CHAPTER XX. 



RUSSIAN WOMEN. 



WHAT do you think of the Russian ladies? ' was 

 a question often asked me upon my return to 

 New York. Rather a delicate question, and one not 

 to be answered beyond recording a few observations 

 picked up on the journey and information gleaned from 

 residents of the country. One of my recollections is, 

 that within a stone's toss of the balcony of my room 

 in the Hotel Europe, Sevastopol, a score of Crimean 

 and visiting nymphs were paddling and splashing 

 about merrily in the blue waters of the bay, in full 

 view of half the city. A plank fence, jutting fifty feet 

 out into the water, separated them from three times 

 the number of male bathers. Beyond the fence Rus- 

 sian propriety was observed, if the sexes mingled not 

 too promiscuously in swimming and paddling about. 

 Some wore bathing-dresses and others did not, accord- 

 ing to individual preference. A boatload of soldiers 

 passed along in front of the ladies' bath-house and 

 every head in the boat was turned inquisitively in that 

 direction. 



One of the peculiarities of Russian women is that 

 they appear to have no objection to this sort of scru- 

 tiny. One day my horse refused to cross a stream at 

 a certain point. A little farther along were a group of 

 women, bathing. Seeing my difficulty, one of the 

 women stood on the bank and motioned to me that 



313 



