of-the-way provincial town before the great awakening that followed
Mukden and Port Arthur purged away much dross and prepared the way for
these latter days of sacrifice and heroism. It is a mournful document, a
piece of devil's advocacy, a Russian counterpart of Lieutenant BILSE'S
_Life in a Garrison Town_, identical in temper and astonishingly similar
in some of its detail. It is clear that the author, who was for seven
years an infantry lieutenant and probably little fitted for the military
life even at its best, endured much unhappiness, for the marks of
suffering have burnt themselves into the book so savagely that the
English translation, though characterized by a crudity which might
reasonably be expected to accomplish much in the way of eliminating the
personality of the author, cannot quite rob his work of its impression
of power and intimate tragedy. Those who are not in search of light
refreshment and who will remember that this last decade of Russian
national regeneration and reorganisation has rooted up the incompetence,
the false standards, the irregular discipline and the inhuman barriers
between officers and men here commented upon, may read these bitter
chapters with profit. As for the translator, he might do well to study
one of the GARNETT TURGENIEFFS, and see how this kind of thing should be
done.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol.
150, March 29, 1916, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUNCH ***

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