the village of osterno, lying, or rather scrambling, along the banks of the river oster, is at no time an exhilarating spot. it is a large village, numbering over nine hundred souls, as the board affixed to its first house testifieth in incomprehensible russian figures.
a “soul,” be it known, is a different object in the land of the czars to that vague protoplasm about which our young persons think such mighty thoughts, our old men write such famous big books. a soul is namely a man—in russia the women have not yet begun to seek their rights and lose their privileges. a man is therefore a “soul” in russia, and as such enjoys the doubtful privilege of contributing to the land-tax and to every other tax. in compensation for the first-named impost he is apportioned his share of the common land of the village, and by the cultivation of this ekes out an existence which would be valueless if he were a teetotaller. it is melancholy to have to record this fact in the pages of a respectable volume like the present; but facts—as the orator who deals in fiction is ever ready to announce—facts cannot be ignored. and any man who has lived in russia, has dabbled in russian humanity, and noted the singular unattractiveness of russian life—any such man can scarcely deny the fact that if one deprives the moujik of his privilege of getting gloriously and frequently intoxicated, one takes away from that same moujik the one happiness of his existence.
that the russian peasant is by nature one of the cheeriest, the noisiest, and lightest-hearted of men is only another proof of the creator’s power; for this dimly lighted “soul” has nothing to cheer him on his forlorn way but the memory of the last indulgence in strong drink and the hope of more to come. he is harassed by a ruthless tax-collector; he is shut off from the world by enormous distances over impracticable roads. when the famine comes, and come it assuredly will, the moujik has no alternative but to stay where he is and starve. since alexander ii. of philanthropic memory made the russian serf a free man, the blessings of freedom have been found to resolve themselves chiefly into a perfect liberty to die of starvation, of cold, or of dire disease. when he was a serf this man was of some small value to some one; now he is of no consequence to any one whatsoever except himself, and, with considerable intelligence, he sets but small store upon his own existence. freedom, in fact, came to him before he was ready for it; and, hampered as he has been by petty departmental tyranny, governmental neglect, and a natural stupidity, he has made very small progress toward a mental independence. all that he has learnt to do is to hate his tyrants. when famine urges him, he goes blindly, helplessly, dumbly, and tries to take by force that which is denied by force.
with us in england the poor man raises up his voice and cries aloud when he wants something. he always wants something—never work, by the way—and therefore his voice pervades the atmosphere. he has his evening newspaper, which is dear at the moderate sum of a halfpenny. he has his professional organizers, and his trafalgar square. he even has his members of parliament. he does no work, and he does not starve. in his generation the poor man thinks himself wise. in russia, however, things are managed differently. the poor man is under the heel of the rich. some day there will be in russia a terror, but not yet. some day the moujik will erect unto himself a rough sort of a guillotine, but not in our day. perhaps some of us who are young men now may dimly read in our dotage of a great upheaval beside which the terror of france will be tame and uneventful. who can tell? when a country begins to grow, its mental development is often startlingly rapid.
but we have to do with russia of to-day, and the village of osterno in the government of tver. not a “famine” government, mind you! for these are the volga provinces—samara, pensa, voronish, vintka, and a dozen others. no! tver the civilized, the prosperous, the manufacturing centre.
osterno is built of wood. should it once fairly catch alight in a high wind, all that will be left of this town will be a few charred timbers and some dazed human beings. the inhabitants know their own danger, and endeavor to meet it in their fatalistic manner. each village has its fire organization. each “soul” has his appointed place, his appointed duty, and his special contribution—be it bucket or rope or ladder—to bring to the conflagration. but no one ever dreams of being sober and vigilant at the right time, so the organization, like many larger such, is a broken reed.
the street, bounded on either side by low wooden houses, is, singularly enough, well paved. this, the traveller is told, by the tyrant prince pavlo, who made the road because he did not like driving over ruts and through puddles—the usual russian rural thoroughfare. not because prince pavlo wanted to give the peasants work, not because he wanted to save them from starvation—not at all, although, in the gratification of his own whim, he happened to render those trifling services; but merely because he was a great “barin”—a prince who could have any thing he desired. had not the other barin—steinmetz by name—superintended the work? steinmetz the hated, the loathed, the tool of the tyrant whom they never see. ask the “starost”—the mayor of the village. he knows the barins, and hates them.
michael roon, the starosta or elder of osterno, president of the mir, or village council, principal shopkeeper, mayor and only intelligent soul of the nine hundred, probably had tartar blood in his veins. to this strain may be attributed the narrow tartar face, the keen black eyes, the short, spare figure which many remember to this day, although michael roon has been dead these many years.
removed far above the majority of his fellow-villagers in intelligence and energy, this man administered the law of his own will to his colleagues on the village council.
it was late in the autumn, one evening remembered by many for its death-roll, that the starosta was standing at the door of his small shop. he was apparently idle. he never sold vodka, and the majority of the villagers were in one of the three thriving “kabaks” which drove a famous trade in strong drink and weak tea. it was a very hot evening. the sun had set in a pink haze which was now turning to an unhealthy gray, and spreading over the face of the western sky like the shadow of death across the human countenance.
the starosta shook his head forebodingly. it was cholera weather. cholera had come to osterno. had come, the starosta thought, to stay. it had settled down in osterno, and nothing but the winter frosts would kill it, when hunger-typhus would undoubtedly succeed it.
therefore the starosta shook his head at the sunset, and forgot to regret the badness of the times from a commercial point of view. he had done all he could. he had notified to the zemstvo the condition of his village. he had made the usual appeal for help, which had been forwarded in the usual way to tver, where it had apparently been received with the usual philosophic silence.
but michael roon had also telegraphed to karl steinmetz, and since the despatch of this message had the starosta dropped into the habit of standing at his doorway in the evening, with his hands clasped behind his back and his beady black eyes bent westward along the prince’s high-road.
on the particular evening with which we have to do the beady eyes looked not in vain; for presently, far along the road, appeared a black speck like an insect crawling over the face of a map.
