Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-11
RUSSIA'SROUGHR RIDERS
Characteristics of Cossacks In s4 War and at Home.
BOLD AND sKILLFUL HORsEMEN.


 Who Become Terrible Fighters
 When the Battle Call Is Sounded.
 Pride Themselves on Always Being
 Able to Surprise am Enemy and
 Never Being Surprised Themselves.
 s"The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold and skillful riders, and constant practice has seat. ed them so firmly on horseback that they were supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life. to eat, drink and even sleep with out dismounting from their steeds, from their excellence in the dexterous management of the horse."
 Thus Gibbon wrote of the ancestors of the Cossacks in the czar's army to- day. These Cossacks have preserved the Scythian characteristics, and every one of them might easily gain place as trick rider in a circus if he cared to do so, says writer in the New York Mail. One of their commonest tricks is to pick up a glove from the ground at full gallop. ....
 The Cossacks originally settled on the Don and later on the Volga, but now there are several bodies of them scattered throughout the Russian em- pire in Asia. A large colony has been planted in the Ussuri province, which borders on Korea and has Vladivostok for its seaport, and there are also large settlements of them in Manchuria, cre- ated by the Russian military authori- ties with the idea of guarding the East Chinese railway.
 In former times the ataman, or mill itary chief, of the Cossacks was prac- tically an independent monarch allied to the czar of Russia, but his power was gradually curtaiIed until now the czar is himself ataman and crowns himself by that title, among ffty-nine others, when he assumes the throne. Subordinate atamans hold command over the five principal divisions of the Cossacks as follows: Don Cossacks, Prince Sviatopolsk Mirski H.; Terek Cossacks, Lieutenant General Kacha- nov; Astrakhan Cossacks, General von Hasenkampf; Ural Cossacks, Major General Maximovitch; Kuban Cossacks, Lieutenant General Malama.
 At home in his native village the Cossack is a remarkably quiet and peaceful person. He tills the soil and raises his fiocks and herds without giv- ing the least trouble to the authorities or anybody else. He is a thoroughly domestic man, kind husband and a good, though stern, father. Indeed, his character is all that can be desired. He is honest, faithful to his friends, ex- tremely sensitive to points of honor and chivalry, most hospitable to strangers and frank and truthful in all his deal- ings. Everybody who visits Cossack village comes away with the highest possible opinion of the inhabitants.
 When he is nineteen years of age the Cossack youth begins his military serv- ice. For three years he undergoes preparatory instruction in his birth place or in the nearest village if he lives at an isolated homestead. The following four years are spent in the first line of the active army and four years after that in the second line, which means that the man lives at home and is called up for three weeks drill every year. There follow four years in the third line, with only one drill of three weeks during the whole of that service. The fully trained vet eran is then transferred to the depot reserve for five years and in that branch of the army is only liable to be called out in time of war. After those five years his military obligations are not cancelled, for all Cossacks capable of bearing arms may be called out by the emperor in a national emergency.
 When he goes abroad on his military service the character of the Cossack seems to change entirely. From a quiet domestic youth he changes into the lawless Scythian depicted by Gib- bon and other writers. He has pro- found contempt for the people among whom he is Quartered, and nothing gives him greater pleasure than to dis perse a mob of rioters in Russian town by the ruthless use of his terrible leather whip. In time of war the Cos sack is a scourge to the civilian popula- ton as we'll as to the enemy in arms. Until recent times he was given unre- strained liberty to loot and massacre, but he is now subjected, in theory at all events, to the same discipline as the rest of the Russian army. ~
 Alike in their native villages and in their camps, the Cossacks are inordi- nately fond of amusements, especially of songs, dances and listening to their own wild,~ barbaric music. Their wo- men are worthy of a race of warriors, for they always encourage the men to go to war, and no Cossack girl thinks of marrying a man until after he has finished his period of military service, received his farm from the Russian authorities and settled down into the reserve. Women whose husbands or sons have died in the service of the czar are always treated with the great est honor in the Cossack villages.
 In wartime the Cossacks are the eyes and ears of Russian army. They pride themselves on being always able to surprise an enemy and on never be- ing surprised themselves. To be taken unawares, indeed, is regarded by them as being military crime hardly sec ffT