of what I expected to see when I made a flying trip across the country
last year. My journey was from the Pacific coast to Russia, and, in
winter, by more than 3000 miles of sledge travel. It extended from
Habarofsk, at the junction of the Amoor and Ussuri rivers, northeast of
Peking, to the city of Krasnoyarsk, which at that time was the terminus
of the railway which the Russian government is rapidly building from
Moscow to the Pacific coast. This route led me through the principal
cities of Siberia, and I was able to stop in most of them a few days,
and thus to see many places and things of interest. Many of these cities
are large and handsome towns; and as all lie in the southern part of the
country, where the climate and soil are much like those of eastern
Canada, they are surrounded by wide farming tracts, lumbering
districts, and mines, and have a trade that reaches to great distances.
These are old towns, too, for it must not be forgotten that Siberia has
been growing civilized during 250 years, or about as long as the United
States itself, and they are often populous also, since Irkootsk, where
the Governor-General of Western Siberia lives, has about 80,000 people;
Tomsk, the university town, has 30,000; Blagovestschensk, the largest
city in Eastern Siberia, 40,000; and half a dozen others 10,000 or
12,000 more. They have water-works, electric lights, police and fire
departments, theatres, and all the rest that belongs to a wide-awake
town; but they are proudest of their schools and the institutions of
religion and public charity.
[Illustration: THE RING GAME AND OPEN-AIR GYMNASIUM.]
In every city the central school-house, or gymnasium, as it is called,
is one of the largest, most costly buildings, and often is surrounded by
fine grounds, while within it are the best appliances that can be had.
In many of them, for example, each pupil has a little desk to himself;
and these are adjustable, and fitted to him, so that the short-legged
youngster may have a low seat, while his next neighbor, who may be tall
and thin, enjoys a higher one. This is more than most American schools
can show. The walls are covered with blackboards, maps, and pictures,
and always, at least in the principal rooms, there is a portrait of the
Emperor, whom the Russian people often speak of as their Little Father,
meaning he is next in their love and respect to the Great Father in
heaven. You will notice these and some other things in the illustrations
of one of the school-rooms in Krasnoyarsk, which, as well as the other
pictures, has been made from a photograph taken by one of the teachers
there.
Several other things are noticeable in that scene. You will observe that
the right-hand corner is cut off, as if by a chimney; but this is the
stove--the chimney being above it. The Russian stove is a small chamber
built up of bricks, in the base of which is a fire-box, whose door in
this case is hidden by the blackboard. A rousing wood fire is built in
the early morning, then the doors are closed, and the dampers so
regulated that the heat from the mass of coals permeates the brick
walls, which diffuse a genial warmth throughout the room for the rest of
the day.
[Illustration: HOT TEA FROM THE SAMOVAR AT A PICNIC.]
In the left-hand corner is hung the _ikon_, with its ever-burning lamp,
found in every Russian house or public room, great or small, and which
usually consists of one or more framed tablets that contain carvings or
paintings of the head of Christ, with perhaps other subjects relating to
the Saviour. It is the sacred symbol of religion in the Russian (or
Greek) Church, like the crucifix in the Roman Church. Their religious
duties are never forgotten by the Siberians, and form an important part
of the school life. Each school has a chapel--often richly decorated;
and to it is attached a chaplain or priest, who holds religious services
there every morning and gives instruction in sacred subjects. One of
these priests is sitting at the back of this room, as you may see by his
robe and his long hair, parted in the middle, and his golden cross;
these are the signs of his office. He has a kindly face, and is, no
doubt, the friend of every boy in the establishment.
Next to him is seated the principal--a hearty-looking man, dressed, as
usual, in military uniform--and other visitors, for this is evidently an
examination day. A teacher stands at the blackboard, and perhaps has
asked a question which the lad before him has been unable to answer,
for he has turned to another boy, who has risen at his desk as though to
give the needed reply. One need not go outside our Yankee school-rooms
to make a similar picture any day; but he would never see in this
country the _abacus_, which is used all over Siberia, China, and Japan
by pupils and teachers in their arithmetic lessons, and by merchants in
their stores, instead of the pencil and paper with which we do sums too
large for head-work. It is a very ancient device, and the boys who went
to school in Rome before Cæsar wrote that all Gaul was divided into
three parts, or Virgil declared "_Arma virumque cano_," learned their
multiplication table by the help of its sliding balls.
