The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-19
RUSSIAN GIRLS OF
THE MIDDLE CLASSES.

Normal.
From the London Telegraph.
Whoever marrdes a Russian girl is
like the Doge of Venice who espoused
the Adriatic, and never knew what lay
hidden therein-pearls, monsters,
shells, and storms She is the embodi-
ment of the unknown. unless she hap
pens to. come of an aristocratic family,
and then she is remotely akin to Lady
We're de We're, with less national self
consciousness and considerably more
grace.
The truth is that in Russia there is
no fixed type of man, woman, or child.
There are too many tribes and
tongues, peoples and religions, ming
ling and mixing in the vast ethno-
graphical caldron for any clear-cut
representatives to emerge therefrom.
Everything is in flux, ever changing,
often assuming the Oldest forms and
sometimes administering severe
shocks to ones sense of propriety.
Moreover, there is no middle class as
we understand it, no generations OF
citizens earning a fair yearly income,
and endowed with intelligence enough
to use it properly. Merchants there
are in plenty, but they are mostly of
the kind called fists, who grind the
poor and overreach the guileless, wear
black coats reaching to their heels,
and top-boots of strong smelling I'M
tanned leather, and look long and
lovingly at the wine when it is red
until 1T stingeth like an adder" The
portraits of these people were ad-
mirably drawn by the dramatist,
Ostroffsky, long before Maxim Gorky
sketched some of the very worst. To
describe the Russian girl of the mid
die classes, therefore, is like giving a
picture of tree in general. There
is such a thing as an oak, birch,
poplar, but a typical tree exists only
in the imagination. Still, when you
look closely into the matter, you find
a very numerous class scattered
broadcast over the Russian Empire.
which is labeled by it's own members
1.-THE intelligence" 1t consists of peo-
pie who have received the hallmark
of the grammar schools, univ
and higher educational establishments,
and is the nearest approach to mid
die class that MuscoVy has produced.
And the girl Of that social layer differs
widely from her sisters in every part
of Europe and the world.
Is OVereducnted.
To begin with Olga or Nadyeshda is
over-educated. Her brain is chock-
full of abstract theories, her heart
fired with a burning desire to help set
this topsy-turvy world right. She has
seen little of her sarents. and far too
much os her teachers. For middle
class families, in MuscovY crawl out
of their skim as Russians picturesque
" put it, i'm order to bring up the chill
dren as "intellisents." The mother.
herself mayhaD a peasants daughter
and almost illiterate, keeps governess,
who is sometimes a real lady. engages
a tutor who is generally a fanatlcal
student, and the daughters first aim is
to speak French. English. German. If
the parents. purse is empty they inn
perfume friends, and even strangers,
for scholarship, for free education
in government schools. And they very
often get it. Hardly more than a tenth
of the scholars in Russian educational
establishments pull through without
help of this kind. Thus, while the faith
er attends to his work, or plays cards
at his club, and the mother is enjoy
ing the opera, or enchanting a group
of young men at family festival, the
young girl is left to the influence of
books and strangers in an overloaded
room, where her nerves are strained
and her health is undermined.
The leading idea in Russian girls
upbring.ng is not that her mission is
to be a wife and a mother, to look aft
er the household. solace her husband,
and tend the children. Such destiny
as that would be degradation. thinly
disguised, slavery, and the lnteHec-
tual" girls never, never will be slaves.
Olga. therefore, is not merely accom-
plished. but she is tinctured with learn
ing as we'll She has read John Stuart
Mills writings, can repeat his argu-
ments in favor of giving equal rights
TO women, has waded through Buckle s
History of Civilization" is familiar
with Schiller's Don Carlos" and hum
gers and thirsts for more knowledge.
The Russian girl is educated in gram
mar schools according to q programme
very similar to that of the boys; but,
while she may come to be at home in
Latin, Greek always remains Greek to
her. If she gives the best years of her
life to this drudgery, and passes all her
examinations. she receives an official
certificate which qualities, her to enter
one of the various high schools of the
medical college. where in time she can
become a doctor. The careers open to
her after she has gone through those
ordeals are various she may obtain the
post of schoolmistress. and receive
fair salary. together with house and
firing, and lifelong pension when she
is no longer able 10 work. Statistical
committees offer her a less pleasant
but not unacceptable occupation. AS
a goYerness she may net f60 or f100 a
year and wind up by marrying an heir.
But as a physician she has decidedly
uphill work and very few plums to
hope for. Here and there, indeed,
lady doctor can live in relative COM
tort and have her professional claims
allowed by her confreres, but the men,
while willing enough to admit female
competition, refuse to allow the lucra-
tive posts to be given to the weaker
vessels.
Dislike Household Work.
For many reasons Russian girls dis
like household work in every shape
and form. AS an aspect of slavery it
is naturally abhorred. Moreover. from
their earliest infancy they are accus-
toned to have everything done for
them. Going to school. their boots and
goloshes were put on by the servants,
their books carried through the streets,
their meat cut up at dinner, and their
tea poured out and sugared. And
habit is second to nature, especially
when il contributes to comfort. An
educated girl, therefore, hates even the
lightest kind of work. An instance
came to the writer's own knowledge
in a very striking way a few years
ago. He was asked to engage a girl