| Show u PATRIOTIC training for loyalty the beginning of the teaching of the women of the azars czars dominions answers thus his grieving mother to the jaws of death I 1 hasten to the open courts of kalma to the hunting grounds of pihya unmolested roams the wicked my fathers grievance my mothers tortures the arones I 1 suffer rune the Ka levala globe trotters a man and TWO a woman after many years in russia came home to their own country their voyages and travels in that mysterious land which dominates the map of europe and asia took them from helsing fors to vladivostok and from bagoum to fort arthur from the caucasus to the baltic and from the black sea to the gulf of they saw and studied the manners and the customs f the people when they came home they were asked what they had seen said she the men of russia are the handsom st men in the world said he the aomen of russia are egyptian sphinxes set in modern days and like the ladies of paris with i difference but said one who wished to now you must have seen other laings than handsome men and women aho vho had the mystery of the sphinx yes said the man we did but or interesting things in russia com fiend me to the women who are ex cirbes circes combined with ticks of dynamite the women of russia are colder than ever circe dreamed of being but their calm chilliness there is the fierce heart of the fighting blood has come to them through untold generations of men who have ican their way through battles mur aers and sudden deaths there is a russian proverb which says comans womans Wo mans hair is long but nei arc short somehow that expresses the attitude of the average russian of whatever province he may be toward the women of his country legend of tha precess tamara the or folk 1 stories of russia no woman i is said to be more beautiful than anything in alt the world in the this expression is used only concerning the princesses and the queens those marvelous women who have from time immemorial held first place in the historic literature and the legends of every country on the face of the earth I 1 the princesses in the english fairy stories were more beautiful than anything and the queens in all the folk jalcs of literature have been most wondrously beautiful in the russian folk lore the expression of great beauty is used only concerning the princesses and queens though elsewhere the phrase is held in respect and is used indiscriminately as referring to whatever heroine may take part in the etory in all the legends relating to early history of all the dussias Rus sias there is no etory which is held in higher regard than the talc of the princess barnara Tar nara who reigned over the georgian state of the tram caucasus in the twelfth century her story holde high place in russian or georgian literature and Lemon has made a play about her that is more thrilling in its suggestion even than the story of ivan the terrible sir john Maun deville in his travels abroad found references to her ter drible beauty and he has written in his i books as to bow she slew her suitors the legends are not easy in the p translation but so far as they may be told in modern english this is the story coated la the mysticism of the far east the demon ye shall know then that the princess tamara dwelt in a high mountain place up against the clouds where the rains come down and where the wind sweep from the cragi of the mountain tops it is told in the countries hereabouts that she was the most beautiful woman in all the whole world nowhere was ever one more beautiful not even i queen in the great castle it is said that there is no morality in russia that it is rather an immorality which does duty for what we consider morality it has been said that the russian taken by and large knows absolutely nothing of the moral code as we believe it exists in appearance perhaps this is true but deeper than the appearances lies the fact that the russian woman is just like her sisters the world over from beacon hill to the wilds of the gold coast they are wise self sac rif icing loyal true as they consider truth it has been said that morality is a question of geography what would be considered immoral in madison avenue is a mere effervescence of enthusiasm thusia sm on the anevski kt and contrariwise there arc things done in chicago and cincinnati which would be thought the height of immorality in or st petersburg it all depends upon the point of view but it is still true that in the present difficulties the women of russia are showing just the same sort ol 01 spirit that the women of america would show should the united states be plunged into war they are giving up their husbands and lovers and their fathers and brothers that they may go to fight in the battles of the little father of all the dussias Rus sias the women of russia are the mothers of russia and when you come to understand that you will know something of the spartan courage with which they face the troubles that come to them that is all there is to be said about it early travelers in russia particularly the englishmen who went there to observe the customs have written much concerning the treatment which the women receive but that too is merely a question of the point ot view in the days before the emancipation marriages were arranged by the father it tic was free or by the feudal baron or his steward women had little to say about the choice nothing n fact among the lower classes tins method of selling the bride continued up through the middle classes only in less degree and many gruesome jalcs have come out of russia which go to show that the marriages sometimes ended in tragedy but for all that and with the back she dwelt and there came to suitors from the farthest ends of the earth to sue for the hand of tamara the princess who dwelt in the castle high in the mountain tops where meet the east and the west A great road has been built which leads to the castle and along this road journeyed the suitors alio would her for wife kings and princes and knights of high decree but the princess danger lurking under the most exquisite beauty a characteristic of i their charm ground of this little understood method the women of russia are as happy as any women in the world and they face their difficulties and troubles as cheerfully as do the women anywhere the russian woman of the upper class is devoted to her schools of education in the arts of lace making and rug weaving hundreds of thousands of coubles roubles arc given by these women every year to these schools and the hospitals and charities in which they arc interested in finland alone with a