32 FIRST TRIP TO RUSSIA 



officers is great, the literary and scientific tests for obtaining 

 a commission are extremely mild. Outside of the Guard 

 regiments, the officers are seldom well off. In fact, many of 

 them live on their pay, which is about two-fifths of that of 

 English officers of corresponding rank on the home list. The 

 difficulty of this meritorious feat is considerably reduced by 

 the absence of an expensive mess and cheapness of provisions 

 in out-of-the-way places. Anyhow it takes some "doing" for 

 a cavalry captain to support himself, wife and family, and pay 

 for his uniform, on four and a half guineas a month, out of 

 which he can't be very lavish in the way of horse-flesh. A 

 lieutenant- colonel on ^120, a colonel on ^210, and a 

 general on ^300 a year are in comparative affluence ; but 

 such exalted grades generally take a long time to reach 

 in that country. 



Russian officers are hospitable, kind-hearted, singularly 

 free from "side," and are inclined to take the world easily. 

 With rare exceptions, they regard breaking, schooling, shoe- 

 ing, and other practical work with horses as matters which 

 may demand the issue of orders to non-commissioned officers 

 or men, but which do not require the personal intervention 

 of an officer. This idea is of course contrary to the Russian 

 cavalry regulations, by which all officers are supposed to be 

 capable of practically instructing their men in every detail of 

 military horsemanship; but this excellent principle has not 

 as yet gone much beyond the stage of theory. Young- 

 material of the proper sort is present in the commissioned 

 ranks of the Russian cavalry, but the conditions of climate 

 and country are greatly against its development. For seven 

 months in winter, riding in the open, if not an impossibility, 

 is a weariness to the flesh not to be borne by an ordinary 

 mortal. In summer, crops are up, the ground is hard, and 

 there is little opportunity for sport on horseback. In 

 England, a youngster goes into the cavalry because he is fond 



