Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-02-24


the most pathetic chance meetings
that ever were brought about by the
surging ocean of cosmopolitan life in
this greatest of cosmopolitan cities.
The customers Of the restaurant con-
stitute one of the thousands of little
worlds of which the American metro
polls is made up, and for two or three
months Russian artist and a Polish
piano teacher formed separate micro
cosm in that world. The other
frequenters of the place are French
men, French Canadians, Swiss and
Belgians, but Aleksey Alekseevitch
Smirnoh and Parma Polish for Mrs J
Roushetzka are natives of Russia. II
was not until they had taken their
supper at the same table every even
ing for several weeks that each OF
them became aware of the other S
knowledge OF Russian, and the fact
thrilled them both like the sudden
discovery of close blood relationship.
But there was far more interesting
and, as it has since proved, far more
important revelation in store for them.
Parma Roushetzka was a woman oi
thirty-fve, a we'll preserved brunette,
slender and stately, and with features
somewhat irregular, but full of typical
Polish grace. She had been educated
partly in Russia and partly in Paris.
She had come to New York, after
losing her husband, with q small So
prano voice and with great musical as
pirations. The voice had deserted
her before her ambitions were on the
road to realization, and, heartbroken
and penniless, she was driven to take
up piano lessons as a means of liyeli-
hood.
Smirnof was bachelor, some twen-
4y-three years her senior, though he
looked fully ten years younger than
his age. Tall and wide awake, with a
brisk military carriage, a military
steel-gray mustache and blond hair,
unstreaked with silver save at the
temples, he appeared in the prime oi
health and activity, while his never
failing good humor and hearty, sonor-
Gus, genuinely Muscovite laughter
made one feel in the presence of q
young man of twenty-five. That had
been his actual age when he left his
native country, and after some three
decades of peregrination in Western
Europe he had at last settled down in
New York. He is jack of all trades
and master of quite q few, and al
though free-hand drawing is one of his
strongest points he is clever enough
with his pencil to meet the require
ments of small ctro-engraving es-
tablishment, where he has steady en-
ployment at a modest salary.
The language of the restaurant is
French, spoken with dozen different
accents. One day, however, when the
soup was exceptionally satisfactory,
and Sinirnoff, who is something of an
epicure, was going off in ecstasies over
it, a word of his native tongue es-
capped his lips. "Slavny (capitel)
soup!" he murmured to himself, as he
was bringing the second spoonful un-
der his mustache.
The piano teacher started.
''What is that you said just now
'slavny soup?' fshe inquired, with O
dush of agreeable surprise.
This was the way they came to speak
Russian to each other, and from that
evening on it was the language of then
conversations at the restaurant table.
Although there are many thousands OF
Russianspeaking immigrants in New
York, the artist and the music teacher
felt in the French restaurant like the
only two Russians thrown together in
foreign country, and the little place
which had hitherto drawn them to the
quality of its suppers and its genial
company now acquired new charm
for them.
They delighted to converse in Rus.
sian, and the privacy which it lent tc
their chats, in the midst of people who
could not understand word of what
they were saying to each other, be-
came the bond of more intimate ac,
quaintance between the two. They
were reticent on the subject of then
antecedents, but both were well read
and travelled, and there was no lack OF
topics i'll things bearing upon Russia,
Paris, current American life, the stage
art, literature and the like. The gal.
liant old Russian was full of the mos
interesting information and anecdotes
and, their friendship growing apace
he gradually came to introduce into
his talks bits of autobiography, though
they were all of the most modest
nature, and he seemed to steer cleal
of certain event which formed c
memorable epoch in the story of hi,
life.
Parma Roushetzla neither asked
him questions nor saw fit to initiate
] him inro some of the more intimate de