i8 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW 



len, on the seashore. At all these entertainments 

 ladies graced the scene. There were teas and 

 lunches within the home circles of ladies promi- 

 nently identified with the famine relief work. At 

 one of these, only typical Russian dishes were 

 served. A serenade was given at my hotel, the 

 De Rome, Saturday night, the Riga Chorus Club 

 of one hundred men singing the national hymns 

 of their country and ours. At this time a thousand 

 men and women thronged the wide, open square 

 facing the hotel that it might be understood by the 

 representative of the givers of the Conemaugti 's 

 cargo that all the people united in the welcome and 

 in the national thanksgiving for the benevolence 

 that prompted the gift. At all these assemblies 

 were uttered the strongest possible expressions of 

 Russia's gratitude to their American friends. 



On Sunday morning, accompanied by the 

 Mayor of Riga and the Captain of the Cone- 

 maugh, I visited several clubs and churches, first 

 the Lutheran Church of St. John, the largest in the 

 city, erected in the thirteenth century. Here the 

 Sunday School was in session. Forty to fifty small 

 boys and girls stood in parted ranks, boys bow- 

 ing, girls courtesying as the visitors passed 



