The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-12-07
RELIGIOUS cARousAL
One of Mr.. Kcnnan's Strange Experienc,
I'm Eastcru Siberia.


We had no difficulty in getting post
horses until just before dark Monday
evening, when we reached the station
of Turinopovorotnaya (Too-rin-o-po-vo.
rotenah-yah), about fifty miles from
Chita, and found the whole village in a
state of hilarious intoxication. Sleighs
filled with young men and boys were
careering hither and thither with wild
whoops and halloos; long lines of peas
ant girls in bright-colored calico dresses
were unsteadily promenading back and
forth in the streets with their arms
around one another and singing MoroDod
songs; the station-house was filled with
flushed and excited people from neigh
boring settlements, who had evidently
been participating in celebration of
some kind and we're about starting for
their homes; the station-master, who
perhaps had not finished his celebration,
was nowhere to be found there was not
driver about the stables; and the
''starosta" (stah-ro-stah), a short, fat old
man, who looked like burgher from
Amsterdam, was so drunk that even with
the aid of a cane he could hardly stand
on his feet. In vain we tried to as
certain the reasons for this sur
prising epidemic of inebriation. No.
body was sober enough to explain to
us what had happened. From the ex-
cited and more or less incoherent con-
versation of the intoxicated travellers in
the station-house, / learned that even
the village priest was so drunk that he
had to be taken home in sleigh by the
soberest of his parishioners. If the sta
tion-master, the starosta, the village
priest, the drivers and all of the inhab-
itants were drunk, there was evidently
no prospect of our being able to get
horses. In fact, we could not find any
body who seemed sober enough to know
the difference between a horse and his
harness. We therefore brought our bag
gage into the crowded station house and
sat down in an unoccupied corner to
study intoxicated humanity and await
further developments. Every person in
the house was drunk except ourselves
and one small baby.
About nine o'clock the noise, tumult
and shouting in the village streets be-
gan to subside; the station-master,w whose
intoxication had taken the form of Sc
we're official dignity, suddenly appeared,
and in tone of stern menace wanted to
know where the post drivers were and
what all this disorder meant. n
Finally, when we had almost abandoned
the hope of ever getting away, really
sober man in a ragged sheepskin coat
emerged from the darkness and reported
in business-like manner to the station
master that the horses were ready for
us. The drunken and irate official, who
seemed desirous of vindicating his dig
nifty and authority in some way, over
whelmed the unfortunate driver with
abuse, and ended by fining him fifty ko.
pecks-whether for being sober or for
having the horses ready, L do not know.
We piled our baggage into the sleigh,
climbed in upon it, and rode out of the in
toxicated settlement with thankful
hearts. AS the last faint sounds of rev.
elry died away in the distance behind
us, said to the driver: whats the
matter with everybody in this village?
The whole population seems to be
drunk"
"They've been consecrating new
church," said the driver, soberly.
"Consecrating a churchI" exclaimed
in amazement. SIS that the way you
consecrate churches?"
81 don't know" he replied. Some-
times they drink. After the services
they had gutainia "a sort of holiday
promenade with music and spirituous
refreshments) and some of them crooked
tn cir elbows too often"
"Some of them" l repeated. "AN OF
them, you mean. You're the only sober
man I've seen in the place. How does
it happen that you're not drunk?"
"I'm not Christian, he replied, with
quiet simplicity. I'm a Buriat."
AS Christian-if not a member of the
Holy Orthodox church, was silenced
by the unconscious irony of the reply.
The only sober man in village of three
or four hundred inhabitants proved to
be a pagan, and Se had just been fined
fifty kopecks by a Christian official for
not getting drunk with other good citi.
zens api thus showing his respect for
the newly consecrated edifice and his
of the benign influence of
the Holy Orthodox Faith!-George Ken
man, in Century