[Illustration: THE SKATING-POND.]
The military rule that governs all Russia extends to the schools and
colleges. They are free public schools, almost as fully as with us, and
are attended by the children of the peasants and poor townspeople as
well as by the sons of government officials and rich merchants, who
later are to go to the university at Tomsk, or perhaps to Russia, for
their college course. But here, though some are nobles by birth and
others are mere peasants, all are treated exactly alike, and all dress
in a uniform closely copied from that of the army. Even the girls--who
always have separate schools from the boys--wear a simple regulation
dress, so that there is no heart-burning in little Anna, from the
cottage in the back street, because little Lady Anna, from the great
house on the square, has a fine dress. The teachers are all regarded as
officers of the government, and wear a military uniform. The school is
drilled in tactics every day, and conducts all its exercises after
military models, training its boys into soldierly young men. Even their
play is mixed up with this, as you see in the picture of the ring game,
where an officer wearing his sword stands in the centre.
The uniform is not so pretty as that worn by the cadets of our own
military schools, and it is comical to see a little chap, with a round,
roguish face under his flat cap, wearing big boots, and a gray overcoat
belted about him with skirts long enough to touch the ground; but when
he has earned the rank of corporal or sergeant in his school battalion,
and feels the marks of his rank on his collar, he struts about as proud
as a peacock.
Gymnastics are cultivated everywhere, and each school has a large hall
devoted to calisthenics, and to exercises upon the bars, ladders,
vaulting-horse, swinging-rings, trapeze, etc.; while many schools have
out-of-door apparatus to be used in warm weather, such as that which
appears in one of the illustrations. Everybody must go through these
exercises, and some excel greatly in them, as you would expect of the
sons of Cossacks, as many of them are.
Holidays are much more numerous than with us, and on these school is
suspended, and parades and marches take their place. Then the school
assembles, "company front," on the play-ground. All the principals,
teachers, and drill-masters are here in full uniform; a band is borrowed
from the garrison post, and after a few evolutions the young regiment
marches away, to stirring drum and bugle notes, to some rural grove,
where they have competition drills and athletic games, and then break
ranks for a frolic. Lunch-time brings them all to headquarters at the
roll of the drum, when every young soldier winds up with tumblers of
weak tea, the hot water coming from the great brass urn, called a
_samovar_, which is never far from a Russian gathering of any kind at
any time of year.
Christmas in Siberia is the great day of the year for the
youngsters--nowhere greater--and the soldier lads and quaint, gray girls
look forward to it for weeks as they do elsewhere. I happened to be in
Chita, the capital of the trans-Baikal province, at Christmas, and was
invited to one of the festivals. Imagine a large and lofty room, where
three or four hundred children were packed in a dense circle around a
large Christmas tree ablaze with candles and loaded with good things.
Outside of this circle were as many older persons as could find
room--rich and poor, noble and simple--the army officer in his
gold-embroidered coat jostling the peasant in sheepskin, and the grand
dame in silk and sables beside the plain peasant mother, all equal in
their happy interest as fathers and mothers. The exercises opened with
the national anthem, led by the priests, who are very successful in
teaching the children those choral songs so common and enjoyable in
Russia. Dialogues and recitations followed, sometimes by little tots,
and after that came games and dances--especially that curious, active,
national dance, a sort of quadrille, performed by quaint little couples
in uniform, with immense zest. By this time everybody was moving about,
and all who wished, old and young, began waltzing to the music of the
soldier band, the Governor himself, gorgeous with gold lace and orders,
taking out one shy little maiden after another to spin about the
polished floor. At last it was time to stop, and then everybody stood
still while the children sang a final soul-stirring patriotic song to
the accompaniment of blazing red lights, the older ones joining in the
chorus and ending each refrain with a roar of "_h'ras!_"
THE CROWN OF AN AMERICAN QUEEN.
BY SALLY NELSON ROBINS.
In the age when America was but a name and Virginia only a hamlet, there
was a dusky queen who wore a silver crown by order of his most sacred
Majesty King Charles II., King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland,
and Virginia.
There are few distinct Indian personalities. Powhatan, Pocahontas,
Opechancanough, Totopotomoi and his wife the Queen of the Pamunkeys, are
savage heroes which sentinel the seventeenth century; they all belonged
to the Pamunkey tribe of the Great Powhatan Confederacy, the most
powerful Indian combination that ever existed.
