The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-09
IN RUSSIAN BARRACKS.
One View of the Military Life OF the Cars
Country.


''Shall we take a look at the bar
racks?" suggested the colonel. Moth
ing would suit me better" | answered;
so leaving our horses in charge of the
Cossack, Chumski led the way through
series of vast spaces occupied mainly
by little wooden beds. Each little bed
had on it a hard mattress, a pillow,
and a coarse wooden blanket. Be
meath each bed was box in which the
soldiers kit was kept, and at short in
tervals throughout the buildings were
chrome portraits of the car, and very
gaudy pictures of Russian saints. The
barracks were entirely of wood. the
ceilings low, and the windows infre-
quent, yet SO clean was everything
kept that | detected no disagreed BILE
odor. In the kitchen helped myself
TO taste of the soup that was simmer
ing in vast caldrons over the brick
oven. and made up my mind that l
could stand pretty long canoe
cruise if my food were no worse than
this There are two fast-days in the
and Frida y-and this
was one of them, so that all they had
was leptil soup. Black bread went with
the soup-not such very bad bread,
either. They had a drink that suggest
ed the mead we use at harvest time,
consisting of water in which rye bread
has been absorbed. Of this ! drank a
whole glass with relish. SO far, then.
had stumbled on nothing about the
Russian soldiers life that would have
discouraged me from enlisting had |
been brought up to accept the cars
word as law.
DO You have much desertion?"
Not many in my regiment" an
swered the colonel. with complacency;
my men are pretty well cared for
But" said he. 1.-The Jews have rath-
err tough time of it, ] have about
hundred of them in this regiment, and
they do their work as well as any of
them. In most cases. however, they
are exposed TO much insult and brutali-
ty. Sometimes the soldiers beat them
numerically, and it is no wonder that
they try to desert. The rough peasant
has traditional hatred of the Jew.
and if the officers of the regiment are
not energetic in setting their faces
against it, there is pretty sure to be
some deviltry against them. The Rus
sian peasant finds it delightful to get
even with the man whom he looks upon
as the author of all his ills
In the twenty-seven governments
ma king up the western frontier of Rus
STA, ten of which constitute Poland. the
Jews are very much crowded to-
gether. In 1874 Russia followed Ger
many in adopting the principle of
universal military service, and conse-
luently forcing Jews into the army.
The government has only published
the statistics Of des ertion between 1876
and 1888, and for these years the num-
Der of jew deserters in those districts
amounted to round ninety thousand !
men. The government ceased then to |
publish such figures. but it is estimated |
hat the number of Jews to-day who |
nave run away from their regiments, |
)r at least have failed to appear after |
passing the necessary physical tests, |
md after being ordered out-that this |
lum Der is at least one hundred and fifty |
thousand.
As we galloped home to the MONDAY |
inner, noticed that my colonel greet
I'd the men of other regiments than his |
'wn by merely conforming to the usual
military requirements; but when he
net any of his One Hundred and Seven /
ieth, he shouted out a hearty |
rood-day TO them. which they /
answered with burst of strange sound /
Intended to convey the notion, I'VE are
lad to have our colonel's greeting"
This struck me as a very pleasant in
exchange of civility-much better than
he silent and perfunctory ordeal in
'ogue amongst western armies. In the
ierman army the err error still greets
MS grenadier qua; by a hearty
Good morning" and is answered as
heartily as in Russia; but this is in
as historically unique as the
'beef-eaters" at the Tower of London.
n Russia tae life of the people is what
was in GLAND when Queen Bess
'oxed the ears of her favorites-an odd
medley of barharism and parental gen.
leness.-Poultney Bigelow, in Harpers
lagazine.