New-York tribune., 1921-11-27

prepared for FIVE people, and which so..
i'ooo,ooV reuoies Everything having bean
supplied by the restaurant1
Smoked salmon, caviare. pancakes MD.
sour cream, roast young pig, wild d,.r.
pudding dessert, fruit and chocolates u,:.s
it were served white bread and hntter
war Johnnisburger, and red Crinesr p.'-
and after 1t came chartreuse, benedictir. '. -,
coffee! ana
In mansion on the quay of sofsd. ~.
brishnaya, where some foreigners are agso IN
leted, there are rooms as clean. ~ v.S; -
peted and furnished as any to be found " ~
York. In general, however, foreigner. Ana
the Moscow life an unpleasant one. One !.
almost always cold; it is next to impossibl. ~
get bath; walking or driving over tba =.
even, cobblestoned streets is scarcely 49,.
time; and extraordinary precautions hava r.
be taken as regards health
For instance, the sheets on one's b.a
more than likely to be not only dirty ~.
stained with the remainders of insects wh,sl
have been killed on them. IF one feels On e..
pulse to rub his eyes with his hand, he desis...
there Is trachoma about. In theaters or oth..
public places, the foetid smell Of unwash.s
humanity is generally so strong as To ha :,
most slckenlng- And Of course one gets vacc-
mated for smallpox, for typhoid and paratv
phoid, and for cholera. Even so. one nevsr
drinks unboiled water, or eats raw frnt ~
smokes cigarettes handled by shopkeepsrs.
But as far as safety Of life and property "a
concerned, the greatest danger is Of breat;r.
ones neck in stumbling through the unliobtsJ
streets at night, of being run down hv .
government automobile The taxi-drivers =.
Paris have 81 reputation for recklessness
those of Berlin are simply vicious; but tba
chaffeurs of the Soviet cars leave the otbers
far behind. And they drive without lights at
night
The writer has spent nearly month 4,
Moscow. In that time he has not seen sincje
street brawl; has not been accosted or STONED
save when he had to show his pass al the
doors Of government buildings. So far "a he
could observe (and he learned something NJ
espionage in Ireland before the truce) be has
not been followed or shadowed Not even
food has disappeared from his room: and hs
has been robbed only by carriage drivers and
shopkeepers.
If, then, he found Moscow placid and ueace.
full and the general life there uneventfuI he
found little tendency on the part of the rov-
ernment to proselyte. There has been plenty
Of propaganda handed out to him in one
shape or another; it intruded into the most
ordinary conversations; but it was not propa-
ganda for communism. Most of it was ey
IDENTIFY designed to impress him with the con-
hat fHo OF H.
wrecked Russia but had brought it through
better than any other could have done that
it was firmly in the saddle; that it was not as
bad as it had been painted; and that Its gram
diose schemes for the future were not merely
visions. And these are claims that many
governments make
There were no personally conducted tours
OF observation. AS a matter of fact, have
not seen the inside Of single factory, school or
church: but | have talked to artisans teach
ers and priests. The nearest approach 70
Seeing what they want you to seer was trip
to several children's institutions. conducted by
member of the Russian Red Cross
1t is difficult to see high Soviet officials No
Russian has real sense Of time or purctual-
ity; and appointments are frequently broken
four or five times in succession. Eventually,
however, one talks with most Of the men hs
wishes to meet (always, of course, with the
exception Of Lenine and Trotzky).
After the first day or two the Foreign Oface
officials quietly dropped the prefix of Com
rade" and returned to the more acceptable
form of "Mr. Scarborough" And that is symp-
tomato of their attitude They are men I'm
aJ %o A.
Slav love of ceremony and red tape; but it
seems to an outsider that they are about
ready to abandon their derisive gibes at the
rest of the world and ask its help in setting
their own house in order again.