When the boisterous and heroic Nathaniel Bacon was in the flush of his
wonderful success, and had brought his followers to Jamestown, he
demanded of the Governor redress for Indian depredations and outrages.
When the assembly in council was sitting, the Queen of the Pamunkeys
came in, leading her son by the hand. She came to tell of grievances
also. She wore a dress of black and white wampum peake and a mantle of
deer-skin, "cut in a frenge" six inches from the outer edge. It fell
loosely from her shoulders to her feet. On her head was a crown of
"purple bead of shell, drilled." She was a beautiful woman, old
chronicles tell us, and she walked in with a proud but aggrieved
countenance.
She sat down in the midst of the assembly, listening eagerly to the
arguments for the suppression and, if need be, the extinction of her
race. And she remembered Totopotomoi bleeding for these people who would
not recognize her rights. She arose and made a speech in her own tongue,
eloquent with gesticulation; the refrain of it was a mad wail:
"Totopotomoi chepiak! Totopotomoi chepiak!" (_i.e._, Totopotomoi dead).
Colonel Hill the younger, touched a fellow-member on the shoulder, and
whispered: "What she says is true. Totopotomoi fought with my father,
and fell with his warriors."
But the assembly would not listen to the poor suffering Queen. They
wanted more men to fight more battles, and the Queen of the Pamunkeys
must furnish her quota.
"How many men will you furnish?" asked Nathaniel Bacon. "How many will
you give to fight and subdue the treacherous tribes which threaten our
peace?"
The Queen was silent. She remembered her husband and his slain braves.
She had fears for her son, and she would not speak.
"How many?" asked Bacon again.
The poor Queen had her head turned away, and bowed.
"How many?" demanded the famous rebel again.
Then she slowly turned her lovely face, and softly whispered, "Six."
Her answer infuriated Bacon, who considered the number contemptible.
"How many more?" again he asked.
The Queen gave him a glance of indignant hate, and haughtily answered,
"Twelve." Then she gathered her robes about her, and majestically left
the room.
Once again do we see the Queen of the Pamunkeys, and now in fear and
adversity. Bacon in his mad career destroyed the Pamunkey
settlement--the same tribe which had so nobly assisted the English.
The poor Queen, terrified, fled far into the forest, accompanied by
"onely a little Indian boy." Her old nurse followed her, but was
captured. Bacon ordered the old woman to guide him to a certain point,
but she, full of revenge, led him in an opposite direction, whereupon
the rebel ordered her to be knocked in the head.
The Queen wandered about almost crazy, and at last determined to return
and throw herself upon Bacon's mercy; but as she was rushing towards her
desolated wigwam she came upon the body of her murdered nurse, which so
affrighted her that she ran back into the wilderness, where she remained
"fourteen daies without food, and would have perished but that she
gnawed on the legg of a terrapin which the little Indian boy brought
her."
[Illustration: THE GIFT OF KING CHARLES TO THE QUEEN.]
So this Queen in history has but a few bold touches, but they pass her
down as a martyr, in consequence of which, and for what her husband did,
Charles II. bestowed upon her a silver crown, with the lion of England,
the lilies of France, and the harp of Ireland engraved thereon.
Savages are not averse to the baubles of civilization, and the crown
which their Queen wore was a blessed treasure to her tribe for a hundred
years after the Queen was dead.
The Pamunkey tribe, or a pitiful remnant of them, still dwell in
Virginia, on the river which bears their name. They have a chief and
their own government. Annually they send tribute of fish and game and
Indian handiwork to the Governor of Virginia. They are weakening
physically, and pray for new blood from the Western reservation.
Once they started for the West, carrying their best treasure, the silver
crown. They came to the plantation of Mr. Morson, at Falmouth, and there
bad weather and sickness made them halt. Mr. Morson attended to their
physical wants, and allowed them to pitch their tents upon his land
until their distress abated.
"What do we owe you?" asked the chief, when they had decided to return
to their former Virginia reservation.
"Nothing," said Mr. Morson. Perhaps he remembered Totopotomoi and his
sorrowing Queen.
"Then we will give you what we value most," and the chief presented to
Mr. Morson the crown of the Queen of the Pamunkeys. For three
generations it staid in the Morson family, but lately it has been
purchased by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities.