population of there are more than half a million children in the schools except upon the eastern frontier everybody reads and writes and the literature of the country as illustrated best in the marvelous epic of the is among the greatest of the northern literatures the russian woman too is highly educated in business affairs she practically manages the estates and in a country where the husbands arc almost permanently absent from home in some sort of service for the state she must care for the children and the property such an education cannot fall far short of useful in the highest degree and in this if in nothing else the woman of russia holds a prominent place in the social economy considered from the viewpoint of the artist the women of russia arc among the most beautiful in the world in certain provinces like georgia and the caucasus where they go constantly heavily veiled there is always the suggestion of the oriental beauty in the places where there is greater freedom of dress the traveler sees the type of russian beauty which is displayed in pictures there is always the beauty of perfectly cut features which are cameo like in their regularity there is the firm full mouth and the great calm dark eyes and the hair of ebony black which is so dark that it shows touches of almost indigo in certain lights the skin in most of the russian countries is of alabaster whiteness arid this rarely flushes as does the skin of the women of the west briefly the russian woman of whatever class impresses the observer as one who could sing love songs or the songs which send men to battle or use a dagger or a lute indiscriminately they arc picturesque theatrical dangerous and consoling to a degree found nowhere else in the social life of st petersburg tamara was a proud princess and she would have none of their favor no not a favor even from the king of farthest ind jhc would have none of him and she caused to make let a great joust and tourney and he was slain so that was the end of that king now upon a day the princess tamara performed a great magic she let make herself into the form of a RUSSIAN RU LADIES 1 OF DEGREE and moscow and in the great cities of siberia and the far north the woman holds the same relative position that she docs elsewhere in the world among the more highly educated classes she is a leader of fashion anil art just as she is in boston or paris or vienna she holds her court with a graca born of gentle blood and she dispenses her smiles and favors as do her sisters in the other capitals she is a born linguist just as is every russian and it is no unusual thing to find the women of the middle classes and even in the lower classes able to speak six or seven languages to say nothing of many dialects this is particularly true in the caucasus where the east and west meet it was here that the princess tamara lived on the summit of a mountain in a castle which she built for herself and which may still bi seen by the traveler on the georgian road her story is the ultimate story of the russian woman spirit the spirit of lurking danger under smiles of the most incredible beauty it was said of her that to this castle came her lovers in a never ending stream she was of resistless beauty and from the east and from the west came the princes to sue for her hand when her fancy tired of them they were hurled from the cliff s into the raging stream a thousand feet below this story has been the inspiration of numberless poets of russia and the world over for that matter lemont off has made this castle the setting for his great play and he says as nearly as can be translated Witness thou star of midnight witness sun rising and setting king upon his throne nor shah of golden persia eer did KISS fy a t A A face so bright so beautiful as this no hour in the noontide heat did lave A form so perfect in the fountains wave and lovers hand since edens days I 1 trow neer smoothed the wrinkles from so fair a brow E this is the spirit of the russian woman she is beautiful and dangerous but she is the same woman the world over for she loyally gives up all that she loves best in order that the dominions of the little father in the holy city of moscow may bar saved to the fatherland and that they may increase and become the realization of her dreams the demon of the trans caucasus dragon and nowhere ever in the world was ever seen a dragon so terrible as she then she caused messages to be sent to all the princes of the earth and all the kings and all the knights and all the nobles of great degree and she said in this message that whomsoever be he king or prince or noble should come and kiss her on the month whilst she was in the form of the dragon then he should be king over her dominions and rule with her on the throne now upon another day the princess tamara was in a room in her castle combing her hair black like the night and into the castle came a man who had ridden from a great ship somewhere and he had heard of the marvelous beauty of the princess tamara and he would have her to wife now in the mirror where she was combing her hair she saw the image of this man and she asked of him if he were knight and he said nay I 1 am no knight but only a come from a ship then she told him to return to hi fellows and cause them to make a knight of hun for he was fair of favor and a man suan as might reign as king in her dominions then he returned to his ship and his comparisons compa rions made knight of him but before he had gone from the castle the princess camara had said that he should find her upon his return in shape like a dragon but that he was to have no fear he was to to her and kiss her upon the mouth however dreadful might be the appearance which she should assume now when the man returned to the castle after he had been made knight by his fellows he rode upon a palfrey and he was attended by hii squires and his retainers and a great cavalcade of others who had come from far countries by ship with him and he rode into the castle yard and there he saw a dragon of many bards of length and of aspect most lears and he knew that the princess had done what she had told and that she had taken form of dragon to fright him lie would have kissed her on the mouth as she had said but his palfrey took fright and reared terribly and threw the knight to the ground then the princess thinking that he was of the kiss of the dragon let cry a sacrifice and the knight and his horse and his cavalcade were thrown into the river a thousand feet below and the princess reigned alone and never came man who would dare kiss the dragon on the mouth i a |
