ON THE CZAR'S HIGHWAY. 83 



does not forfeit the respect of his parishioners. It is 

 no uncommon thing, so I was told, for a priest to drink 

 himself into a state of beastly intoxication. And the 

 " black clergy," the monks who spin out an indolent 

 existence in the five hundred monasteries of the Em- 

 pire, drink brandy out of beer glasses. 



But do not imagine that all Russia is shocked at 

 this consumption of spirits by its priesthood — these 

 " carryings-on," as we should call it. Nothing of the 

 kind. The relations of priest and people in Russia 

 are curious to the Protestant mind. The Russian 

 is devoted to the Church, and demands of his priest 

 that he be able to perform the rituals. Whether 

 the priest is of a good moral character or the reverse 

 has little weight with the worshipers. To them he is 

 merely the automatic human machine, a necessary ad- 

 junct to the Church, to swing the censer and marry 

 them, and say masses for them and bury them. He 

 seldom attempts to influence their moral character, and 

 they hold him in no sort of respect. As to vodka, if 

 they trouble themselves about it at all it is to envy him 

 his ability to purchase enough to get drunk on oftener 

 than they themselves can afford to. 



That vodka drinking is at the root of half the misery 

 one sees in Russia, I was quickly persuaded. The evil 

 is enormous, but the remedy is not so easily found. 

 The revenues are correspondingly enormous, and the 

 universal adoption of temperance by the peasantry 

 would probably bankrupt the government. The reve- 

 nues from vodka are said to pay the expenses of both 

 army and navy. 



A drunken moujik is a maudlin, funny creature. 



