RUSSIAN WOMEN. 315 



Music, the languages, and dancing are the accom- 

 plishments of the Russian lady. The former is a use- 

 ful accomplishment to her; but the number of Russians, 

 both male and female, who have learned languages and 

 forgotten them is surprising. They have learned super- 

 ficially, and in a year or two forget, for the lack of 

 some one to talk to. One meets many ladies, however, 

 to whom the English and French tongues are as famil- 

 iar as the Russian. This is not, as is generally supposed 

 in America, because Russians learn languages more 

 easily than other people, but simply because the chil- 

 dren of every well-to-do Russian family of any preten- 

 sion to nobility have English and French governesses. 



Their vices are laziness, untruthfulness, extravagance, 

 cigarette smoking, and deceiving their husbands. The 

 Russian lady is a poor housekeeper and she rarely 

 nurses her own children. A hatred of mental exertion 

 in the matter of detail and carefulness is a fundamen- 

 tal trait of her character, and the keeping of accounts 

 in the matter of household expenses is a species of in- 

 tellectual slavery with which Mme. Ivanovka will have 

 nothing to do if she can avoid it. If household eco- 

 nomics thrust themselves upon her shoulders, whether 

 she will or not, she gets rid of them in a slovenly, shift- 

 less manner, and consoles herself with Zola and 

 cigarettes. 



I was assured, however, that Russian ladies of the 

 upper class are far less addicted to the habit of smok- 

 ing than they have been in the past. Among society 

 dames it is becoming " the thing " not to smoke at all, 

 save in the privacy of their own apartments. The 

 habit is largely the outcome of the Oriental ideas that 



