Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1900-07-27
NO. 81.
PARIS EXPOSITION LETTER.

(From Orr Regular Correspondent.)
PARIS, FRANCE, July 9, 1900.
Nothing in France is so typical of
France as the exhibition, for it is at
once superficial, to the eye and sound
to the understanding, full of tinsel
sights and unmeaning gaiety side by
side with the lovliest forms ofart and
the most admirable results of industry
and of education. Such at least were
my thoughts as 1 came out of the
Palais de Congress after spending an
hour in the Social Economic section.
Outside were the aimless crowd, the
gilded domes and plaster decoration,
the amusements, the gossip and
laughter. Inside you were in anoth-
er atmosphere-an atmosphere Of
knowledge and utility and peace.
Here under some very attractive
forms is offered to you the most di-
verse information of which one ex-
ample will suffice. The corner de-
voted to the Russian temperance
movement is charming in is simplic-
ity, novelty and instructiveness. All
about you are diagrams showing the
success of the governments propag-
anda against spirit-drink in the Rus
sian empire; and very pleasant
young Russian lady, dressed in black,
with dark eyes and fairhair, not more
AS 1 suppose-than twenty, will
answer in the most delightfully."- brok-
en- French, such questions as you may
care to put. But the eye and the
heart are even more interestingly
drawn by the model "debit de the''
-tea-public house, if one can say
so without paradox, than by the am
, ible Russian. 1t is fitted up exactly
as it is seen in thousands of Russian
villages. The shop, not unlike the
section of log hut, has at one end a
short counter with hard-boiled eggs,
lead cOloured, glass jars Of sweets and
preserves, and bottles of kvass, a
non-alcoholic drink made from barley
with something of the taste of cider;
while behind the counter is a side
board containing cups and tea-pots.
At the opposite end of the shops is
another counter with papers and per-
iodicals, and behind that, a bookcase
filed with books. The middle of the
, shop is occupied by tables where the
tea or kvass is leisurely consumed,
, where village politics are debated, or
where a game of draughts or domin-
oes is played by the moujick custom
ers. The rest of the furniture is sim
pie and characteristically Russian,
, that is to say rude, with a dash of
orientalism; a noble brass samovar
, filed with ever-boiling water behind
the counter at one end; a brass ever
under tap and comb hanging be-
! side it from piece of string close to
the entrance; a homely faced, loud
ticking clock fixed to the wall and
the never-absent coloured prints of
the Car and the Czarina. Guess now
how much cup, or cups, of tea un-
+, der these humanizing conditions
costs, less than two cents. The price
, hangs on the wall-a tiny measure of
tea, l kopeck; two pieces of sugar, l
4 kopeck; a slice of lemon, l kopeck;
, a teapot of boiling water, 1 kopeck;
and three Eopecks are not quite two
:. cents. What vast organization this
. state propaganda is it may be appre-
: ciated by the fact that though five
>. years ago when it was started the
>. state paid 500, 600 i'll subventions, in
1899, with its influence penetrating
all over Russia, the state subvention
was 81 900, 600, and the propaganda
does more than establish these tea
- public houses. 1t gives thousands of
concerts and conferences and enter
j.. tainments. The effect is known to be
enormous, and what with Tolstoi's
> writings-the Cars philanthrophy,
v and the propaganda, Russia in few
decades ought to have one of the most
Il civilized peasantries in the world.