Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1883 — GETTING DRUNK IN RUSSIA. [ARTICLE]

GETTING DRUNK IN RUSSIA.

How They Deal With InUndestod Pewow in'a Cwtutry. A gentleman who has lived for several years in S£ Petersburg, Russia, gave to the St. Louis Qlobe-Jtemocrat the following in reference to the liquor traffic in that country: “There is no attempt at regulation, except that the Government police, politei, keep a sharp eye on all the vendors of vodki and other intoxicating drinks. The denier in Russian whisky is protected by the law and is answerable to the law. He dare not make use of his license to deal in vodki as a blind for robbery. Sueh things as you Americans call ‘dives* are utterly unknown there. No man can be tempted to drunkenness and robbery while in a drunken state without punishing the dealer, which means the deprivation of his license and a period of incarceration in jafl with hard labor, followed, in extreme cases, with a touch of the knout on his bare skin. The terror of this punishment makes each keeper of a vodki shop really a conservator of the peace; as soon as the liquor dealer, sees that one of his customers is likely to get violently drunk, he turns him out ou the street. And a man already drunk can get no more vodki.” “But suppose the drunken man kicks up a row, what then ?” “He is taken in charge by the police and down to the station-house. His punishment then follows as a matter of certainty. No matter whether he be rich or poor, whether he belong to the noble or the working class, he must serve eight hours in the street-sweeping gang. At 6 o’clock in the morning succeeding his orgie he has offered to him a lump of bread and a glass of whisky. He may or may not accept of the proffered municipal hospitality, but when 7 o’clock strikes he has to go out on the street gang, and with broom and spade make the Nevskoi Pewspekt, or any other street he may work on, as clean as a new pin.” “But do they make no difference between gentlemen and workmen?” “None whatever; yet there is a difference generally. The gentlemen who are found drunk on the streets at night usually have black clothes. They are marked on the back with a great white Greek cross, a cross big enough to be seen half a square away. The moujik, or workmen class, who, at least in summer, are found with their dirty white shirts coveiing their, shoulders, are marked with an equally-conspicuous black cross. This is the only difference, and, if a gentleman be with white or light-colored clothing on him, b# gets, also, the black cross. They are all classed as drunkards, and treated without reference to their rank.” “But you said these men have to do eight hours’ work on the street. Do you mean tnat they are kept eight hours without any rest ?” “No; the street-sweeping gangs are accompanied by wagons, which carry the tools, something like your hoodlum wagons, and they also carry provisions.' At 12 o’clock noon each gang is halted, and from the wagon is offered to each individual a second lump of bread, accompanied by a Dantzig herring. This luxurious fare can be eaten or left, just as it suits the principal parties concerned. The moujiks all grasp at the offered food; occasionally you will see a gentleman indignantly spurn it. But all have to go to work again as soon as the gong sounds, and they must work three hours longer. At the end of the eighth hour the wagon comes along and gathers up the tools and material that belong to the Government, and the order'is given to the drunkards to scatter. They go off; they have been thoroughly punished for the indiscretion of a night, and the streets of St. Petersburg benefit by the indiscretion.?