The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1891-02-05
REAL RUSSIA.
Continued from Ist pags.l

! newly ceded districts about Kars, and was
now returning to his command / doubt If
shall ever make more delightful acquaint-
ance or meet a more admirable veteran.
He was then about 56 years old, and had
been in the army on continuous active
service 40 years, having entered as a cadet
at 16. l had pre-empted the chair next the
window which faced to the front, but as the
General came in l Insisted that he should
take it, while / would ride backward. He
demurred to this, saying that as / had a
billet for that seat was entitled 10 il, but
i answered that he was an older soldier than
/ was, and so insisted that he should take
the choice seat. This. conversation was
carried on in French, as the old General did
not speak English, being thereby an exception
among Russian General officers Of this gen
Grafton.
"Eh, bien," he said in reply to my last
observation, &c est ainsi que yous etes aussi
soldat? De quel pays, pardon, Monsieur
"De PAmerique"
"Ah, vOus cOnnaissez, done, Pillustre Cen
erale Sherman, sans dOnte. / have had the
honor to meet him when he was in the Cau-
casus some years ago. said Gen. Troitzky. i
give the translation of his remarks after the
first sentence)
] said that / had the honor to know Gen.
Sherman personally, but had never served
under his command.
This accidental meeting with Gen. Troit-
zky, and the acquaintance that resulted
from it, was such a piece Of good fortune as
seldom hefalls traveller. There was prob
ably no man in Russia Mt that time, or per-
haps at any time, who had the history,
condition and logic Of events in the Caucasus
so completely at his command as did this
STATELY AND MAGNIFICENT VETERAN
SOLDIER
Of the Empire. Personally he was man Of
commanding presence, impressive manner,
chivalre courtesy, broad and accurate gen
eral information, and IN all his intercourse
with me seemed intent only on giving me
the true state of the case with reference to
the attitude of Russia toward the heterOee-
neous populations Of the Caucasus. He had
terse, epigrammatic way of stating things
which made his conversation entertaining
rs well as instructive. The chief difficulty
encountered in our association was the fact
that the two languages which l could speak
| fuently were English and German, and the
two he could speak 1uentIy were Russian
and French; whereas / spoke French only
after n fashion, while he could speak Ger
man about the same way. As for Russian,
] knew enough Of it TO travel on" but Of
course could not sustain a conversation in
1T. However, between what French / could
talk and what German he could muster we
got along pretty well-particularly with the
occasional assistance of the civil engineer
and scientist before mentioned, Mr.. Aubegg,
who was master Of
SIX OR SEVEN LANGUAGES.
"The Western World" he would say,
gets its impressions of Russian policy and
action through English channels, always
hostile. See how, at the outset Of the Cri-
| mean war, they had books written and
printed actually deifying SchamyI. This
was done to incense Western public opinion
against Russia and her policy. They piet-
ured Sehamyl as q lofty-minded patriot
| leading the Tscherkess and Tchetchenne
and Lesghian tribes in a struggle for liberty.
| But when you get little better acquainted
with the Caucasus you will know what
/ kind OF liberty it was 1t was liberty 10
make razzias on the industrious people of
| the Kuban and Kabardia, numbering the
men and carrying off the women and plum
der into the mountains. As a patriot,
Schamyl was quite on par with your
RED INDIANS
on your Western plains and mountains Of
the United States; like that chief who mas
sacred your Gen. Custer and his command
Sitting Bull, / believe you call him. OF
course, we hunted Schamyl and his brigaHds
TO their last lair and captured or destroyed
them. So did you Americans hunt down
| Sitting Bull and captured him and his band
and confined them on a reservation, as you
call it. The only difference think, is that
| the Circassians were worse than your red
Indians, because with equal savagery they
L,.N Il
resources.
with regard to her policy OF action in the
! Caucasus or in the Trans Caspian country,
Russia had nothing to conceal, explain or
extenuate. She simply believed that law
and order was better for the whole world
/ than brigandage; that if tribes of savage
/ hOrsemen, whether Circassians or Tekkes or
| any others, got in the way of the progress of
/ railways and commerce and the arts OF
/ peace, why then there was nothing to do
but remove them. 1t had fallen to the lot
/ of Russia TO deal with such tribes very
| largely during the latter half of this CEN
| tuTy. 1t was true that she had generally
/ handled them without gloves" At which
| remark, by the way, the young Aid, who
had been with Skobeleff ut Geek Tepe four
| years before, smiled very grim smileI OF
which more hereafter.) But that was
| easily understood Races who for 40 genera
| tiOns had been bred to rapine as a means of
| livelihood had to be dealt with in their own
fashion. They could not understand any
other fashion. Their minds could not grasp
| the amenities of civilized warfare. The
| English press and pulpit, for example,
raised great Outcry about Geek Tepe.
| They said the Russians butchered the
| Turkoman garrison of that place when they
took it. Well, without discussing that,
what did the English do with the Sep0y
| garrison OF Delhi when they stOTmed that
/ place in the Mutiny? They made the
| apology that the Sepoys had butchered
| English women and children, and that they
had seen shoes with the little feet still in
| them cut of at the ankles. But if the Rus
slams have no right to pacify Central Asia,
which is on their own borders, what earthly
right have the English to be in India, when
| they must travel 10000 miles of ocean to
| get there at all?
"Russia will not claim that her hand is
| gentle toward fanatical brigands armed to
/ the teeth. To be gentle under such circum-
/ stances is TO be weak. But there is no
| power on earth gentler toward those who
observe the laws and respect the rights Of
persons and property than Russia is"
| TO te eOHtiHusd9
/
| An English Distinction.