22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



you to me? You do not pull my hair and you do not strike me," one 

 now hears the complaint of the old-fashioned : " God only knows what 

 is getting into our women these days : You can not lay a finger on them 

 without their shouting and making an ado, saying they will go away 

 and not come back." That the amelioration of the lot of woman in 

 Russia has been so long delayed is a matter of surprise, because if 

 Eussian writers are fair to their men, the Russian woman is in every 

 respect more practical, energetic and effective; "the incarnation of 

 singleness of purpose " and possessed of a driving force that is only 

 equalled by the irresolution of the male sex. In Finland she sits in the 

 Diet of the nation, in Poland the women more than the men keep alive 

 the fires of Polish patriotism, and in Russia proper they are an im- 

 portant element in the progressive movement. 



For several decades an industrial transformation has been in prog- 

 ress in Russia that has largely changed the character of the chief centers 

 of population. While still predominantly agricultural, Russia is 

 rapidly becoming an industrial state as well. There has been a tre- 

 mendous growth of manufactures in recent years. Hand in hand with 

 the growth of factories, especially those of the iron and textile indus- 

 tries in the cities, there is also a very extensive system of manufactur- 

 ing on the large estates where the work is done by peasants. With 

 this has come of late an extensive system of encouragement of do- 

 mestic manufacture, or cottage industry among the peasantry, still 

 prevalent everywhere throughout the central provinces of European 

 Russia. In the textile industry the hand manufacture often cooperates 

 as a direct auxiliary with the great mills of Moscow and Petersburg. 

 An enlightened effort is also being made to perpetuate native or home 

 industry by patriotic societies; stores and agencies are maintained for 

 the woodwork, bric-a-brac, toys, wicker-work, leather goods, pottery, 

 lace, embroidery, etc., made by the peasants during the long winter. 



Perhaps the most important factor in this transformation of Russia 

 is the modernization of the transportation of the country. Unfortu- 

 nately too much emphasis is laid on military interest as opposed to 

 economic needs in the construction of Russian railroads. The foremost 

 English authority on Russia writing ten years ago said. 



When a great enterprise is projected, the first question is — "How will the 

 new scheme affect the interests of the state?" When the course of a new rail- 

 way has to be determined, the military authorities are amopg the first to be con- 

 sulted, and their opinion has great influence on the ultimate decision. The 

 natural consequence is that the raUway-map of Eussia presents to the eye of the 

 strategist much that is quite unintelligible to the ordinary observer — a fact that 

 will become apparent even to the uninitiated as soon as a war breaks out in 

 eastern Europe. 



At the time of the Crimean War, Russia had 750 miles of railroad ; 

 in 1913 the Minister of Ways and Communications gave the total 



