"NEVER GROWN-UP"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22295, 22 June 1934, Page 14

"NEVER GROWN-UP"

I am told that Russians always were the world's worst cooks. I think, -bowever, that if they have only bread and macaroni available for a meal .they might do something more imaginative than to soak the bread in water, and scoop-, out a portion, leaving a hollow in which is inserted some cooked macaroni. This.was the chief course of a meal served in a Moscow hotel, one night. Perhaps the most illuminating surprise was my experience in Moscow's only " luxury shop." It was tilled with lovely things intended solely for tourists. Only tourists could afford to buy them. The service was quick and courteous, and the atmosphere was rather- reminiscent of the best shops on the Rue de la Paix. ..■■£■'■■ But when I went to pay my bill at the cash desk I found that the cashier.was doing strange things with a abacus, that counting frame that we used iu nursery days. , ' I thought then that this perhaps was the great charm- of Russia —that it is' a country which has never gVown up, that when at last dawn comes to this grey land, life, will be immeasurably better for the people, but infinitely less amusing and interesting for the visitor.-—Marie Harrison in the Windsor. Magazine.