Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-24
RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS

I'D USSIA for mine" said young war cor
1G respondent on a flying trip to New
York recently. Russia is the real story of
this war, and l want to get back there and
watch it happen" His feeling is echoed by
the current magazines, all of which agree
that something big is going to happen in
Russia when the war ends.
They sense the waning of Russian au-
tocracy. The Russian people, until now
drugged by oppression and vodka, have been
reused from their lethargy by the war. The
old order is menaced by the new strength
of the peoples young, untried virility. The
shake-up produced by the war, the abolition
of vodka the probability that as a result of
the war Russia will at last obtain possession
of Constantnople. with the consequent stim-
ulus to production and trade-these some
of the elements which promise to create
grand transformation in Russia.
A delightfully."- vivid description of Russian
life by stephen Graham in the Atlantic
Monthly derives added interest from an ac-
count of the author in this months Book
man ~:
Mr.. Graham is the son of the editor of the
English illustrated journal, Country Life.
He bears a marked resemblance to Maxim
Gorliy. Seven years ago, when he was in
early 2Os, he gave up good business post
in London and went to Russia to find HIM
self He had but 9l5 in his pocket when
he started. He reached Moscow and there
shared room with two Russian students.
He tramped about the Caucasus, slept under
the stars and received hospitality from all
kinds of queer people. The next year he
Joined the Russian pilgrims, disguised one
of them, and travelled to Jerusalem. Later
he joined a party of immigrants on their
way to the United States. travelling with
them II IN MI the steerage across the Atlantic to
and the farms of the West
E1ias On +ba ToSsacl
Mr.. Graham. writing of his adopted people
I'm the Atlantic Monthly (2), describes the
Cossacks:
The Cossack is always a soldier Every
man has to serve in the army. When he Is
farming he is said to be ION leave" The
village is not called village, but a station,
a stanltza. No woman grudges her children
to the war. War is the element i'm which
they all live, and the maneuvers are so wild
and fierce that many get killed I'm them, kill
one another even, forgetting that they
only playing at war.
Their homes are neither comfortable nor
Clean-the homes of eagles rather than of
men. Formerly robbers and border riders
of the widest type, they are now bred,
much one might breed a type of horse
for sterling qualities The women are lazier
than ordinary Russian peasant women and
eat more and sleep more. As fair COM
panion of the road explained to me:
Its the women who must be blamed for
the dirt in their cottages. After dinner the
they leave all the dirty dishes on the table,
and let the pigs and chickens come in and
hunt for food" That is true. You enter
the little room that is all in all of home,
and you find $4,000 flies buzzing over every
thing Often of an afternoon have entered
a cottage In order to get milk and have
found every one asleep, even the dog, who
but opens one eye at the noise of my STEP
The baby lies in the swing cradle and tosses
now and then and cries a little. He would
be almost naked were he not black with
flies. The children keep picking flies off
his body and hurting him-that is why he
cries None the less, that baby will grow
up to be sturdy Cossack. And they seem
none the worse for dirt and disorder to
Judge from the fine young men we see.
Summing up the situation. Mr.. Graham
writes;
AS nations go, Great Britain is like a man
OF 40, Germany like man OF 3d. but Russia
like genius who is just 49, II is the young
man that you nnd in Russia, virginia. full Of
mystery looking out at a world fun Of color
ana holiness and passion and sordidness Rus
sla the silent one, silent for 20 years and
then silent for 10 years more rs either
speaking now or Is about to speak The
spirit moves mysteriousy In her. She begins
to know that her time is at hand
Edwin sehoonmaker. the American essay
ist and poet author OF series OF articles
On Russia. writes OF her democracy IA this /