“NEVER GROWN UP”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19835, 26 June 1934, Page 12

“NEVER GROWN UP”

I am told that Russians always were the world’s worst cooks writes a correspondent. ‘I think, however, 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 cocked macaroni. This was the chief course of a meal served in a Moscow hotel one night. Perhaps the most illuminating surprise was my experience m Moscow’s only “luxury shop.” It was filled 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 Rao de la r.iix. But when I went to pay my bill at the cash desk I found that the cashier was doing strange things with abacus, that counting frame that we used in nursery days. I though then that this perhaps was the great charm of Russia—that it is a country which has never grown 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.