that she be allowed, without special report on each occasion, to go and come between the city and a near-by suburb whither her work carried her twice a week ; for the average Russian would then be able to protect himself against the Jewish competition by ordinary means ; while now his inferior intelligence makes necessary the brutal methods of protection which American workmen once used against Chinese coolies. We would not hear Russian officers congratulating themselves on having duty in the relatively easy-going borders of the Empire, because there excessive bureaucracy is sheer impossibility.
It is in these border lands, I believe, that Russia will learn the lesson of ordered individualism which shall transform and glorify her future. I cannot forget the most vivacious Russian whom I met en route from Moscow to Tiflis—a young electrical engineer who emphasised the fact that he was a Siberian, and because of that he insisted that he could understand America. Nor shall I forget the jolly station-master at Krasnovodsk, who refused the fifteen roubles offered out of deference to the false tradition which makes every Russian a bribe-taker, while he indicated that he would accept a lot of French magazines because their outlook was larger than the native literature. Nor shall I forget the ladies in the household of the Natchalik--colonel commanding the Osh District. There were mother and daughter, and two young friends from Tashkent, capital of Turkestan. One of these was a telegraph operator—orphan, of a good family ; all three were cultured young women, better musicians than the average well-educated American girl --
IIIF Color HighRes
