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| THE COSSACK'S ANSWER - This grand picture by
Elias Evimovicht Repine is the property of the Emperor of Russia and
was purchased by him at a cost of $20,000. The story told is, that
the King of Poland sent word to the estimable gentlemen, whose
characters are so legibly drawn on the canvas, to the effect that
unless they sent their tribute by a certain time, with hostages as
security for future good faith, and a contingent to aid in fighting
the King's battles, he would forthwith wipe his correspondents from
the face of the earth. The degree of terror which this war-like
missive did not inspire in their hearts is the subject of the
artist's brush. To frame a reply sufficiently insulting in return,
is the literary task to which these given spirits have now devoted
themselves. As ideas more and more hostile take form, and taunts at
first unthought of are found to be in harmony with the labors of the
clerk and literary man, the savage merriment increases. The nomads
are the best riders in the world. The Baron de Tott, in his
celebrated memeoirs, out of which the derisive Munchausen papers
partly grew, describes the peculiar character of the Cossack
villages. There is but one street, which may however be two miles
long. The riding of the Cossacks, in the arena outside Jackson Park
on Sixty-first street, at Chicago, was viewed with astonishment by
the people of all nations. There are about five million people in
Russia who are nomads - Scythians, sons of the Magog of Tenth
Genesis. |
