Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-05-20
THE PICTURESQUE cOSSACKs
More Distinctive Class Than the
American Cowboy.
Original SIav stock wild FFeebootinp
Folk who Have Never Bowed
Their Heads to Any Yoke
Cars Best Soldiers.

Apprenticed to Mars at birth, as were
the spartans before them, the Cossacks
survivals from a young, non-industriai,
-the-spur-world are the most picturesque
fighters on lGurope's battlefields. from
tiers folk like the people of our early
west, mixture Of many adventurous
elements, and constituting within their
own country a class more distinctive than
that Of the American cowboy. they have
finally been subdued to the needs of the
great imperial government at Petrograd
taken over just as they were into its
machinery, and preserved as a soldier
caste. A wild, conquering. freebooting
folk. the Cossacks have been brought
within the foid Of Russian civilization
as soldiers. descendants of warriors and
progenitors of generations of soldiers t.
meet the future needs Of Slav empire"
| 1t is with these Cossacts, the men
who in the leisure Of national peace,
conquered the vast empire of Siberia for
Russia and who, in each Russian war for
the last 100 years. have formed the Cars
Irresistible first-line strength, that to-
days statement of the National Geo
graphic society deals. More clearly de-
filming this military folk, the statemen.
continues:
THE Cossacks are n people Of the lin
itless steppes a people Of close corpora
ton. situated In Russia as race apart.
a sodier-caste, their state a military or
ganization, their connection with the
great empire maintained through the i'm
perial war department. the administra ton
Of their Internal affairs practically in
their own hands. and their privileges as
n on ct n
those of the Spartan soldier citizen. or
more comparable to the soldier-caste Of
older Indian organization. The Cossacks
came Of the original Slav stock, but
they were those slavs who never bow
ed their heads beneath a yoke foreign
or domestic, who lived a free life on
the borders Of their races civilization
wandering fighting, buccaneer sav
tribes, who penetrated deeply into Tar
tar and Georgian lands. who lived by
the hunt and by plumber. and who main
tanned themselves on the border # Asia
and Europe free of all serfdom.
These sturdy Russian wanderers as
simulated many adventurous elements.
took up among them many Tartars and|
Slavs, and. so to-day the Cossack tvpe|
Is moro or less distinct one, The total
than 3.ooO,o0O. Some years ago, they own-|
ed nearly 90 acres of land. of
which 100000 was arabic and 9,4No0O1
forest land This land is held by the Cos !
sacks in community partition as a state
reward for their military service. 1t vii !
be seen that the Cossack holdings amount
to about s acres for each man and child
Of the people. There is an admirng. half
Io,,t- tf,tc rcpia tct nv1 hair, a
as free and as rich as a Cossack
1.-THE Cossacks are the rough riders o
Europe. AS the cowboys Of the American
plains and the gauchos of the Pampas
the Cossacks are an intensely interest
ing, wild, free, plain folk, who live |
the saddle in the open places and who's
rough democracy is the expression Of tn
same native, rudimentary culture as tina
of their New World brothers-in -spiri
None of their members are allowed
starve. and none of them have suocesde
in winning overmastering position throug
the laying up OF great wealth.
The Cossack is favored by the stat
and Is main prop Of the states autho
ity. To be born a Cossack is to be Dor
a soldier Every Cossack bears the OF
legation of - years military service. +
spends three years in a preliminary co
sack division; next passes u years
active service and spends his last fly
military years in the Cossack reserve.
is the picked men from his ranks w
constitute the Imperial Guard. bod
of the finest type of fighters, whom I
Tsar can trust when he can trust
one else around him. These Cossack 50
which Russia has been able to threat
Europe: they have been the empir(
most efficient internal police, and tn
have marched eastward to the PACT
and southwark TO the zones of Britt
influence, conquering for the Tsar va
domain including many nations
Cossacks have dearly avenged their
low slavs for the hsrdships they ha
received at the hands Of the Tartar hord
Of Asia"