The crown is really a frontlet, and the Queen of the Pamunkeys wore it
upon her brow surmounted by a red velvet cap; the cap has long ago been
entirely destroyed by moths; two silver chains bound the frontlet to the
head.
[Illustration: INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORT]
The All-New-York Interscholastic Football Team for 1896 is as follows:
HAROLD HASBROUCK, _Berkeley_ left end.
JEREMIAH MANNING, _De La Salle_ left tackle.
B. P. KINNEY, _St. Paul's_ left guard.
W. B. BOORUM, JUN., _Poly. Prep._ centre.
G. H. MILLER, _De La Salle_ right guard.
MARSHALL PAGE, _Trinity_ right tackle.
D. P. WHITE, _St. Paul's_ right end.
T. B. TAYLOR, _Trinity_ quarter-back.
W. DICKERSON, JUN., _B'klyn High_ half-back.
J. D. TILFORD, JUN., _De La Salle_ r. h.-b.
S. L. M. STARR, _St. Paul's_ full-back.
[Illustration: HAROLD HASBROUCK, End.]
[Illustration: B. P. KINNEY, Guard.]
[Illustration: W. B. BOORUM, JUN., Centre.]
[Illustration: G. H. MILLER, Guard.]
[Illustration: D. P. WHITE, End.]
[Illustration: S. L. M. STARR, Full-back and Captain.]
[Illustration: WALTER DICKERSON, JUN., Half-back.]
[Illustration: JEREMIAH MANNING, Tackle.]
[Illustration: T. B. TAYLOR, Quarter-back.]
[Illustration: MARSHALL PAGE, Tackle.]
[Illustration: J. D. TILFORD, Half-back.]
The selection of an All-New-York Football team this year is not an easy
task. There is a wealth of material to choose from, but the very fact of
there being so many players of almost equal merit makes the task all the
harder. The season just closed has been a remarkable one in the history
of interscholastic football both in New York and Brooklyn, and the
contest for the championship of both cities has been a most stubborn
one. The teams have shown marked improvement in their knowledge of the
game and the variety and execution of their plays, and the boys have
shown an aptitude for the sport that gives great promise for the future.
The team selected is a remarkably heavy one, and under proper coaching
and training would undoubtedly put up a magnificent game against any
college eleven.
Hasbrouck of Berkeley School is undoubtedly entitled to the position of
left end. He weighs 177 pounds, is a very fast runner, a sure tackler,
and strong at breaking up interference. He played on the '93, '94, and
'95 teams, and understands his position thoroughly. He gets down the
field under kicks with remarkable speed, and rarely, if ever, misses a
tackle. He is not liable to be easily hurt, and only once during the
season has he been injured painfully, his injury consisting of the
dislocation of a shoulder. He captained the Berkeley team this year, and
would undoubtedly have turned out a far stronger team had he not been
hampered by outside influences.
At left tackle Manning of De La Salle seems to be the best choice. He
weighs 176 pounds, is a very fast runner, a hard tackler, and a sure
ground-gainer when the ball is given to him. A remarkably powerful
fellow, he rarely is injured, and has played the entire season through,
improving with every game. He breaks through his opponent with great
fierceness, and goes at interference with a determination that is simply
irresistible.
Kinney of St. Paul's is thoroughly able to take care of the position of
right guard. He weighs 187-1/2 pounds, is a player of great strength
and courage, breaks through his man fiercely and with determination, and
added to his ability to block hard is the qualification of an able
tackler. He has played two seasons on the St. Paul's team, and is a
steady, reliable player that makes his presence felt in every game. He
runs well with the ball, gets his head low, and carries his tackler
along with him whenever he is met.
At centre, Boorum of Brooklyn Poly. Prep. could easily handle any man
that has played that position in the two interscholastic leagues this
season. He weighs 170 pounds, puts the ball in play with accuracy and
precision, and blocks his man strongly and surely. He is a tower of
strength in blocking centre plays, and has no fear of the strongest kind
of interference.
At right guard I place Miller of De La Salle, who formerly played on the
Peekskill Military Academy. Miller weighs 185 pounds, and is one of the
strongest, fiercest, and most determined players of the Interscholastic
League to-day. He is a little over six feet in height, and built
proportionately. His strong feature is in his guards'-back play, in
which he smashes the opponents' line wide open for his backs with the
ball. He is also good at tackling and breaking through the line of his
opponents, and from the beginning to the end of a game he is constantly
at his opponent, and works and worries him off his feet. Add to these
qualities the fact that he runs well with the ball, strong and hard, and
we have a man for the position who certainly will have no trouble in
making a college team.
