ionate until they begin to
kiss each other, and may be seen thus embracing and rolling over and
over together like terriers in the snow. If wine unlooses the tongue,
and brings out what is usually hidden away beneath the surface, it
evidently brings out nothing very evil from the inner life of the
Russian peasant.

In time to come, if all's well, Russia is to be opened up to the
traveller, and everywhere the British tourists will be welcomed, and
even though the beaten track of the railway may never be left there will
be abundant opportunities for observing the habits and customs of the
people. A modern writer who, apparently, in passing through Siberia
never went far from the railway, though he probably stayed for some time
at different places on the way, and sat in third and fourth-class
carriages even if he did not actually travel in them, managed to see a
great deal of peasant life. The railway train is open from end to end,
and a great deal may be learnt thus about the people while merely
passing through. There are also the long waits at the stations where
there are invariably interesting groups of the most romantic and
picturesque character--the women vivacious and full of conversation,
while the men stand more stolidly by, always making one long to speak
and understand their language and to know more about them.

There is a story of Mr. Maurice Baring's which illustrates what I have
already said of the way in which the Russian peasant mind begins to move
freely, independently, and responsibly upon lines undreamed of by those
who may be addressing him, and shows how far he is from receiving merely
conventional and stereotyped impressions, but is always ready to think
for himself. Mr. Baring considers it an instance of his common sense.
The reader may also have his own ideas of what it illustrates, but the
story is this:--

"A Socialist arrived in a village to convert the inhabitants to
Socialism. He wanted to prove that all men were equal, and that the
government authorities had no right to their authority. Consequently he
thought he would begin by disproving the existence of GOD, because if
he proved that there was no GOD it would naturally follow that there
should be no Emperor and no policemen. So he took a holy _ikon_ and
said, 'There is no GOD, and I will prove it immediately. I will spit
upon this _ikon_ and break it to bits, and if there is a GOD He will
send fire from heaven and kill me, and if there is