Eeritu of liecii'irs, 1111/13. 



MY FATHER. 



86: 



should be louchecl on the \\\\\. The supplies direct from China, have pre 

 Tsar took up a ruler and drew a straight 

 line from St. Petersburg to Moscow on 

 the map. " We want to connect the two 

 cities," he said ", " that is the shortest 



way ! 



Nowhere else in the world - the 

 United States, Canada, South Africa, 

 New Zealand, Mexico or ^Australia — 

 have I found such good catering" for 

 passengers' needs as in Russia. The 

 meals are si)lenclidly cooked, and pipmg 

 hot. The Tchai, or tea, is one of the 

 nicest beverages I have ever tasted. 



served its right name. 



A GREAT RUSSIAN PAINTER. 

 vSt. Petersburg is harcll\^ a t)pical 

 Russian town, it is so cosmopolitan. 

 Moscow was for long the capital of the 

 Tartar kingdom, and with its Kremlin 

 and quaint churches has still an Orien- 

 tal appearance. There were not a great 

 number of peo]ile to see in Moscow, so 

 we did not remaui long there. We 

 visited the gallery, and saw the pictures 

 of the famous Russian painter \''erest- 

 chagm. This genial giant was a great 



MOSCOW. 



TCHA, TCHAI AND TEA. 

 The other day I came across a most 

 interesting explanation of wh}- tea is 

 called Tchai in Russia. A friend, whose 

 home is in China, told me of the copy 

 of a newspaper he has which appeared 

 in London at the time of Oliver Crom- 

 well's death. It tells about the prospects 

 of Richard Cromwell being Protector, 

 and of General Monk's doings. It also 

 contains an advertisement stating that 

 So-and-so in the city now has for sale 

 packets of the new beverage Tcha — 

 called in France Tea — price 20s. a 

 pound. Tea is still called Tcha in parts 

 of China, and the Russians, gettinp" their 



friend of father's, who considered that 

 his pictures were the finest arguments 

 against war ever put on canvas. Vas- 

 sili A^erestchagin was undoubtedl)" the 

 most famous of all painters of the 

 realities of war. It is said of Dante that 

 he wrote the " Inferno " because he had 

 himself been in hell. It is literally true 

 of Verestchagin that he painted war 

 because he was himself a warrior. He 

 was a soldier-artist, a man who became 

 a soldier for the sake of his art, and who 

 used his art in order to teach the world 

 the truth about soldiering. It was in 

 his search for realism that he lost his 

 life. In order to paint truh' scenes of 



