CHAPTER XXI. 



A NATIONAL CHARACTERISTIC. 



FINALLY, if any one were to ask me what trait of 

 character is most conspicuously developed in the 

 Russians, based on observations during my ride 

 through the country, I would answer — suspicion. On 

 reflection I might perhaps hesitate a moment between 

 suspicion and superstition, and bestow a passing 

 thought on servility ; but whichever of these three 

 graces prevails, the Russians are, to my mind, the most 

 suspicious people under the sun. 



From this sweeping assertion I don't except even 

 the Chinese. My acquaintance with John Chinaman, 

 though not of long duration, was nevertheless exceed- 

 ingly close while it lasted. I need only refer to my 

 " Around the World on a Bicycle." One who has rid- 

 den a bicycle, alone, seven hundred miles through the 

 highways and byways of a dimly known section of 

 China, where a large part of a dense population had 

 never set eyes on a "foreign devil," let alone a bicycle, 

 before, is entitled to a hearing on the question of sus- 

 picion, if on no other subject. 



The ride through Russia, though on a flesh and 

 blood horse, instead of a steel one, was, so far as op- 

 portunities for observation among the people are con- 

 cerned, substantially a similar performance. Coupling 

 these equal chances of seeing to advantage, with an 



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