The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-24

or the meal. You would never suggest
TO your netghbor on the right to pass
you the cheese; but you would rise in
your place and. with q firm grasp on
your knife, reach over his plate and
lmpale the tempting morsel. If this Is
not possible, you leave your place and
go around the table and secure your
lo0t There Is only one thing that they
VIII readily pass, and that is the vodka.
The general aspect of things Is that OF
we'll patronized free lunch counter
when the train is to start in five min
ute 1t must be confessed that Russian
table manners are not fashioned on or
binary European models. They closely
resemble the Korean method Of eating
at public feast. when all the food is
put on the table at once
1t Is a mistake to suppose this ter
inmates Russian dinner. 1t has only
begun. By this time the uninitiated is
full to repletion unless he has been
forewarned. but to the Russian this is
but the ante prandial overture. Every
thing Is now cleared off the table ex-
cept the vodka, which is never out Of
sight, and the dinner proper begins
with soup. l must say that this soup
Is the heaviest and richest it has ever
been my fortune to taste. Alone, it
would form full meal for anyone less
robust than the ordinary Russian. Each
guest adds to his soup two or three
heaping spoonfuls of sour whipped
cream.
Their method Of eating soup appeals
as much to the ear as to the eye Per-
haps they go on the principle that soup
must be eaten as audibly as possible,
Tor this means that 1t is so good You
cannot wait for 1t to cool.
My Russian naturalist, Alex. was
falr sample of an educated Russian,
and he turned to me and said:
Il see you eat with a fork"
not"
mo; but had sister who studied
at an English convent in Japan for a
year or so. When she came back she
ate with a fork but We soon laughed
her out of it,
The end Of the Russian knife is
broader than the portion next the han
die, and it is used both as knife and
as spoon They complain that the
American knives do not hold" enough
After the soup came fowls roast
meats, vegetables and two or three
more dishes made of whipped cream
These last one grows to like. Their
faVorlte form of dessert is this same
sour cream, sprinkled generously with
sugar and ground cinnamon. When all
is seemingly over the table is again
cleared, and the samovar is placed
0SSoAAiAAS OpO1 Tie ldOA0. Every one
takes four or five glasses of hot tea,
Favored with sliced lemon. Some of
the Russian tea Is very fine. 1t is we'll
known that they drink the costliest
as we'll as the cheapest grades. 1t is
more than likely that not a pound of
the very best tea grown in China ever
gets farther west than Russia.
Meanwhile every one is making CT
garettes, men and women alike; not
| only after dinner, but between the
courses.
My use Of the fork was not the only
thing that distinguished me while in
the country of the white ear. Wher-
ever I went, the Russians were highly
amused at my use Of the tooth brush,
which they consider a peculiarly fem
mime utenSil. l was everywhere en-
| barrassed by the total absence of the
wash bowl. Such things seem to be
| unknown. A sort of can or ever Of
water, with valve in the bottom lets
out stream Of water on the hands;
| or, oftener still, a mouthful Of water
| is taken from a glass and spurted over
| the handS-a much more sanitary
| method than the American, since the
Russian does not wash in any vessels
| which has been used by others. The
| Russian objects to any bath excepting
! the elaborate Russian bath, and as
| this can be obtained only in the CEN
| tiers of population, the result Is not edi-
| flying. Even on the steamer, where
| hot and cold baths could be had for
| the asking, the bath room was not pa
| troniZed. The Russians say of the
| English and Americans that they battle
| SO much that they emit an offensive
! OdOr, which turns the tables on us
somewhat surprisingly and casts some
doubt upon the truth of the proverb
| that virtue is its own reward. AS black,
| the most somber of all colorS, is in
truth lack of all color, so perhaps
| the lack of distinctive odor in the we'll
| tubbed Englishman strikes the Russian
as unpleasant.
One of the walters in attendance
was a young and handsome man of
| twenty-five, convicted of murder He
| was dressed in the picturesque cos
tune of the Cossack, and, strangely.
| wore a dagger at his side. The woman
who brought in the samOvar had killed
| an entire family; her husband, father
| in-law, mother in-law and her own
! child. She had been married to the
| waiter a year since arriving at Sagha-
| lien. %She intermarriage of criminals
| raises a delicate pathological question,
| considering what the fruit such unions
| is likely to be.
After dinner 1 suggested to one of
the governors aids that we take
stroll, but the local magistrate vetoed
this, sal ing that on no account must
we go onh on the street after O'Clock
! in the evening. Our lives would be in
immediate danger, as murders among
the Convicts averaged one a day at
! Saghalien. Hundreds have broken
away and escaped into the interior of
the island, living on game, roots and
! berries. Some roam the streets at
| night, looking for plumber, especially
when a steamship is in the harbor.
The following day we passed build
ing which seemed to be full of women.
They were convicts recently landed.
On stated days, those male convicts
whose conduct has been uniformly
good are taken to this building where
the women are lined up and the men
are allowed to choose wives for them
selves. The women are quite willing
to be chosen, but If they refuse they
are not compelled to marry. Marriage
means that they get away from the
confinement of the work shops and
| gain a snug little home among the
neighboring hills, with nothing to sug-
gest penal conditions except an occa-
| sional inspection. If they consent to
marry, they go Immediately to the lit
| tie cathedral and are married by the
| priest. A plot of land is allotted to
| the couple. to clear and cultivate. Pos
sibly a horse, a cow and a few chickens
| are given them, as we'll as the inev-
| itahle S2nlCVar Orr saving "Nhlf iS