m France or Germany, and since these two
claim to be the most polite and cultivated nations in existence, it is
even possible that the Americans--a rude people, who have not yet had
time to polish their manners or perfect their customs--may be mistaken
in their estimate of the ladies, and will, some day or other, become
more Europeanized.

But, in all fairness, if the Russians be a little uncouth in their
way, they possess, like bears, a wonderful aptness in learning to
dance; if the brutal element is strong in their nature, so also is the
capacity to acquire frivolous and meretricious accomplishments. Like
all races in which the savage naturally predominates, they delight in
the glitter of personal decoration, the allurements of music, dancing,
and the gambling-table, and all the luxuries of idleness and sensuous
folly--traits which they share pretty generally with the rest of
mankind. Tropical gardens, where the thermometer is twenty degrees
below zero; feasts and frolics that in a single night may leave them
beggars for life; military shows; the smoke and carnage of battle; the
worship of their saints and Czars--these are their chief pleasures and
most genial occupations.

But, with all this folly and prodigality, there is really a great deal
of native generosity in the Russian character. Liberal to a fault in
every thing but the affairs of government, they freely bestow their
wealth upon charitable institutions, and, whether rich or poor, are
ever ready to extend the hand of relief to the distresses of their
fellow-creatures. It is rarely they hoard their gains. There are few
who do not live up to the full measure of their incomes, and most of
them very far beyond. Whether they spend their means for good or for
evil, they are at least free from the groveling sin of stinginess. I
never met more than one stingy Russian to my knowledge; but let him
go. He reaped his reward in the dislike of all who knew him. Toward
each other, even the beggars are liberal. There is nothing little or
contemptible in the Russian character. Overbearing and despotic they
may be; deficient in the gentler traits which grace a more cultivated
people; but meanness is not one of their failings. In this they
present a striking contrast to a large and influential portion of
their North German neighbors, for whose sordid souls Beelzebub might
search in vain through the desert wastes that lie upon the little end
of a cambric needle.

In some re