The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-27
From the Chicago Record-Herald.

A HE RUSSIANS do not take the lCD pride and interest in their coun-
 try homes that the English. and latterIy the Americans. have taken in theirs. The Russians prefer to know you and to be known from their life in the town. and they seldom extend invita- 1ops to foreigners to visit them in the country. But it is only in the country that one finds them Russian; in town they are cosmopolitan. with the lan- guage. the social arts and graces espe- cially of the French.
 It was upon an early autumn morning at o'clock that party of three for eigners found themselves at small sta- tion in the. Russian steppes after a nights railroad journey. A drive of nearly five hours lay before us to the home of our hostess, and the troilza stood ready, having been sent overnight.
 At the station there was plenty of hot tea-tea such as one gets only in Rus sia-and soon the horse dashed across the steppes, following some car tracks in the grass, and with nothing but grass in front, around, behind, grass carpet Ing the land for miles and miles. en- croaching even upon the path itself.
 Soon we came to a small stream, and the horses plunged in without a minute' 8 delay. A bridge was there. but the driver laughed as he looked with pride at his splendid orloff horse, and said: My horses do not need a bridge"
 rTT1.-
 where the cottages stood upon the grass, no paths between them, nothing but grass grass. The curtains were drawn at the windows, and apparently all the cottagers were asleep. But sud- denly there was terrific din, and we seemed surrounded by an army of wild looking dogs of every size, which sprang. yelling, at the horses noses. trying to bite them.
 There were dozen or more of them, and they looked fierce enough to terrify any one; but the driver was as cool and collected as though he had only some playful puppies gamboling about him. He turned to the one man in our party, said that he himself must hold the plunging horses and directed him to take the knout with it's lash 15 feet long, to stand on the step of the troika and drive off the dogs, says the London Mail.
 They fell away. bowling with pain, and as much frightened as the two women who crouched in the troika, clinging to one another and the man. He by this time sat calmly triumphant, like a true British sportsman, and smiled conde- scendingly upon us, although we both de- clared we saw his hands tremble when he flung out that long lash of the knout.
 We raced through another village like the first, where the matched roofs came down to about three feet from the ground, but the dogs did not molest us there, and then across a river too wide to ford. The horses galloped over the bridge, every plank shaking beneath us. They galloped through the gate of the park so that we had ! t a glimpse of the stone lions which guarded it. They galloped faster than ever up and down hill. fairly flew over the ground, and then came to a stop sudden and exciting before the broad steps of the house.
 Russian country houses are not old, but this one dated from the time of the great Catherine She gave it to one of her brave generals and his descendants. It's present owners have fitted 1t up en- tirely in the style of the period with a few rooms in keeping with the Italian ar chitecture.
 Marble steps led up to the terrace, where we. entered through long glass doors into an immense hall with countless small tables and settees. Each guest room was correspondingly large; you could have danced a cotillon in 1t even with the quantity of furniture which one finds always in Russian homes.
 A guest is not supposed to be visible