Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-10-03
RUSSIAN MOBILES EARN THEIR
LIVING
By Frederic j. Haskin.

NEW YORK CITY, Oct. s.-New York is
filed with members of the late Russian nobility
nowadays. Apparently all who could manage
It came here when the Car was killed, and
since then q steady procession of counts. count
esses, archdukes and princes, temporarily halt
ed in Europe. has been filing hopefully into
Manhattan.
They are always turning up in the most I'M
expected places. The new barber in the hotel
barber shop on the corner, the man who col
lects your laundry. the ticket taker in the sub
way, the taxi chauffeur. the clerk in the florist
shop and the young lady behind the cigar count
er-are all apt to belong to this distinguished
but now impecunious class.
New York has seen nothing like them since
the days OF tho French Revolution when the
ex-court of Marie Antoinette settled down to
unfamiliar labor in the stables and barrooms
of New York and Philadelphia. The French, 1t
is said, having brought with them their fine
clothes. relieved the gloom of their exile by gay
minuets at night. Well. perhaps our Russian
nobility toddles, but it does not appear very gay.
Not far from where the reporter is stopping
there is q tiny. dilapidated wooden shelter
which houses a news stand and. during the day,
a silver-haired, bright-eyed old lady, who Is the
proprietress. She is also a Russian countess
who used to be handed her own newspaper on a
carvedbronze tray. Two years ago she came mere
from Switzerland with sufficient income to live
upon had she not invested 1t in a moving picture
enterprise started by a Russian ex-admiral and
his son. When 1t failed she had only a pittance,
but she gamely took a chance and bought her
newsstand.
This way, you see." she explained in perfect
English, II am always privileged to follow the
news of Russia. / read all the daily newspapers
in New York. When the old regime regains its
power, I shall Immediately know it,"
This speech is characteristic of the majority
of the refugees. Each carries with him the
memory of hideous happenings before he made
his escape. but of these things he never talks.
Instead he will begin to tell you that the present
Bolshevist regime cannot last. that 1t is but a
clumsy experiment which will fall of it's own
inanition, and that in another ten years he and
his noble sisters and cousins will be back IN pos
session of their Russian land.
A Royal Guard in Exile.
"Ours is a sacred trust solemnly declared a
bewhiskered old captain of the Royal Guard,
who was discovered making lamp shades in a
downtown art shop. I'VE must keep alive the
brains and the education of Russia Tor the houi
of rehabilitation" With neat precision he cut
a piece of gilt braid to be applied to the parch-
ment. 1--WE have not the right to die he con-
tinued. Therefore, we must work.
Yes, ten years of making lamp SHADES ana
you will probably change your mind inter-
rupted a clerk in the shop: also a Russian but
a proletarian.
The Russian noblewoman, who was formerly
an heiress to millions, admits that she is begin
ming to sympathize with the revolutionists since
having to earn her own living in New York. In
Russia she had been accustomed to gratifying
every within. She owned a theatre in which she
acted; she possessed innumerable cars anu
horses and jewels and servants; her hospitality
was famous, and so was her wine cellar. When
encountered recently she was living on an IN
come of SIS a week, which she earned as sales
woman in a Fifth avenue shop.
When / sell these useless baubles to women
in the store,' she said, Il begin to see why
there was a revolution in Russia. We were
criminal. l never realized misery and suffering
before"
Then. not long ago, the head of a European
house was embarrassed 10 discover tnss
who had once entertained a member OF MS
family in Moscow.
handing the petite young woman a personal
letter which had just arrived in the office mail,
this is all very courageous, but you snouldnt
do this sort of thing, you know. You weren't
cut out for It."
princess.
you have accustomed to, and 1 don't think you
should devote the rest OF your IRE TO d lSpe-
writer" the exporter declared. NOW I'm going
to get my wife to invite
"Ah, please. 1 must ask you not to-" inter
rupted the ex-princess hastily. Il do not IKE
to be reminded of my past. because it was very
and this charming work makes me
for very many hours of each day. Also
it is pleasant to earn ones own living, is IL
not? Always 1 dislike to be under opllgatloh
to any one"
This Scorn of Work.
The royal refugees seem TO fall quite natur-
ally into the lower walks of American me-
Having been brought up to consider all work
them, they are unable to discriminate
between different kinds of work. A RUSSIAN
usually lives in New YORK seVeral
months before he is able to understand why the
manager or a FACTORY IN tHlS Country 10 u moAN
social Importance than the average factory en-
ployee. In the eyes of a Russian prince, a pro-
is a proletarian, whether he happens 10
be a soap manufacturer or the soap hiaiiuiae
turer'S chauffeur.
The establishment of social relations with the
industrial aristocracy is also handi-
capped by the roal refugees lack OF nne raj
ment. Most of them had to leave Russia win
extremely light baggage. which later received
hard wear in European capitals. Thelr appear
ance is not especially impressive, so that tHe
soap manufacturer also has great difflculty IN
distinguishing between a Russian royal person.
age and a Russian tailor. Indeed, under present
conditions. they might well be one. and the same.
drawback is the recent slump In the
Russian title market, which has made a Rus
sian title about as negotiable as a RUSSIAN pank
note, Thus few of the refugees have been able
to achieve convenient alliances, and IT is yet 10
be recorded that one has succeeded IN capluiihe
an American heiress. ,,I
But if the refugees miss their former cordial
in America, they do not complain.
Most of them have settled down to a proletarian
without a murmur, and having SO De
cided bravely to make the best of 1t, they often
go even further and make money. An ex-gener-
and his aristocratic little wife, for example,
are once more waxing prosperous on the pronts
of a small lingerie shop on one or new iorks
most exclusive shopping thoroughfares. Wheh
they first started this enterprise two years ago,
thew lived in one tiny, dark room at the pacK
NJ their store, and the general spent his eve
ers. Now a neatly uniformed delivery boy mas
taken over this end of the work. and the tlny'
dark room has been abandoned for a charming
studio apartment on the floor above the store.
SMILE WITH ME