The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-12
RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY.
1t Requires an Enormous Eating and
Drinking Capacity to Stand It.

There is no hospitality in the world
like that of the Russians" said an
American civil engineer who has spent
several years in the land of the ear in
connection with the construction of the
great Trans-Siberian railroad. Once
the Russian man of family takes you
into his homeland [ am bound to say
that this-does not happen until, through
methods of his own and unknown to
you, he has come pretty near to finding
out all about yOu-he can't do enough
for you. He heaps attentions upon you.
Nothing is too much trouble for him
or his wife-to the end that you be made
comfortable and happy.
Let me tell you, for example, what
you go up against, as the saying is,
when a Russian head of a family in
viteS you to spend the evening with
him and his family.
You arrive at his home in your even
ing clothes at o'clock in the afternoon,
and by that tisne, probably, most of the
other two dozen and odd guests have
arrived. having been similarly invited
to spend the evening.
You no sooner make your appearance
than the host drags you to his den and
of the other men there, taking their
pick of the bottle ranged along the
hosts private sideboard, and taking
stiff one every few minutes If they
are Russians, they drinking vodka
vodka they call it-a fluid that comes
just about as near being straight alco-
hol as anything drinkable ever was.
The Russian men drink incredible
quantities of this stuff without ever in
the least appearing to show it, and I
have even seen them slipping it WITH
their meals. You sit down to the din
ner at s O'clock and it lasts until g. Such
cheerful and amiable and talkative
suffers a the Russians are, to be Surei
In this country the man who takes a
godo many drinks before dinner doesn't
feel very much like eating when he does
sit down to the meal, but the more thS
Russian drinks the more he wants to
eat That 1 suppose, is the actual sal
walton of that nation of heavy drinkers
they neutralize their drinking with
their eating. The array of courses that
are spread out before you at Russian
dinner in a well to do Russian home is
staggering, and there's a wine, it would
seem, for every different dish, let alone
every course. There is more cham
payne you find yourself imagining, than
you ever saw before in all your life (the
Russians are the greatest consumers of
champagne in the world).
You observe that the women drink
champagne as if it were water. and you
wonder how, in view of this. they con-
trive to preserve their velvety skins,
their svelte figures, their clear. beauti
full eyes. But there is something in the
air of Russia, I believe, that permits of
any amount of drinking without injur-
ious results. Between every two or three
to the woman as well as to the men
and everybody smokes and chatters.
Russian table conversation is peculiarly
agreeable and delightful. The Russians
are an artistic people. and there is an
excellent reason for this. They cannot
talk politics 1t is not safe. So they
address themselves to such subjects as
literature, art, travels, the stage. emin-
ent persona ges in realms other than the
sphere of politics. The women are even
better takers than the men, and there
is a sort of oriental. half-barbaric en-
thusiasm about Russian women that is
peculiarly piouant and interesting.
Moreover, they have mighty f1irtatious
eyes, not to say f1:rtatious ways. The
4 foreigner who unwisely or tacilessly in
PRODUCES a political subject of any sort
at a Russian dinner table feels a cold
ness creeping over him that very soon
warns him to desist.