approaches. Prince Tzcretien
"rcally had not even the remotcst con-
ccption.n Still, even in regard TO tho
crossing OF the Danube, the friendly
Russians were not incXorablc. | could
not be told the locality Of the crossing,
but should be escorted betimcs TO the
headquarters Of the General command
ing the division which was TO take the
lead in the operations. 1t was rather
an amusing experience The guide
sent TO escort me was i'm the uniform
Of private soldier-a tall, handsome
man, riding n ilno gray horse. lie
spoke English fucntly and with
out trace Of accent. AS we
rode along together and talked. the
tone OF this private soldiers conversa-
tion bowidcrcd me. lie Enew his
Europe rs II il had been his native
parish. He had what Americans call
"tho inside track in regard to En-
glish affairs, social, political and
financial. He spoke of country houses
of which he had been the guest, and
commented on tho merits Of piece Of
statuary in the drawing-room at Sand
ringham. At last | asked his name.
lIo was OF one Of Russia's oldest
princcly families, and belonged TO tho
diplomatic corps. but when the war
began had volunteered for military
service, and, not being qualified to be
an officer, had fallen into line rs n pri-
vatc soldier As we rode along |
asked him whore we were bound for
which we were full en- route could be
any longer n secret. But he looked
upon il still I'm this light. no doubt In
accordance with his instructions, and
OF course | had no more to say for tho
time being. BY and by we reached u
point whence radiatcd four cross
roads. 1t became obvious to me that
my guido was himself at fault. took
no heed while he led mo first along
one road Il little way, then along an.
other, returning puzzled to the cross
roads. At last he had to confess. "lt
seems TO me I've lost my way
"Sorry | can not be Of any service
was my reply, "sincc | do not know
whcrc il is you want TO go To. | have
been all over this region and know
whore each Of these roads leads"
My princc-privatc-soldcr-diplomatist
burst into Il laugh, and then mcn-
toned our destination. "Thcn this
way" said |, "about an hours ride"
--Archibald Forbes, in Gcntlcman's
Magazine.