THE UNKNOWN LAND.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1789, 30 June 1913, Page 11

THE UNKNOWN LAND.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIA, (By G. Valentine Williams, in the "Daily Mail.") St. Petersburg. I doubt if there is a country in tho world which makes a deeper first impression on the newcomer than Russia. Tlio moment 1 entered tho Customs room at Wirballoii, the Germau-Kussiaii frontier station, and, handing my pass- ■ port to a waiting gendarme, was forthwith registered as a stranger visiting Russia, I foit I was crossing tho threshold of a new civilisation. Here at the gates of Russia everything was unfamiliar: the sacred ikon, its candle burning before it, tho officials H-ith their round astrakhan caps, the women luggage examiners with their neat white head-cloths, the bearded porters with their vast aprons, the unwonted speed, the bewildering Russian print. I felt I was penetrating among a vast olan living its own life and thinking its own. thoughts next door to but altogether alien to tlie great European family which lives and thinks more or less aliko from London to Vienna, from Christiania to Madrid. The Vast Slav Wonderland. This impression of nufamilitirity has increased with every day of my siay in Russia. As this vast Slav wonderland has unfolded itself before my eyes I have found myself reflecting bow petty arc tho national and racial differences separating tho Teutonic and the Latin peoples as compared with the unbridged gulf divid- . ing Russia from the rest of Europe. What impresses inc most of all is the compactness of Russia. In her national life Russia is sufficient unto herself. Extraneous influences leave no mark on her great language, on her religion, on her national dress. The heavens covering tho rest of the world might collapse, yet Russia's millions, one l'eels, would proceed calmly abont their daily occupations, content in the knowledge that Russia still endured. There have been periods of German influence and French influence which left in passing their impress on art nnd letters. But they never invaded tho Russian soul. Internal disorders and external disasters may evoke phases of despondency about Russia's future in the minds of a few thinkers. Generally speaking, the average Russian is penetrated with the absolute conviction of Russia's high mission in the world, of her inalterability, ft is not the expression of patriotism. It is a habit of thought, ingrained, congenial. In the mind of the peasant, for instance, it represents Russia, geographically and politically by comparison with the rest of the world in a somewhat similar position to that which, in the old M creator maps "Europa" occupies towards the' "Land of the Anthropophagi" Mid other fabulous countries dispersed about its confines. At a Country Shoot, At a country shoot to which I was Invited in Ihe province of Novgorod tho peasant gamekeepers, as we sat round the cump fire, eagerly cross-examined my host about the foreign jospodin (gentleman). "We think he has only been _ a little' time in our country," they said. Sly host replied that I had just como from England. "And has lie never been !n Russia before?" was the next question. My host replied in the negative. "How very extraordinary 1" was their comment and they paused in amazement; then added with tho utmost simplicity: "As tho gospodin appears intelligent we think he will learn Russian very soon and then he will bo able to tell us about his country." Another sign of the marked national spirit of the Russians is the ruthlessncss ivith which a knowledge of Russian is presupposed. In the principal hotel of St. Petersburg and Moscow Germau and French are spoken as well as in most of tho large shops, but even in the hotels tho waiters, who are generally Tartars, and tho boots, who are peasants, speak nothing but Russian. Russian rules supreme and alone in the notices at all tho railway stations, whereas in Germany there are notices in French and English at the main termini, and even the Gare du Nord in Paris does violence to. its good French feelings sufficiently to tack on the inscriptions "Way Out" and "Ausgang" to the "Sortie" notices. The Russian alphabet is another stumbling-block for the unshepherded stranger. It will avail him little to write the address to which he wishes to proceed on a piece of paper and let that speak for him. If he takes a cab the cabman will probably not be ablo to lead at all, while in the, rest of the lower classes, when they are able to read, they are not always able to decipher Latin characters. All foreign letters arrive with the address supertranscribcd in Russian characters for the benefit of the postman. In St. Petersburg. Tho utter uufamiliarity of Russia! It was thawing tho morning I reached St. Petersburg, and the streets were sloughs of mud and melting ice. Tho day was dark, a dismal sleti'c was falling, and all was grey and sad. But in tho mournful half-light of noonday I think the city was seen at its best, for the colour scheme of all Russian cities is one of contrasts to set oil the monotony of tlio endless winter white. The great palaces and public buildings, stucco-fronted in tones of fierce brick-red or lurid yellow, loomed in barbaric .splendour against the colourless background of a winter sky, while above the house-tops the gilded cupolas and spires «f the chnirches gleamed dully through the greyish mist'. Tho vastness, the magnificence, the garishness of it all, seemed to speak of Russia's centuries of dominion, pomp, and blood, and tlie sadness of the atmosphere to symbolise tho inherent melancholy of the Slur eoul. Impressions crowd thickly on the stranger newly arrived in St. Petersburg. Tho door porter of the hotel is an imposing functionary wlio in his long black blouse and twisted pink sash and his black astrakhan cap with an upstanding row of peacock feathers might have stepped out of tho runks of tho Russian toilet. No livery of buttons for the pageboys—they art attired in blood-red blouses with embroidered belts and baggy, trousers thrust, into top boots. The men servants, strapping peasants with melancholy eyes, whom one sees 'scrubbing and scouring in silent service from dawn (to dusk, wear their peasant blouses of a deep rich rod ingirdled by a broad leathern belt. A Medley of Uniforms, An extraordinary variety of uniforms is to be seen in the streets, for besides the military <™d police, State employees, students, and schoolboys wear uniform, while the street picture is furthpr enlivened by the different liveries of cabmcu, concierges, and house attendants and the national drosses from the different parts of Russia. One sees all kinds, of anny uniforms, from the spotless white tunic and gloaming brass helmet of the Horse Guards to the flowing robe and furry busby of the Cossack. There are policemen 'in black with orange facings and astrakhan caps, students with peaked caps and uniforms of grey or dark green, conciorges in long blue overcoats with gold lace, and liouso attendants, or dvorniks, whom ono may seo' winter or summer sweeping the pavement and roadway in front of their houses in scarlet blouses and caps with a brass, plate giving tho address of tho house to which they aro attached. Familiar sights ,iro Turcomans in immense shaggy hats of wlvito sheepskin, and dark-skinned Caucasians in long-skirted kaftans of white or brown, with double rows of cartridge pockets across tho broast, dagger of chased silvor stuck in the belt, and high sugar-loaf hat of astrakhan. In tho bizarre setting of tho Byzantine architecture, the infinite > variety of costumes forms an ever-chang-ing picture on which the eye of the Westerner, sated with the sameness of other European capitals, rests entranced.