412 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



by post-horses. He had the faculty of emitting a peculiar sound 

 something between a whir and a whistle that appeared to 

 have a magical effect on his team. The road was rough, and 

 at every jolt the young driver was shot upwards into the air; 

 but he always fell again into his proper position, never for a 

 moment losing either his self-possession or his balance, and at the 

 end of the journey it was found that they had been carried over 

 the rugged way at the rate of fourteen miles within each hour. 



A remarkable instance of the energy and enterprise claimed 

 for the Russian working classes of the north was supplied to an 

 English traveller in the country just after he had expressed a 

 doubt as to their industry. He was in the province of Kostroma. 

 One part of it has a special reputation for turning out carpenters 

 and stove-builders. Another part, he was surprised to learn, 

 sends yearly to Siberia not as convicts, but as free -labourers 

 a large contingent, consisting almost entirely of tailors and 

 workers in felt. A bright-eyed youth of sixteen or seventeen, 

 who was among the apprentices accompanying one of these 

 bands, informed him that he had already made the journey twice 

 and intended to go every winter. "Because you always bring 

 home a pile of money, I suppose?" inquired the traveller. 

 " Nitclievo ! " gaily replied the young fellow, with an air of 

 self-confidence and pride. (" Nitclievo, " it may be remarked, 

 is equivalent to the phrase "Right you are, sir," which would 

 have been used by a British working lad to express emphatic 

 assent.) "Last year," the youth continued, "I brought home 

 three roubles!" "There! Can you now say our people are 

 not industrious?" exclaimed the Russian to whom the English- 

 man had expressed that opinion a few minutes before. "A 

 Russian peasant goes all the way to Siberia and back for three 

 roubles and his food! Could you get any Englishman, yeung 

 and strong, to work at that rate?" "Perhaps not,'' the 

 traveller replied evasively. He could not help thinking, how- 

 ever, that if an English youth were required to go in the depth of winter from Land's 

 End to John o' Groats and back again, performing the double journey in carts and on foot, 

 he would expect, as fair pay for his time and labour, something more than three roubles, or, 

 in our money, seven and sixpence. 



A people numbering as many millions as the Russians must of course differ widely in 

 characteristics. In Russia, as in most other countries, wealth has a demoralising tendency. 

 The even temper, kind heart, and loyal disposition, which seem to be his natural characteristics, 

 are apt to disappear as the moujik rises in the world. The Russians are tolerant of strangers 

 in their midst, but not imitative. A Russian village in the middle of German villages does 

 not appear inferior in the eyes of a Russian. To him it is as natural that Germans should 

 live in larger houses as that the birds should live in nests. It never occurs to him that 

 he should build on the German model. The other is German; he is Russian and that 

 is enough. 



The Russians first appear in the light of history about the middle of the ninth century. 

 The exceptional energy and vitality of the race will be seen by comparing their present 

 position with their state at that period. Then they were comprised in a few small tribes on 

 the banks of the Elbe, the Danube, and the low country lying south of the Baltic. They 

 were frequently assailed by more powerful neighbouring tribes. In order to escape extermina- 

 tion, they offered the leadership of their clans to three brothers, members of a warlike 



A SERGEANT IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY. 



