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Show THE CZAR'S FOUR HUNDRED. Woes or Glided Youth In St. Petersburg. Railroad Ueadheada. Herr von Proskowetz, an Austrian nobleman no-bleman and traveler, has just published a bookful of stories concerning the bad tide of Russian life as he saw it in a two years' trip through the country. The most striking peculiarity of Russian rail-way rail-way travel, ho thinks, i3 the large number num-ber of deadheads in the high priced com. part menu of the coupes. Between Moscow Mos-cow and' St. Petersburg he shared a first class compartment with a dragoon officer. offi-cer. The guard took Herr von Proskc-wetz's Proskc-wetz's ticket, but said nothing to the officer. offi-cer. For some time after they were left alone together the military man eyed the Austrian nobleman curiously, and finally asked: "Did you really buy a first class ticket?" Von Proskowetz confessed that ho did. "And your good money is squandered beyond recall. You ought to havo done as I did. I gave the guard a rouble and a cigar. He is a good fellow and doesn't bother about tickets." Proskowetz suggested that a dragoon officer might do things that a foreigner mightn't. "Yes, that may be so," answered his companion, "but just think of the fun you might have had with the fifteen roubles you squandered on a ticket." Herr von Proskowetz gathered some interesting statistics and made notes on some queer things while in Russia. Since 1855 the population of St. Petersburg Pe-tersburg has fallen from 801,000 to 842,-000. 842,-000. , This falling off has taken place among th'e working people, and may be ascribed to the wretchedness of the quarters quar-ters in which the workingmen at the capital cap-ital are obliged to live. Ono-tenth of the workingmeri's lodgings are in cellars. When higher up, however, the accommodations accom-modations are little better. A working-man's working-man's sleeping room has usually only one window, and is occupied at night by between ten and fifty other laborers. - Herr von Proskowetz's opinion of Russian Rus-sian society is pretty poor. The young men in Moscow's 400, he thinks, are about tbe most reckless and extravagant in the world, and are always full of a desire de-sire to smash things. A man, therefore, who gives a stag dinner at a Moscow restaurant res-taurant or hotel invariably contracts to pay for the meal "inclusive of crockery." As soon as the last dish has been served his guests begin to slam things about the room, and before the last bottle of wine has been served the floor is carpeted with small bits of the service, the mirrors and tbe pictures from the wall. In the Winter Win-ter garden the young bloods drive their 6ticka through the fish globes and hew down all the flowers and Bhrubs they can get at. They are not altogether bad. however, for they pay the proprietor lavishly for everything they destroy. , Another freak of the lively young men in Moscow is to hire an elephant for an evening and get it drunk on champagne. About six months ago a young blood beat the record for originality by giving his friends a dinner, at which the only meat was the pork from u trained pig. bought of its trainer by the host for 14,-000 14,-000 roubles. At least that was the story the host told iu good faith to his friends at the beginning of the feast. He learned the next day that tho owner of the pig, Clown Tanto, had swindled him by substituting sub-stituting a common pig for the educated animal. A lawsuit followed, but before it could be decided Tanto and his pig and the 14,000 roubles in question got out of the country. Tho Moscow dudes and officers have also an overweening passion for the stars of the cafe chantants and for gypsy street singers, whom they marry with astonishing frequency. Herr von Proskowetz Pros-kowetz tells all these stories of the czar's 400 with perfect seriousness, and presents pre-sents abundant proof of their truth. His opinion is that the half has not been told of the unique madness of Russian fashionable fash-ionable life. -New York Sun. . |
