MY INTERPRETER RETURNS. 217 



eyes on before, and which the improvident moujiks of 

 the north and central provinces had never yet dreamed 

 of. Sascha regarded these German colonists, dressed 

 in decent clothes and driving to town in wagons as 

 good as the wagon of an American farmer, with aston- 

 ishment. Here were peasants of a status that were to 

 him, on this, his first acquaintance with them, a posi- 

 tive enigma. While he could not but agree with me, 

 when I suggested that if all the peasants of the Rus- 

 sian Empire were as thrifty and prosperous as these it 

 would be a tremendous improvement on the present 

 state of affairs, his agreement was a very reluctant, half- 

 hearted admission. 



" These people," said he, " are better than our mou- 

 jiks for earning money and cultivating the soil, but 

 they are not warm-hearted like the moujiks." 



Ninety-nine Russians out of a hundred would have 

 given this same answer. It is the stock excuse that the 

 educated Russian always has ready at the end of his 

 tongue when a question of comparison is raised be- 

 tween the moujiks and the more thrifty and enterpris- 

 ing peasantry of other nationalities, — " Our moujiks are 

 warm-hearted." 



There certainly is something to be said on this score, 

 not only of the moujiks, but of all classes of Russians 

 who remain true to their Slav nature, and unaffected 

 by contact with the pride and individualism of the West. 

 One must almost necessarily be a Slav himself, however, 

 to fully appreciate the advantages and beauty of that 

 maudlin warmth of heart that leads big-whiskered cav- 

 alry officers to kiss one another in the public streets, and 

 bear-like moujiks to slobber over and hug each other 



