The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-14
HOW RUSSIA MAKES IMPERIAL GUARDS Young Men Selected and Ex- amined for Recruits SENT TO ST. PETERSBURG swears to Be Good Soldier, to Fight and Die, if Necessary, for
 the Czar and Holy
 Russia.
SENT TO ST, PETERSBURG
From the New York sun.

From the New York Sun.
 Away on the western slopes of the Ural mountains near the Vialka river, buried among pine woods. lies the little village or Olkhovka There Vania qvam was born' and there he passed the first twenty-one years of his life.
 He worked with his father in summer in the fields, in winter in the woods and he thought of blue-eyed Natacha, the only daughter of Sidor the Rich And he was fine. handsome, upstanding young fellow. Natacha thought of him, and they used to meet of an evening in the pine woods near the village and talk of marriage. But one day in autumn Yemelan Sergovitch, the village baliff' brought a paper from the distant town, which ordered Vania and four other boys from the village to report themselves to the military chief of the district
 See him then outside the military depot sitting on the ground eating sunfloWer seeds. With him are some hundreds of young men from the villages for many miles around, writes the St. Petersburg correspondent of the London Daily Mail A sad Czar that day reaps his harvest of the young manhood of the district. The hours go by Village after village is called. AL last Olkhovka is called, and Vania hnds himself in a large hall. He is ordered 10 draw a lot from an urn. He.is pushed on further, and ordered to strip A gentle man in spectaces pounds his chest ana back and says: "Ah, he Is not man, he Is an OK for strength.
 Later on he Is taken to the church, and the priest makes him swear to De Il good soldier, to obey all orders, to hght the internal and external enemy, and to die, if necessary for the Czar and holy Russia With the great mild eyes of some wild creature from his native woods Vania sees all, but understands nothing; one thing only is clear-he has fortnight at home before going. As he tramps In the starlight the twenty versts to his village it gradually breaks in on him that Tor four years he must go away; perhaps lose Natacha-his little dove Nata. The night wind gently signing in the pine trees has a melancholy sound.
 For almost the whole fortnight he drinks and sings with the two other boys of the village who have been taken. Troshxa, the old soldier, tells them many stories; he tells how he, Troshka, went against the Turk, and how their father, the Czar Alexander Nicolaievitch, came to the hospital after PleVna, bent over his bed and pinned the St. Georges cross on his shirt, calling him 'brave fellow" and how the whole hospital and he, Troshka shouted ''Hooray! Glad to strive for your imperial majesty" Natacha was fearful that in his absence her father would order her to marry another; but she would wait; her great tresses and her bright eyes were for vania alone; hut aIa f1t a n So Vania drank and sang the more. Of an evening you would see him about the village, playing his accordion and shout ing with the other boys.
 Along the street the large one goes,
 The young blacksmith goes,
 And he goes, he goes he goes
 And he goes. he goes, he goes.
 When the time came to leave Nania knelt down before his father and asked forgiveness for all his heavy sins and was blessed by Holy St. Nicholas the Mira culous and his mother kissed him and signed him with the sign of the Cross, saying: May the Holy Virgin of Kazan protect youi Do not forget your old par ents; it Is a heavy sim mind 1t. Van yoosha." And she put a little holy im- age around his neck to keep away the evil. Meanwhile his sisters packed his box and put in it shirts and towels and loaVes of bread for the Journey. Then they all sat down for the last time under the holy images, and Vania went
 At the district town he and some fifty other picked recruits were placed in rail- way wagons and sent off to Petersburg in charge of an escort. For a whole week they travelled; on and on. through forests and acrpss immense plains over great rivers and through towns and vil- lages. Oh my little Fathers, but the world was very big At last Petersburg.