The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-12
THE MORNING NEWS, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER II, 1899
WHAT RUSSIANS ARE LIKE.
HOW THEY ARE UNLIKE ALL 9TH
ER PEOPLE.

IN Every thiu&.
From the London Spectator.
OF the Russian as he would be after,
say, century of freedom we know moth
| ing. At present he is a man of pure while
lneage-vide Charles Pearson's remarka-
Bile testimony on that poinl-who for many
hundred years has been subjected 10 Ash
attic conditions. which on many prominent
| points have gravely mod fed his oharac-
ter. No white man, for example is by ma
ture inclined to revel in obedience as the
ordinary Russian now does, nor is there
any other white people in which the
idea of Individual right is so imperfectly
developed. Stin. something is known of
the present Slav, which is sufficient to
give the attention a glimpse of his char
acter as it is and win probably remain.
| In the first place, ii is clear that he be-
longs TO no branch Of the other great VIII te
families but is a man of a separate
breed, with its own qualities and powers.
He is so unlike the Teu,on that the two
races, though much bound together by
their historic fate, cannot learn TO tolerate
each other, but entertain each for each
an acrid scorn which, on occasion given,
frequently breaks out in open hostility.
He is not like the Celt. though the French
man thinks he is, being less absorbed in
himself less addicted 10 lying 10 himself,
and .ess dominated by tne evil pass on of
envy. He is also less logicaf, and, even
when good, less capable of that strenuo-s
ptobity which dstngu shes the good
| Frenchman, and IS probably less the pro-
duct of his heart than of his mind Least
of all is the Russian like an Enghshman,
being of afl the great white races the
most receptive, The least inpatient of con-
troll and the least inclined to a self-de-
pendent individualism. He is, in fact a
Slav, of a race by Itself the dominant note
of which is a singular power of self-con
tlol. The world dimiy perceives tbs, and
talks of the Russians obedience, his Sc
cretiveness, his endul ance, his patience,
his resignation; but il is more than any
or all of these things, it Is true self-conuol
that he possesses.
The Russian can make himself do any
thing he has decided to do in way which
other white races despair of initiating or
emulatng. The whole history of the dis
senting sects of Russia is full of ilustro-
tions of this proposition. If he bel ev
war to be forbidden. the Car may caoo
him in pieces, or condemn him to the hor-
rors of the life in Saghalien, that reaiza-
ton of the Northmans idea of he'll; but
he will neither be drilled nor resist lie
ondures all without fiinching; but even the
Gear cannot drive the Mennonite into the
ranks If he becomes infected with the
notion of Origen, he muulates him elf
without qualm, as the 5000 or 10000
Skoptsi do If he thinks he ought 10 lie
buried alive he allows his fra ernity 10
bury him without resistance. No torture
would drag out Of a Russian the secret
he intended to keep, or induce him 70
abandon a purpose upon which his m nj
had closed. His will is as powerful as
that of the Sunyasee, and acts quicker,
acts, in fact, with the rapidity of a child,
! who does what it thinks of doing instant
/ ly and without considering consequences
1t is not only sentries on duty who free
| to death in Russia, but coachmen on the
| box. policemen on watch, and even thieves
waiting for prey. They all nave their bus
| mess to do, and they make themselves DO
! il, with a supreme self-control which occa-
sionally shows itself even in mental opera
tons. The Russian can keep himself from
rage when convenient, can submit when 10
another European submission seems de-
grading, can suspend the action of mis-
own conscience when he has resolved on
an action, say assassination, which at
flicts it. This self-control, which is per-
feet, would make the sovereign who cou.d
direct il effectually master of the wor d,
but that IL is held in check by two def
ciencies.
One is a certain want of energy.The Rus
sian has energy, it Is true, bui il is not
of the true Western kind, which goes on
whatever the obstacles, determine not 10
stop till one is out on he other side. The
energy of the Russian Is that of the under
vitalized man, who does not stop and
does not change but who advances Ian
guidly, with hats, and with a proclvity
60 dying before his work is finished. Rus
sian armies ordered beyond the frontier
met away imperceptibly, their own gen
erals cannot say why. Foreigners declare
that it is all bad feeding or bad clothing,
or liability to disease and talk of Russian
corruption and saVagery; but the soldler
marching westward or southwark is as
wei fed as he ever was and his clothing
is better for the air is warmer, and yet
he disappears. The cause is want OF
stamina that is, energy in the resec-
voir-more than want of supplies. You see
the same thing in other departments OF
life Nothing in Russia ever quite succeeds
unless, indeed, there are Germans In IT,
OF the twenty or thirty social reforms
which have been suggested and adopted in
this generation, not one has realized what
was expected of it, and most have been
given up. They meet with some obstacle,
imperial authority, or popular prejudice,
or a popularity of climate, ana they
are abandoned. A little more persistence
might make them all succeed, but that IS
only TO be evoked by supreme order"
ffciency is the first carried step further
the read ness of Russ ans, noticed by all
who write of them or live among them, to
despair. Their vast plains breed hopeless
ness The Eng ishman face to face with
chat moss works on and on till 1t is filled;
the Frenchman tears his hair and works
in spasms instead of steadily, but still he
also fills the moss; the Russian, accustom-
ed to be defeated by Nature, and lacking
something within himself which is best
defined, though not quite accurately deiln-
ed. as energy, despaiIs. His own writer's
saw he lacks hope; but the Englishman,
who never despairs, is the least sanguine
of mankind, and the Frenchman declares
that hope is over, but that he must stiA
go on. The Russian stops.
And finally. the Russian is differentiated
from all other European races by the
quality of excess. In him there is no mod
Grafton. 1t is constantly said that this is
due to his "Asiatic' character; but as he
is not an Asiatic except in the way we
all are, and as Asiatics are as moderate
ha lie a good aXnlana-