42 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



If the Russian is lazy, however, he is far from being 

 dull. The number of people one meets who under- 

 stand several languages is astonishing. Across the 

 aisle from us sat an officer and a young lady com- 

 panion. My attention was attracted to the latter, be- 

 fore our train had gone far, by reason of the number of 

 cigarettes she smoked. She was almost a chain-smoker, 

 lighting one cigarette after another from the stump of 

 the one just consumed. The students, seeing that I 

 was interested, made some remark about the custom 

 of smoking as indulged in by the ladies of Russia. We 

 talked on a while, and all agreed that the habit was 

 more likely to grow on a woman than a man, and that 

 for a young lady to permit herself to become a ciga- 

 rette devotee was a mistake. At this juncture, the fair 

 smoker could keep her countenance no longer. She 

 had understood all that we had said ! Before reaching 

 Moscow I discovered that fully one half the passengers 

 in my car knew English ! Now, a Russian might 

 knockabout the United States for six months without 

 falling in with anybody who could talk with him in 

 his own tongue. 



The idea these students had of Russians international 

 politics was that everybody hated her except France 

 and the United States. It sounded queer that des- 

 potic Russia should find friends only in these two 

 governmental antitheses to herself. 



I asked them which they considered the better 

 government of the two, that of the United States or 

 Russia. 



" Russia," they said. 



"Why?" 



