28 ADVENTURES IN IDEALISM 



"How often does your husband beat you?" 



I caught my breath at the question, but looking into 

 his face saw that he inquired in dead earnest, and to 

 tell him that my husband never gave me a beating 

 would appear to him a very poor joke indeed. So I 

 answered: 



"About once a year. Sometimes twice before the 

 biggest holidays." 



He nodded approvingly. "You see, Barina" (Lady), 

 he remarked, "I give my wife a beating on or before 

 every holiday. (And in Russia they do come very, 

 very often.) "You know," he continued, "the best of 

 wives will never respect or think much of her man 

 unless he gives her a sound beating now and then." 



Among the Russian proverbs is one, and a proverb 

 usually tells the tale: "Love your wife as your own 

 soul, but shake her like a pear tree." 



I remember, however, the case of a woman who 

 my husband saved from a different sort of beating. 

 The story will also serve to show the respect in which 

 the peasants held him. We had one farmer, a Cossack, 

 who was married to a Lettish woman. He and his 

 family shared one isbah (cabin) with his father-in- 

 law, a common arrangement among the peasants. The 

 old man kept his savings of a lifetime, about one 

 thousand rubles, in his trunk. Few of the peasants 

 were enlightened enough to keep their money in a 

 bank; and the bank, in most cases, was miles away, 

 One day the old man found out that the money -all 



