Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-16

had been the innocent cause of the entire
situation, watched him out of sight with
admiring eyes.
From George Remnants Adventures in
Eastern Siberia" IN the November Cen
fury Is taken the following: We had no
difficulty IN getting post horses until just
before dark Monday evening. when we
reached the Station of Turinopovorotnaya
Too-rln-o-po-vo-rotenah-hay). about fifty
miles from Chita. and found the whole
village IN a state of intoxication. Sleighs
filed with young men and boys were ca
reering hither and thither with wild
whoOps and halloos; long lines of peasant
girls In bright colored calico dresses were
Unsteadily p~romenading back and forth in
the streets with their arms around one an
other and singing khovorod songs: the sta
tion-house was filed with flushed and ex-
cited people from neighboring settlements,
who had evidently been participating in a
celebration of some kind and were about
starting for their homes: the station-mas-
ter, who perhaps had not finished his cele-
bratlOn was nowhere to be found: there
was not a driver about the stables. and the
'starosta (stah-ro-stah), a short. fat. old
man, who looked like a burgher from Am
sterdam, was SO drunk that even with the
aid of a cane he could hardly stand on his
feet. In vain we tried to ascertain the
reasons for this surprising epidemic of in
ebrlatlon. Nobody was sober enough to
explain to US what had happened. From
the excited and more or less incoherent
conversation 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 a sleigh by the soberest
Of his Pensioners. If the station-master.
the starosta, the village priest, the drivers
and all the inhabitants were drunk there
was evidently no prospect Of our being able
to get horses. In fact, we could not find
anybody who seemed sober enough to know
the difference between the horse and his
harness. We therefore brought our bag
gage into the crowded st~ation-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 n small
baby. : x
About 9o'clock the noise, tumult, and
shouting in the village streets began to
subside; the station. master, whose intoxi-
cation had taken the form of severe dignity.
suddenly appeared, and in a tone of stern
menace wanted to know where the post
drivers were and what all this disorder
meant. Final
ly, when we had almost abandoned the
hope of ever getting away, a really sober
man IN a ragged sheepskin coat emerged
from the darkness and reported in a bust
ness-like manner to the station-master that
the horses were ready for US. The drunk
en- and irate official, who seemed DESTROYS
of indicating his dignity and authority in
some way, overwhelmed the unfortunate
driver with abuse, and ended by ining
him fifty kopecks-whether for being so
Der or for having the horses ready | do not
know. We piled our baggage into the
sleigh, climbed in upon it, and rode out of
the intoxicated settlement with thankful
hearts. As the last faint sounds of revelry
died away in the distance behind us | said
to the driver: Whats the matter with
e~verybodyin this village? The whole pop
ulation seems to be drunk
"'Iheyv We been consecrating a new
church, said the driver, soberly.
"'Consecrating a church, | exclaimed
in amazement. Is that the way you on
secrate churches?'
times they drink. After the services they
had a ~gulainia ia sort of holiday promen-
ade with music and spirituous refresh
mentsl, and some of them crooked their
elbows too often
".Some of them!' I repeated. Al 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 a Christian, he replied with
simplicity. I'm a Buriat.'
''As a Christian-if not a member of the
holy orthodox church, was silenced by
the unconscious irony of the reply. The
only sober man in a village of 800 or 400
inhabitants proved to be a pagan, and he
had just been fined 80 kopecks by a Chris
tian official for not getting drunk with
other good citizens and thus showing his
respect for the newly consecrated ediice
and his appreciation of the benign infu-
ence of the holy orthodox faith.