The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-05

trusty and reliable fisherfolk of these
 regions are not Russians, nor have they
 any sympathy with the Slavonic race
 that rules, and, as they hold, expresses
 them Quitting the few Films, they
 are German in origin, in feeling and in
 aspiration. '...
 They differ from the Russians in that
 most important essential their religion.
 The treatment they have received at
 the hands of the emperor's ministers,
 on account solely of their adherence
 to the Protestant faith, is such that
 they dislike, or rather hate, the Musco-
 vite. Hhe Baltic recruit detests his u-
 periors and instructors, for they are the
 Slavs who oppress him and suppress ms
 churches. He submits to discipline be-
 cause his Teutonic instincts lmpel nm
 to obey But his obedience and ms
 performance of the duties allotted to
 him are purely perfunctory. He has
 no pride in the service, and he looks
 forward to the time when he will be
 discharged and return to his home to
 forget, as far as he can, his term Of
 employment in the imperial marine
 The Russian naval officers know the
 feelings of the Baltic population, ana,
 instead of doing their utmost to conclh-
 ate them and improve the relations
 that subsist between the German ana
 Slavonic elements, adopt a system or
 rigorous discipline and repression which
 they consider effective. The conse-
 quences are desertion and drunkenness.
 It is owing to this that no Russian sea-
 man who is not a Slav-that is, who
 halls from the Baltic-is ever allowed ashore in a foreign port, for he rarely
 returns. The discrimination between the Baltic-born recruit and the pure blooded Slav in the matter of leave and
 punishment does not tend to make eith-
 CT the service or the Russians them
 selves more popular with the best class for seamanship.
 The increasing requirements of the Russian navy for seamen and stokes. as well as for artisans has rendered 1t impossible to rely entirely on the sup
 ply of recruits from the Baltic prov inces and Courland. The Films are not
 bad sailors and are hardy and tough, but there are not many of them, and their physique is not such as to enable
 much dependence to be placed on them as fighters, while they resent rigorous
 discipline Severity in the case of these
 people frequently induces suicide.
 Hence to supplement the numbers re quired, recourse is had to ordinary re-
 cruits from the Russian interior. who
 are drafted into the marine service.
 Now, if there is anything the true-born Muscovite abominates it is the sea. He is naturally an inland creature, man
 of the steppes and plains, safe only as long as his feet touch the firm earth And, like all such folk he regards the sea with something of the awe that in spired the early Slav race to designate the ocean and death by one and the same word. To him service at sea Is a punishment, and his demeanor on board shows sufficiently that he considers he | is doing penance. He is invariably stu pid, and his stupidity leads to punish ments as degrading as they are useless. Beyond obeying orders he has no ideas whatever and is really incapable of acting on his own initiative in any cir cumstances.
 He Is never cheerful save when his | very liberal allowance of "vodkeh" is served out to him, and his one idea of happiness is to get as drunk as his captain" He will save up his pay in | order to go ashore and indulge in a drinking bout with his messmates, cal- | culatng in advance exactly how many | glasses of spirits his savings will pro- | vide him with He will hand over the amount to the tavern keeper, specify l ing the number of riumki to which he is nntitlnI and if ia fbipp 1 in a seaport town to see the conscien- | tious dram shop proprietor pouring a | glass of spirits down a sailors throat | long after he is quite unconscious to | make up the requisite total. Unable l to read and write, the Russian man-o'- wars man has no resource in his spare | time when afloat; he can only drink and | gamble as he sees his superiors doing | when off duty. Of course his training i is a matter on which experts alone are l qualified to speak fully, but he receives I most of it ashore and not as sea- The 1 gunners gain experience in hadllng | weapons of position mounted ashore | likewise, and it is safe ta affirm that | two-thirds of the men in the Russian | imperial navy have never fired shot or | shell from a gun afoat. The Russian l sailor, though physically sound enough, | has none of the smartness of the Brit ish tar, or the cheerful, if less alert, | readiness of the French salt. Stolid and l stiff under inspection, he is loose and
 shambling when the eyes of his superb l ors are off him. His obedience is abso-
 1ute, but it is the obedience that is fa- | tai to initiative The discipline to which | he is subject is so rigorous as to COW | him and will those feelings of sturdi- l ness and self-reliance which strike an | Englishman as among the first requi- sites of thorough man-o'-war's man. London Post.