492 RUSSIAN CORRUPTION 



and in the wildest districts. I remember passing an 

 orchard in Asia Minor laden with ripe cherries. Because 

 I was a stranger, the Turk to whom it belonged asked 

 me to enter and take my fill. As we steamed down the 

 Yenesei, and passed a lodka, the poor fisherman flung us a 

 brace of sterlet on board, because we were strangers. How 

 differentto the English boor! "Who's him, Bill?" "Idon't 

 know — a stranger." " Then heave half a brick at him." 



In some respects the Turk is the superior of the 

 Russian, for he never lies, and his word is as good as 

 his bond. The Turk, too, can live where the Russian 

 would starve. The Russian is kept in comparative 

 poverty by the rapacity of his Ispravnik and the venality 

 ■of the police ; whilst the Turk thrives under far greater 

 robbery and more shameless injustice. How is this? 

 Because the Russian, like the Englishman, is a spend- 

 thrift, and too fond of his glass ; whilst the Turk, like the 

 Frenchman, is a sober, saving man. On the other side, 

 again, the Turk has a touch of the Spaniard or Italian 

 about him. It is always wise not to quarrel with a Turk. 

 A Turk makes a good friend, but a vindictive enemy. 

 With a Russian you may quarrel to your heart's content. 

 He has this noble trait in his character, that he never 

 bears malice ; and however violently you may have 

 ■quarrelled the night before, everything is soon forgiven 

 and forgotten, and he meets you in the morning with a 

 smile on his face and a hearty shake of the hand, as if 

 nothing had happened. If you escaped being murdered 

 last night in the heat of passion, you may be sure that 

 you are in no danger to-day, or in the future, on the score 

 •of that quarrel. 



Something of the good nature, the childishness, the 

 happy-go-lucky feeling of the Russian, which forms such 

 a marked feature in the national character, is doubtless 