Page of Trinity has been selected for the position of right tackle. He
has a weight of 174 pounds, and his ability to run with the ball has won
for him this position, as there are no other men playing the position
to-day who can combine these qualities so well as himself. Hoffman of
Cutler School, however, who has been playing guard, might be a better
man for the position, but as I have been selecting men for positions in
which they have actually played, I am compelled to give this tackle to
Page.
White of St. Paul's, although he weighs only 144 pounds, has earned the
position of right end. He plays it fearlessly, and with a dash and
spirit that have attracted attention wherever his team has appeared on
the grid-iron this year. His defence is admirable, and his offence all
that could be desired. He is a sure tackler, a swift runner, and fast
down the field on kicks and punts, and the position of right end will be
well taken care of in his hands.
At quarter-back the contest is a close one between Taylor of Trinity and
Blout of St. Paul's. Both are ideal in their position, but of late Blout
has fallen off considerably in his passing, while Taylor improves with
every game that is played. This fact alone gives the position to Taylor.
He weighs 148 pounds, and gets into the interference for his runner with
the same accuracy and swiftness with which he gets the ball to his man.
He strikes his opponent low with the shoulder, and hard, and almost
invariably puts the tackler out if he has the opportunity to do so. He
also runs well with the ball himself, when it is given to him from one
of the backs on a pass, and as a tackler he has few equals in the
Interscholastic League to-day.
At left half-back the choice falls upon Dickerson of Brooklyn
High-School. He weighs 174 pounds. He was Captain of his team this year,
and ran it in a masterly manner. His line-bucking is a strong feature of
his play. He meets the line low and hard, and never ceases to work
forward with the ball until he is absolutely down with the team on top
of him. He is also good at punting, and has made some remarkable kicks
this year.
At right half I place Tilford, the Captain of the De La Salle team,
which won the New York Interscholastic championship this year. Although
a light man, weighing only 136 pounds, his play this season has been of
such a dashing and brilliant nature that he has displaced all other
aspirants for the position. Strange as it may seem, he is the equal of
any half-back to-day in breaking the line, and is a very fast runner,
sure ground-gainer, and strong at tackling.
Sidney Starr, of St. Paul's School, has been selected for the position
of full-back. He weighs 175 pounds, and probably there are few men who
can excel him in interfering for the runner on end plays, or in backing
him up when bucking the line. Starr is also a kicker of more than
average ability. He gets his punts off quickly without any hesitation,
and has the faculty of putting a twist on his punts that makes it very
hard for the opposing backs to handle them accurately. As Captain of the
St. Paul's team this year, champions of the Brooklyn Interscholastic
League, he has run his team with great judgment and skill, and is
entitled to much credit for the successful manner in which he carried
them all through the season.
Although I give him the position of full-back, after a careful
consideration of his qualifications, I am forced to state that the
position would have fallen to Franklin Bien, Jun., of Berkeley, were it
not for the fact that Bien's playing this year has been greatly
handicapped by the injury he received early in the season during the
game between Berkeley School and St. Paul's at Garden City. Bien is the
equal of Starr in his all-round work, but his liability to injury in a
game makes him slightly timid in his work, and takes away the dash and
the spirit and determination that characterized him during the preceding
season. For this reason Starr gets the position, and for this reason
alone.
Bien is entitled to a position as first substitute full-back. As
substitute guards I would name Gilson of Berkeley, Rafter of De La
Salle. As substitute guard and tackle, Hoffman of Cutler. As substitute
ends, Bennett of De La Salle and Loraine of St. Paul's; and as
substitute centre, Taves of Trinity.
This All-New-York Eleven makes up a very heavy team. The line especially
averages a good weight, and under proper coaching ought to be able to
stand up against a team of older players with credit to itself. With
such a line as this in front of them, the two plunging backs, Starr and
Tilford, ought to be able to make big gains through any opponents, and,
on the whole, I think that if the New York schools should send this team
to represent them against any other combination of eleven men, they
could feel perfectly confident that their side of the field would be
well taken care of.
The All-Chicago Interscholastic Football Team for 1896 is as follows: