CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RUSSIANS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 802, 31 August 1877, Page 3

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RUSSIANS.

— o — physician who to-day has passed his examination in Moscow, will a few weeks hence perhaps he coring bilious fevers on the shores of the Black Sea ; the newlymarried functionary, just settled in Petersburg, is suddenly appointed to a Government office on the frontiers of China ; the officer of the Guards, who intends in the evening to pay a visit to the lady of his love, is unexpectedly despatched in the afternoon as a courier to the Caucasus. Thus it fares with all classes of society. And as the Russian nowhere feels himself at home for any length of time, One nowhere feels at homo for any length of time with him. The gentle power of habit and the charm of remembrance are no spell for him. lie takes no root in the past, and thinks not of the future. This truly Oriental character of the Russian—to live only for the passing moment, and only to enjoy the present—is conspicuous even in his dwelling. He builds for himself alone and his own individual likings, without a thought of those who may come after him. And because he has no spirit of invention, nor taste for beautiful structures, he allows his house to be built after the fashion of those arohnd him, and usually in such haste, that often in a few years the building is nothing more than a plastered ruin. Hence the frigid uniformity of tire Russian houses, and the singular circumstance that there i: no telling by the appearance of any house whether it was built one year, ten, or a hundred years ago—so different from the old towns of Garmany, Italy, and other countries, whore the buildings are, as it wore, living pages of history, instructive mediators betwixt the present and the past. The Russian peasantry, in accosting a person of consequence, or from whom they expect any favor, prostrate themselves, touch ihe ground with their hands, and kiss the fringe of his garments. If they save money, they mostly bury it in the ground.