The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-09-16
THE RUSSIAN OFFICER
Charles E, Hands, Correspondent London
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Mukden, Manchuria, May III travelled
halfway across the world with the Rus
sian oftlcer-a trainload of him from the
general otflcer down to. the junior sub
altern-and by the time you reach the
other end of the Siberian railway. YOU
know something of your fellow passen-
gers .,,.: ~. - w.. ss..r -. -
1 have lived with him in a smelly ba Use
town thru the dreary languors Of the
concentration stage of warfare - have
eaten with him the ill-cooked food of the
tenth-rate far eastern hotel, and drunk
with MIN the sweet champagne of far
eastern conviviality. I have talked poll
TICS with him and cookery and religion.
nave played chess with him and done
morse deals with him, and played vint
with hlm-Which is bridge of the fourth
dimension. It is true I have seen MOTH
ing OF him where I would like best to see
hlm-out with his men in the open. and
the other fellows on the sky-line-but that
Is nelther his fault nor mine. Neverthe-
less, have seen enough of him to think
that know him pretty well. And he is a.
splendld fellow, great; grand big
hearted, fullsblooded man, and for friend
ana comrade as good as either hope or
desire ever to possess.
His Courtesy. :,
There are some eight thousand versts of
line between Moscow and Hardin, and l
estimate that the acts of kindness. con
sloeratlon and courtesy extended to me by
my OFFICER fellow passengers averaged one
TO every Verst of the Journey. . .....
was an absolute stranger to every one
on the train, utterly unknown and speak
ing scarce a word of the impossible Rus
sian language, but on the first day out
the three officers aboard who spoke Eng
l1sh came to me and introduced them
selves, and nearly all the remainder took
pains: to- let me know that they spoke
FRENCH or German. or both. Some of
them2 took infinite trouble in trying to
teach me? Russian :.
Ihere was a general officer of high dis
tlnction with whom I had exchanged but a
! Few words on the journey, since he spoke
no language but Russian. But at Irkutsk
! ne put himself to no end of, personal tror-
| bic to have place found for me in the
next Trans Balkal train.
| Inc Russian officer is a gentleman But
! what is more, he is a gentleman au IA t.
! urel. He is a man as well as a gentle
man, and his gentlemaniness is of the
rich lustre of the polish that only a rough
surface can take. He is without a trace
OF affection or pose. In all the Russian
| OFFICERS have. met I have never encoun.
| tered single example of the dandy-tht
curled darling of fashiona BILE regiment
| OF the ornamental armies. Perhaps it il
! because there are too many of him fo
1 h1m@to regard himself as a class apart
i The officers of an army that runs up int
i millions, can hardly look upon themselve.
as a little ultra-fashionable set with spe
cial social privileges. >.
| American and Russian. 81, -
| <Curiously enough-at first sight it seem
| a, ridiculously anomalous statement-th
| RUSSIAN army officer is very much Xix
the American army officer. Ridicuou
anomaly that. anything in the great west
ern democracy should seem to bear re
semblance to anything in the great east
ern autocracy. But it is true.
Attic in the United States there is no
much of an army for a man to belong to
| While in Russia there is not much else
| soldering in the two countries has a
least this much in common, that in bot
1t offers career which the man of en-
4 terprlse and ambition need not despise,
4 In America it, is. sufficiently we'll pai,
to- make 1t worth the while of the com
j petent man whom the limitations Of com
4 mercial life do not satisfy.
| For the young Russian Of brains an,
energy, and character, and ambition
there is always the army, and only tn
army. Soldering is the largest and mos
important of the national employments-
the staple industry, SO to speak, of TIL
country, with all the sense of dignity an
real Importance that attaches to the sta
pie industry. 1t offers career, and a rea
and satisfying career; and it offers, more
over, all the attractions of the larger
more spacious life, such as appeal to tn
Russians, who have not yet become a ma
! ton OF town jewellers. 1t shows them tn
world as no other army, not even on
i own, sees. 1.-THE adventure of distan
! frontier lines, the strange sights of Oh
4 civilizations and old barbarisms,