Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1877, Page 4

TYPES OF CHARACTER AT A KO UM A M iiN K A I L WAY hT A.TIU JN T . Edward King gives the following hit of description iu bis luaL letler U° the Boston Journal:— lt, would ba difficult to grow weary over the thousand ue w

types that one sees in theao long Roumauian journeys. Lafc ua stop at a railway station, where a gentle tinkling bell warns the traveller to be ready the third or fourth time it peals forth its melodious chime. A group of peasant men and women and brighteyed, brown-faced little children huddle at the fence, with long strings of wild cherries in their hands, and scream at you the price and the special excellence of their wares. Aa the momenta decrease the clamor rises, whereupon the station guard, picking up a huge bush, which he always keeps handy, bestows harmless blows ri«rh t a;id left until the peasants retreats. Around a well at a station a dozen Roumanian troopor3 are gathered, each waiting his turn to drink from the huge bucket which comes up dripping with cold water. The little maidens who offer Adam's ale in long jugs, or in bits of pottery rudely stained with cherry or green colors, find no customers and look sullenly at the well which spoils their trade. Near the formidable looking office, which has Commissary of Police written over it, and in the door of which a dark-haired young Russian, in a white tunic, black trousers, and jack boots, lolls negligently, with his hand upon his sword, stand a little company of conscripts, young fellows of all sizessome of them ao diminutive that they are hardly able to carry a long gun. A massive Montenegrin, with huge moustache and with his rich costume full of startling colors, with his girdle filled with knives auJ pistols, with his round red cap shrouded in mourning because of the downfall of the Servian Empire of old and the triumph of the Turks — a fine specimen Montenegrin, strolls up and down the platform, the object of infinite admiration on the part of the Roumanian ladies. The Kussian servant, with his blonde hair cut square away in the back of hia neck, so that his head appears to have been whittled out of a block — although he is certainly a thousand removes from a blockhead — is to be humbly seen following the footsteps of his master. Waiting for the train-master to find them a seat in a coupe, half-a-dozen Roumanian beauties, whose languishing eyes, plump forms, and gracious manner are not lost upon thoir Sclavic visitors ; and chatting with these ladies, the Roumanian officers holding their hats in their hands, stand respectfully by. Meanwhile, a long, lean, cynical - looking Circassian, whose lengthy blua coat would give him an almost clerioal appearance in my eyee, were it not for the row of cartridges with he wears in a species of belt stretched across his bieast walks solemnly up and down the platform, and seems inwardly annoyed that the struggle has not begun long ago. His elongated form, hia sad, almost whimsical look, rendered still more peculiar by the huge cape of Astrakin or fur — I hava not been ahle to decide by which it is surmounted — and his measured march, are in striking contrast to the puny form, almost black skin, wild features, and flowing hair of the Bohemian, the gyp3y wha ttmfo in a corner, shifting from one foot to the other in a modest, deprecating manner, as if admitting that he kuows he is a cumberer of the soil, and ought to be cut off.