TCHUDOVO AND THE PRISTAV. 3 1 



will, in time, be better than the prisons of any country 

 in the world." 



These were some of the poignant shots directed at 

 the writer by the pristav, in reply to questions. Like 

 all Russians whom I afterward met, he was enthusiastic 

 and loyal to his country. 



" People at a distance," said he, " remember our 

 faults and forget our virtues. We have plenty of 

 both. Our intentions are good, but our methods are 

 faulty. As a people we have no talent for detail, and 

 for that reason our administration is defective. We 

 are the kindest-hearted people in the world, but a 

 Russian is too easily contented with things as they are. 

 We are not thrifty like the French, nor economical 

 and plodding like the Germans, nor progressive and 

 energetic like the Americans. You will see, if you 

 travel through Russia, colonies of Germans scattered 

 here and there, and you will be astonished at the con- 

 trast between them and our own people. The Russian 

 peasant will be living in a tumble-down house, and his 

 daily fare will be black bread and cabbage soup. The 

 Germans will be better fed, better housed, better 

 clothed, their fences will be neat, their gardens will be 

 full of vegetables, and they will be rapidly growing rich. 

 You would think that the Russian moujik would envy 

 his prosperous neighbor and follow his example, but he 

 seldom does. He even considers himself superior, 

 and laughs in a good-natured way, saying, w r ith pride, 

 as he thinks of his hard fare, ' What is death to the 

 foreigner is life to the Russian.' With plenty of rich 

 land in his back yard, he doesn't even take the trouble 

 to grow vegetables, as you have seen for yourself in 



