Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-31
LONG RUSSIAN RIDE
Seventy-TWo Hours From Via
dikavkas to Odessa.
CIRCASSIAN AND COSSACK
The Former Handsome and Proud,
But Weak in Morals.
FOLLOW LAW OF ATONEMENT
Tribe Of Swanny Permits the Prac-
tice of the Code of Blood Pre-
pared in 1908.
CIRCASSIAN AND C0SSAcK
FOLLOW LAW OF AT0NEMENT
BY WILLIAM T.. CURTIS.

By WILLIAM T.. CURTIS
Special CORRESPONDENCE Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
ROSTOv-ON-THE-DON July 20. 1910.
1t is seventy-two hours by the fastest
train from Vladikavkas to Odessa. which
Is practical realization of the size OF
the Russian empire; but the fastest trains
are very slow when measured by the
American standard The government,
which owns and operates all the railways
in Russia, charges for extra speed on ex-
press trains, and then runs them at
twenty miles an hour. with long waits at
every station. 1t seemed unnecessary and
unreasonable to delay a train for ten or
nIteen minutes every time il stopped, but
thought there must be some reason for IL.
and tried to crafty my curiosity by an
investigation. Inquiry disclosed the eau
ton OF the railway managers. When
train arrives at station the conductor
notifies the man in charge of the station
ahead and also the chief train DISPATCHER
wherever he may be. He then waits for
orders. The telegraph operator at the
next station reports to the train dis
patcher that the track is clear, and the
latter then, and not until then. gives
orders for the waiting train to move.
They take no chances. On a single-track
road one train only is given the right OF
way, regardless of side tracks, and every
thing else is held up until it is reported
at the next station.
The track traverses the great granary
OF Russia, which corresponds TO Minne-
sofa and the Dakotas in the United
States. The land is held in large es-
tates partly cultivated by tenant farm
ers, and also by a well organized system
under the direction of administrators, or
stewards, as they call them. Absentee
landlordism is the curse OF this country,
as 1t was in Ireland, and the profits of
the crops are wasted i'm st. Petersburg
and Paris in gambling and high living
and in all possible forms of extravaganza.
Very little of the money is left i'm the
country; very little is used to improve
the property or the condition Of the ten
ants, although there are commendaole
exceptions. Every village is an index to
the character of the man who owns IL.
The peasant farmers and the employees
OF an estate dwell and govern themselves
In communeS, or mfrs, as they are called,
and each has a little tract OF land for
his own use which he can cultivate at
odd times when his services are not need
ed on the farm. The landlord is supposed
to keep the houses of his tenants and en-
ployes I'm order. and is expected to con-
tribute TO the support of the poor and af-
f1icted, to build a church and keep ii in
order and to exercise a patriarchal pro-
lection over everybody who lives on his
estates, but this is only theoretical in too
many cases: The practice of a major
ity of the landlords is to squeeze every
cent they can get out Of their tenants
and squander it in pleasure and dissi-
patton.
The Russians are inveterate and reck-
less gamblers. and in the play of a single
night often lose enough money to make
their tenants comfortable for a genera
ton. We were told only the other day
Of Russian landlord who lost 100000 in
a game at the Jockey Club in Vienna in
one night.
The big estates, however. are being
broken up. as l wrote you the other day.
under law passed since Russia had a
constitutions and are being divided into
small farms among the families who
actually till them.