“ah!” said the starosta. “ah! he never fails.”
presently a neighbor dropped in to buy some of the dried leaf which the starosta, honest tradesman, called tea. he found the purveyor of cathay’s produce at the door.
“ah!” he said, in a voice thick with vodka. “you see something on the road?”
“yes.”
“a cart?”
“no, a carriage. it moves too quickly.”
a strange expression came over the peasant’s face, at no time a pleasing physiognomy. the bloodshot eyes flared up suddenly like a smouldering flame in brown paper. the unsteady, drink-sodden lips twitched. the man threw up his shaggy head, upon which hair and beard mingled in unkempt confusion. he glared along the road with eyes and face aglow with a sullen, beast-like hatred.
“a carriage! then it is for the castle.”
“possibly,” answered the starosta.
“the prince—curse him, curse his mother’s soul, curse his wife’s offspring!”
“yes,” said the starosta quietly. “yes, curse him and all his works. what is it you want, little father—tea?”
he turned into the shop and served his customer, duly inscribing the debt among others in a rough, cheap book.
the word soon spread that a carriage was coming along the road from tver. all the villagers came to the doors of their dilapidated wooden huts. even the kabaks were emptied for a time. as the vehicle approached it became apparent that the horses were going at a great pace; not only was the loose horse galloping, but also the pair in the shafts. the carriage was an open one, an ordinary north russian travelling carriage, not unlike the vehicle we call the victoria, set on high wheels.
beside the driver on the box sat another servant. in the open carriage sat one man only, karl steinmetz.
as he passed through the village a murmur of many voices followed him, not quite drowned by the rattle of his wheels, the clatter of the horses’ feet. the murmur was a curse. karl steinmetz heard it distinctly. it made him smile with a queer expression beneath his great gray mustache.
the starosta, standing in his door-way, saw the smile. he raised his voice with his neighbors and cursed. as steinmetz passed him he gave a little jerk of the head toward the castle. the jerk of the head might have been due to an inequality of the road, but it might also convey an appointment. the keen, haggard face of michael roon showed no sign of mutual understanding. and the carriage rattled on through the stricken village.
two hours later, when it was quite dark, a closed carriage, with two bright lamps flaring into the night, passed through the village toward the castle at a gallop.
“it is the prince,” the peasants said, crouching in their low door-ways. “it is the prince. we know his bells—they are of silver—and we shall starve during the winter. curse him—curse him!”
they raised their heads and listened to the galloping feet with the patient, dumb despair which is the curse of the slavonic race. some of them crept to their doors, and, looking up, saw that the castle windows were ablaze with light. if paul howard alexis was a plain english gentleman in london, he was also a great prince in his country, keeping up a princely state, enjoying the gilded solitude that belongs to the high-born. his english education had educed a strict sense of discipline, and as in england, and, indeed, all through his life, so in russia did he attempt to do his duty.
the carriage rattled up to the brilliantly lighted door, which stood open, and within, on either side of the broad entrance-hall, the servants stood to welcome their master. a strange, picturesque, motley crew: the majordomo, in his black coat, and beside him the other house-servants—tall, upright fellows, in their bright livery. beyond them the stable-men and keepers, a little army, in red cloth tunics, with wide trousers tucked into high boots, all holding their fur caps in their hands, standing stiffly at attention, clean, honest, and not too intelligent.
the castle of osterno is built on the lines of many russian country seats, and not a few palaces in moscow. the royal palace in the kremlin is an example. a broad entrance-hall, at the back of which a staircase as broad stretches up to a gallery, around which the dwelling-rooms are situated. at the head of the staircase, directly facing the entrance-hall, high folding doors disclose the drawing-room, which is almost a throne room. all gorgeous, lofty, spacious, as only russian houses are. truly this northern empire, this great white land, is a country in which it is good to be an emperor, a prince, a noble, but not a poor man.
paul passed through the ranks of his retainers, himself a head taller than the tallest footman, a few inches broader than the sturdiest keeper. he acknowledged the low bows by a quick nod, and passed up the staircase. steinmetz—in evening dress, wearing the insignia of one or two orders which he had won in the more active days of his earlier diplomatic life—was waiting for him at the head of the stairs.
the two men bowed gravely to each other. steinmetz threw open the door of the great room and stood aside. the prince passed on, and the german followed him, each playing his part gravely, as men in high places are called to do. when the door was closed behind them and they were alone, there was no relaxation, no smile of covert derision. these men knew the russian character thoroughly. there is, be it known, no more impressionable man on the face of god’s earth. paul and steinmetz had played their parts so long that these came to be natural to them as soon as they passed the volga. we are all so in a minor degree. in each house, to each of our friends, we are unconsciously different in some particular. one man holds us in awe, and we unconsciously instil that feeling. another considers us a buffoon, and, lo! we are exceedingly funny.
paul and steinmetz knew that the people around them in osterno were somewhat like the dumb and driven beast. these peasants required overawing by a careful display of pomp—an unrelaxed dignity. the line of demarcation between the noble and the peasant is so marked in the land of the czar that it is difficult for englishmen to realize or believe it. it is like the line that is drawn between us and our dogs. if we suppose it possible that dogs could be taught to act and think for themselves; if we take such a development as practicable, and consider the possibilities of social upheaval lying behind such an education, we can in a minute degree realize the problem which prince pavlo alexis and all his fellow-nobles will be called upon to solve within the lifetime of men already born.