The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-01-02

" IAAS Cil anu was \CA N1AAAlS SAAS event of the season in that section of Virginia. Washington Evening Star.
 
 ENGLISH AND RUSSIANS.
 Among all European nations Russia has most to do with Germany. Her trade has been captured by Germany, much of her banking is done in that country, and the German language is, in fact, the commercial language of the Russians. It is obligatory in all the good schools, and is spoken with as the native tongue. But you would practically never hear it in Russian drawingroom. The Russian will use it in business and with servants, but his detestation for the Germans, and all things German is so pronounced that he will not give the language social re- cognition. I have several times found Russians who were half German re- tusing to talk German in social inter- course.
 The English governesses in Russia have had most to do in creating a kindly feeling towards the English. Long ago the Russians became so im- pressed with their unimpeachable character that foryseveral generations every Russian family which. could afford it has entrusted the children in their most impressionable years to English nurses and governesses. It would be hard to find half dozen men in high office who had not learned FpoliCl1 haropa a1E may not speak 1t now who had not taken their first lessons in life from an Englishwoman. Alexander III. follow ed his old English governess to her grave, and stood there weeping before the people. Nicholas II. has pensioned his English governess and given her an apartment in tte winter palace for the rest of her days. In many families you find an aged English governess contentedly passing the last years of her life among the children and grandchildren of her former pupils, a beloved member of the household. At family gatherings the English tutor of the sons is often includedas an intimate friend
 English teachers have, indeed a posi- ton in Russia given to no other. Through them the peasants have learned to expect nothing but kindness from English people, English gover- nesses on the estates have the reputa- tion of always looking after the sick in the villages and becoming acquaint- ed with the needs of the poor
 Yet it is not at all extraordinary that beyond this tenderness for the English teachers of their childhood the Rus- sians should find themselves widely separated from the English. In char acteristics they are radically opposed one to the other The Russian individ- ually is cunning and deceitful. If be- longing to the classes, he is extremely accomplished and versatile, with a light wit infinite charm and quick, re- sponsive nature. His reverence for his emperor is not the outgrowth of a per- sonal relation such as the English mo- bleman has for his king. The Russian aristocrat never knows the Car inti- mateIy. however important he may be; he gives the Czar the allegiance of an Oriental in his despot.
 Russian men respect English women. but they laugh at their so-called prude- ry, and do not understand it any more than they understand the Englishman's love of outdoor sport and his inevita- ble morning bath. The air of cool supe- rioritY tinged with arrogance which the English aristocrat adopts towards infe- riors is inexplicable to the Russian. While more servile to his emperor, he is at the same time more democratic to his dependents and interiors. He has secret admiration for the strength and prestige of the English nobility, but his natural inclination make him think less of lineage and give social footing more quickly to those who rise from the ranks.
 Russian ladies, with their impulsive, sympathetic ways, extravagant tastes, love of finery, natural grace of charac- ter and person, easy morals and slow movements. are as far removed from the prudent, conventional and athletic EnglishWoman as the east is removed from the west. They have little in common, and in the large English col ony in St. Petersburg you can meet scores of Englishwomen born in Russia who have not a single Russian friend. The men may be business or club friends, but they seldom dine at each others homes. It is hardly fair to Rus sians to leave the impression that this is largely their fault It is due rather to the exclusive social spirit which equally dominates the Britisher at home and abroad.
 The distrust of England as nation which one finds deeply settled in the Russian mind has it's foundation partly in misunderstanding but more in the hostility for g. formidable rival and for the supreme power which arrests the nations expansion eastward.-Corres- pondence of the Lcndon Mail.