156 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



direct to the Czar, stating his case, and begging that an 

 exception might be made in his favor. To the astonish- 

 ment of everybody, he received, fifteen days later, an 

 Imperial document which secured to him the coveted 

 permission to enter the academy. 



He had passed his examination and had been on 

 several cruises in and about the Black, Mediterranean, 

 and Red Seas. 



This young officer gave the writer an amusing insight 

 into some of the mental conceptions of the Russian 

 sailors and younger inferior officers. They liked the 

 French sailors better than the English, he said, because 

 the French sailors kissed them, whereas the English 

 sailors were always punching their heads. There is, it 

 seems, a species of personal assault familiarly known 

 in the Russian navy as being " boxed by a John." 

 English sailors are the " Johns," and boxing, as it is 

 " understanded of the Russian sailors," appears to be 

 less of a scientific operation and more of the pummel- 

 ing order of assault and defense than is permissible by 

 the actual rules of the ring. 



Once — this young officer and protege of the Czar 

 went on to say — his vessel was stationed at Alexandria, 

 at the same time that an English vessel was stationed 

 there, and every day, sailors, after leave ashore, used to 

 come aboard with blackened eyes and broken noses, 

 all evidences of having been " boxed by the Johns." 



My informant was a very intelligent young Russian, 

 but in common with a good many Russians, even of 

 fair education, deep down among the bottom layers of 

 his convictions and beliefs were scraps of fanaticism 

 that belong to the days of Peter the Hermit, and seem 



