The representative., 1897-10-13

showed his card. The station mastes was
called. The prince laughed. show@ his
card and called the group at the COM
partment door canaille. Eventually -,
conductor declared he could do nothing ex-
cept give the merchant and hts wife seats
in another compartment. This. he dtd- He
was punished, however, for deprivin&, the
prince Of his amusement. The prince seized
him by the collar. shook him. waved his
drawn sword over him, and called him an
impertinent dog.
Before the train started the prince and
count moved into another first-class COM
partment. There they found Muscovite
school teacher named Gevashoif ana MS
wife. Mrs. Gevashof was neither young
nor pretty, as was the merchants wife,
but as a woman of the boursoisie she was
regarded good game for the nobility.
and all the insults and familiarity that
had been tried in the other compartment
were repeated by the prince and the
count. Mr.. Gevashof began to protest.
but one view Of 1.-The serane' ones card
calmed him. SO he allowed his wife to be
insulted without making further protest.
At the next station. Ossentuki, Mrs
Gevashoft appeared ut the compartment
window crying for help. The station Oh
ficials, train guards and the general public
gathered at the compartment door, heard
the story and tried to redress her wrongs,
but promptly yielded TO that magic cara
Of 'the serene" rufi1an, reinforced by the
crested card of the Count of Sheremete1T.
There was a delay Of twenty-five mln-
utes The train was held while the police
were consulted. The chief CT police APP
preached the august persons who had
caused all the trouble. The prince drc"
his sword and shouted:
Back, back, canaille! Back or Will
heW you down..
The upShOt of the ScrilnmaSe was that
the second pair of the princes victims had
to follow the example Of the lrst pair
they fled to another coup and locked the
door behind them so as 10 keen the TWO
titled rOwdies out Then the :rain started
on. At the next station the count en-
braced a waiting passengers wife and
kissed her When the husband called to
him to stop, the count drew short driF-
ing whip from his cavalry hco- and cut
the husband over the check with It, me
prince displayed his card and the lndlg-
nant populace, suddenly humbled, snrank
into the background once more
1t is not necessary to follow this precious
pair step by step from the beginning OF
the trip to the terminus Of the road; the
rest of the journey was like the part al
ready described. Two or three more wives
were insulted but no husbands hand was
raised to avenge them. However, the
prince came to grief, despite all his "seren-
ity' and titles and exalted associations at
court. His conduct was complained of IN
st. Petersburg. The war department sent
out an order for court martial The
court-martial was held and. like most other
Russian things ordered from st. Peters,
| burg, it was no joke mere formality.
| The prince was found guilty; he was de-
| prived of his commission, and he was de-
graded to the rank Of a private soldier
| Similar punishment was meted out to the
count Thus the husbands who allowed
| their wives to be handled and insuted and
terrified by stranger merely because he
| bore the title of prince have their revenge
lost oh iS
| have been less satisfactory than this In
| Germany, for instance. mere count or
| baron after such debauch often gets
nothing more than a transfer to another
| garrison. SO, from the European point OF
| view these amiable husbands may be re-
| garded as subjects for cOngratulation.
| Compare this with the report we had
of the sheriff's deputy at Hazleton, who
kicked the corpse of one of the muir
dered workmen; and then, when a
citizen protested, told him to shut up
| or he would blow his head off," and
we can see that we have thousands Of
scoundrels in this country who would
murder their fellow men at ths order
of plutocracy, If they thought they
could do 1t with safety.
| Mankind is a terrible beast and is
only kept in half-decent order by fear.
I. D.