The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-07
COUNTRY LIFE IN RUSSIA.

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I The Russians do not take the pride
and interest in their country homes
that the English, and latterly the Amer
leans. tave taken in theirs.
The Russians prefer to know you and
to be known from their life in the town,
and they seldom extend invitations to
foreigners to visit them in the country.
But it is only in the country that one
finds them Russians: in town they are
cosmopolitan, with the language, the
social arts and graces, especially of the
French.
1t was upon an early autumn morn
ing at five o'clock that a party of three
foreigners found themselves at small
station in the Russian steppes after
nights railroad journey. A drive of
nearly five hours lay before us to the
home of our hostess, and the trolka
stood ready, having been sent over
night. At the station there was plenty
of hot tea-tea such as one gets only in
Russia-and soon the horses dashed
across the steppes, following some car
tracks in the grass, and with nothing
but grass in front, around, behind,
grass carpeting the land for miles and
miles, encroaching even upon the path
itself.
Soon we came to a small stream, and
the horses plunged in without a min
ute's delay. A bridge was there, but
the driver laughed as he looked with
pride at his splendid Orloff horses and
said: MY horses do not need a
bridge" Then we passed through a
villa 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 a terrible din, and we
seemed surrounded by an army Of void
looking dogs of every size, who 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 its last fif-
teen feet long, to stand on the step of
the trollxa, and drive off the dogs They
fell away bowling with pain, and as
much frightened as the two women
who crouched In the trolka, clinging to
one another and to the man. He by
this time sat calmly triumphant, like
true British sportsman, and smiled
condescendingly upon us, although we
both declared 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 modest us
there, and then across 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 but glimpse of
the stone lions which guarded it. They
galloped faster than ever up and down
hill, fairly flying over the ground, and
then CAGE to a stop sudden and exciting
before the broad steps Of the house.
Russian country houses are not old,
because, as a rule, they are built of
wood, but this one dated from the time
of the great Catherine. She gave it to
one of her brave-and amorous-gene-
rails and his descendants. Its present
owners have fitted it up entirely in the
style of the period, with few rooms in
keeping with the Italian architecture.
Marble steps led up to the terrace,
where we entered through long glass
doors into an immense hall with count
less small tables and settees. Each
guest room was correspondingly large;
you could have danced a cotillon in it
even with the quantity Of furniture
which one finds always in Russian
homes.
A guest is not supposed to be visible
in Russia before twelve o'clock, so we
had our breakfast in our rooms, q SUBJ
stantial meal such as traveller would
need after a long drive and so thrilling
an experience; but at twelve we were
ready for the family breakfast. It was
such one os you would get in France
of many courses, with numerous sweet