The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-05
Frederic Haskin's Letter
Russian Mobiles Earn Their Living

New York City, Sept S.-New
York is filled with members OF the
late Russian nobility nowadays. Ap-
! parently all who could manage ii
came here when the car was kill
ed, and since then a steady process
sion of counts, countesses, arcn
dukes and princes, temporarily
halted in Europe, has been ming
hopefully into Manhattan.
They are always turning up IN
the most unexpected places. The
f, new barber in the hotel barber
shop on the corner, the man who
/ collects your laundry, the ticket
taker in the subway, the taxi chauf-
feur. the clerk in the florist shop
and the young lady behind the
cigar counter-are all apt to belong
to this distinguished but now i'm
pecunious class.
New York has seen nothing like
them since the days of the French
revolution when the ex-count OF
Marie Antoinette settled down tC
unfamiliar labor in the stables and
barrooms of New York and Phila-
delphia The French, it 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 tod
| dies, but it does not appear very
gay.
Not far from where the reporter
is stopping there is a tiny, dipali-
dated wooden shelter which houses
| a newsstand and, during the day, I
| 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
carved bronze tray. Two years ago
she came here from Switzerland
with sufficient income to live upon
had she not invested it in a moving
picture enterprise started by a
Russian eX-admiraL and his son.
When it failed she had only a pit
| lance, but she gamely took a chance
and bought her newsstand.
This way, you see she explain
ed in perfect English. 81 am al
! ways privileged TO follow the news
| of Russia l read all the daily
| newspapers in New York. When the
old regime regains its power, l
| shall Immediately know it,
This speech is characteristic of
the majority of the refugees. Each
| carries with him the money 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 Boil
sheyist regime cannot last, that il
is but clumsy experiment which
will fail of its own hamilton, and
that in another 10 years he and his
| noble sisters and cousins will be
back in possession of their Russian
land.
A Royal Guard i'm Exile.
Ours is sacred trust" solemnly
declared a bewhiskered old captain
of the royal guard, who was discov-
cred making lamp shades in a down.
town art shop. I'VE must keep alive
the brains and the education of
Russia for the hour of reha bilita-
ton" With neat precision he cut
a piece of gilt braid to be applied
to the parchment We have not
the right to die" he continued.
Therefore we must work"
Yes, 10 years of making lamp
shades and you will probably
change your mind" interrupted a
clerk in the shop; also a Russian,
but a proIetarian.
The Russian nobIewoman, who
was formerly an heiress to mil
lions, admits that she is beginning
to sympathize with the revolution
lists since having to earn her own
living in New York. In Russia she
had been accustomed to gratifying
every whim. She owned a theatre
in which she acted; she possessed
innumerable cars and horses and
jewels and servants; her hospitality
was famous, and so was her wine
cellar. When encountered recent
ly she was living on an income of
SIS a week, which she earned as
saleswoman in a Fifth avenue shop.