The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-08-19
THE RUSSIAN OFFICER.

Mukden, Manchuria, May 12.-I travelled half way across the world with the Russian officer-a trainload of him from the general officer down to the Junior subaltern-and by the time you reach the other end of the Siberian Rail-
 way you know something of your fellow
 passenger.
 have lived with him in a smelly base town through the dreary longueurs of the concentration stage of warfare. I have eaten with him the ill-coked food of the tenth-rate Far Eastern hotel, and drunk with hin the sweet champagne of
 far eastern conviviality. have talked politics with him and cookery and re- Iligion. I have played chess with him and done horse deals with him, and played vint with hirn-which is bridge | of the fourth dimension. It is true I have seen nothing of him where would Hike best to see hirn-out with his men | in the open and the other fellows on the skyline but that is neither his fault nor mine. Nevertheless. I have seen enough of him to think that know him pretty we'll And he is a splendid fel- low, great, grand big-hearted, full
 biooded man, and for friend and com trade as good as I either hope or desire lever to possess.
 There are some 5000 versts of line be- tween Moscow and Harbin, and esti- mate that the acts of kindness, con ] Isideration and courtesy extended to me 1 by my officer and fellow passengers averaged one to every verst of the Journey.
 l. was an absolute stranger to every one on the train, utterly unknown and i speaking scarce a word of the impos- sible Russian language but on the first day out the three officers aboard who Ispoke English came to me and intro duced themselves, and nearly all the re- mainder took pains to let me know that they spoke French or German, or both Some of them took infinite trouble in trying to teach me Russian.
 There was general officer of high
 distinction with whom had exchanged but a few words on the journey, since he spoke no language but Russian. But at Irkutsk he put himself to no end of lpersonal trouble to have place found for me in the next Trans Balkan train The Russian officer is a gentleman.
 But what is more, he is a gentleman au lnaturel. He is a man as well as a gentleman. and his gentlemanliness is
 of the rich luster of the polish that only
 a rough surface can take. He is with lout trace of affectation or pose. In all 1.-the Russian officers I have met have Inever encountered single example of lthe family--the curled darling of the
 fashionable regiments of the ornamental larrnies. Perhaps it is because there are ltoo many of him to regard as a class iapart. The officers of an army that lruns up into millions can hardly looi
 upon themselves as a little ultra-fash. jionable set with special social privileges The Russian Army officer is very Imuch like he American Army officer
 Ridiculous anomaly that anything in
 the great Western democracy should
 seem to bear resemblance to anything lin the great eastern autocracy, but it is ltrue.
 Although in the United States there is Inot much of an army for man to be- Hong to, while in Russia there is not Imuch like the American army officer tries has at least this much in common