Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III TEETOTAL RUSSIA Russia is never going to be drunken again. Alcoholic beverages have been prohibited, and the Russians are getting used to teetotal beverages. They are quite pleased with themselves. All stores where brandy, whisky, vodka, champagne, wine, beer or liquors were sold have been locked and sealed by the authorities. The liberty- loving Briton, sitting in a restaurant and fancying something more potent than mineral water, casts his eyes upon the glass cases behind the counter where are marshalled rows of bottles of " the real stuff," but locked up and forbidden. He revels in imagination of the time he will have when he returns to England. There is a good deal of cold weather in Russia and there used to be much drunkenness. Before breakfast the Russian workman, feeling cold, would gulp down a bottle of fiery vodka which cheered him and then fuddled him. Indeed, all classes might be described as heavy drinkers. There was plenty of debauchery and sometimes there were horrible tragedies. But generally the Russian in his cups was not aggressive. He was not quarrelsome. He did notfacts of war dog one everywhere. The Italian waiter who brought me my caf6 complet in the morning has been called to his own country to fight the Austrians. One evening at dinner there was lightness of talk and music in the " roof-garden" restaurant. At the adjoining table was a happy party. An officer came up, bowed, kissed the hand of one of the ladies, and whispered something. She went away ashen and with eyes flooded with tears; her brother had been killed. Farther down the room were four officers in the gayest of spirits, but they were all wounded. The street urchins bawl their journalistic wares at the corners; nurses conduct their sorry processions of wounded men; ...