The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-11-27
QUEER RUSSIAN CUSTOMS,
PAID Demonstrating Wives by Proxy
Museum of the Cars.

| faid Notwithstanding Wives by Proxy
| Museum of the Cars.
DIR. Barrett saw great deal of the
Russian people. Some funny things he
observed among them:
did you ever see paid ioker?" he
said. Swell, if you never did you would
| be interested to watch one. There in
those Russian cities they pay so much an
hour to listen to the joker. l have al
ways thought that this class of people
deserve some remuneration, but l never
saw such a thing till l reached st.
Petersburg.
GLOW do they work it?"
swell, the joker provides himself with
200 or 800 tickets, and, mounting a sort
OF rostrum, he announces that he is going
to regale his audience with choice It'd
bits of mirth-provoking lore He begins
selling tickets at about ~ cents each,
and when he has sold enough to warrant
his beginning he turns himself loose,
and the audience remains spellbound by
his humorous stories for an hour or two.
81 listened to them several times, and,
although could not understand one
word the joker said, I was sure from the
way the audience greeted their stories
with roars of laughter that the jokers
and the jokes were above the average.
'Among the lower classes women are
not priced for they beauty. 1t is for
their strength. A lady of our party
asked Russian guide if his wife was
pretty.
No. he answered, she is strong and
good, but she is not pretty. She is ugly
We all laughed, but l must confess adj
mired him for his candor. Parents
choose the wives for their sons, and they
have an eye to the useful as we'll as the
agreeable. If a woman is healthy and
strong she is quite an addition to the
working force of the family of which
she becomes member.
''The Bishops chose the wives for tho
priests, and they generally select the
girls of the older priests who are bur-
dened with the largest families, which
is practical way of looking at the ques-
ton.
Nothing on earth equals in magnifi-
cence the barbaric splendor of those old
Cars. 1 visited the museum, where
they showed me with great pride the
products of the Russian mines. Here
was the largest nugget of gold in the
world; the largest lump of silver, the
largest specimen of malachite and the
largest lapis lazoli, with hundred and
one other things from the Siberian
mines.
81 saw the saddles and caparisons of
some of these old warriors. One, re-
member, had large saddle blanket, as
you might call it, made of cloth of gold.
At a distance it looked perfectly white,
and it was large enough to cover the
greater portion of the body of the war
horse. A closer inspection showed that
it was covered all over with diamonds
of the purest water. The larger ones
were sewn on in the form of stars and
other figures, but the entire surface was
covered with these gems.
'The blanket was worth thousands
and thousands of dollars.
''Then, in one of GATHERINGS palaces,
/ saw columns of pure amber, with the
walls of entire rooms covered with the
same costly stuff.
''And yet in other countries of Europe
amber has become SO scarce that it is
almost impossible to secure a pure ar
ticle, and imitation amber is used for
iewelry. Atlanta Constitution.