RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 681, 26 March 1903, Page 22

RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY.

What brand of hospitality is the most exacting ? An Englishman who has just returned from some years in St. Petersburg declares (so a writer in the “ Daily Chronicle ” says) that Russian hosptality demands more from its recipients, in some ways at least, than any other. The demand would seem to be mainly of a liquid nature. Here is his description of the way you “ spend the evening ” in a Russian house “ You no sooner make your appearance than your host drags you to his den, and makes you take a drink. You find all the other men there, taking their pick of the bottles ranged along the host’s private sideboard, and helping themselves to a stiff one every few minutes. If you are wise and diplomatic, you will dodge as many of the anteprandial drinks as possible, with a view to your comfort later on. But you have to be very skilful about this. Most Russian hosts have a way of regarding it as a sort of reflection upon their stock of liquprs, if not, indeed, on their own drinking habits, if their non-Russian guests begin to fight shy. It doesn’t spoil their hunger as it does ours. The more a Russian drinks, the more he wants to eat. That and the climate are, I take it, the salvation of that nation of heavy drinkers. “ You sit down to dinner at six o’clock and it lastsi till nine. The array of courses is staggering, and there’s a wine, it would seem, for every dish, let alone every course. Men and women drink champagne like water, and the air is. such that it does them as little harm. Between every two or three courses the cigarettes are passed round, to the women as well as the men, and everybody smokes and chatters. After dinner you go to the theatre, where boxes have been engaged. That’s part of ‘ spending the evening/ You may smoke all you want to in the boxesi, and by ten o’clock the drinking business begins again. Your host’s cabinet of liqueurs—a portable affair designed for theatre use —has preceded him to the box, with ice tank and syphons complete. The women as a rule take champagne, but the men choose the liqueurs. Thus, smoking and drinking pretty incessantly, you watch the performance, walking about the boxes, and chattering between the .acts, until after midnight, when the show comes to an end.

“ Does! that end the evening ? Not at all. You return with your host and hostess to their home, where you find an elaborate supper served and waiting. You do vour best to do justice to it, and towards 2 a.m. an adjournment is made V' the drawing-room for an hour or so or music. The Russian women play and sin u magnificently, but you are expected t< keep on drinking while listening to ti m Bv this time you are about readv to r«» home. But that would be disconrteou.- * Spending the evening * is by no means over yet Card tables nre brought out. and everybody plays- games for the most part, perhar temple oi Rusrian ones, and onoe K ■' -.oker-and

everybody gambles. You drink incessantly while playing and munch caviare sandwiches. At last —it is now about 5 a.m. — the evening is spent. You may go home if you wish. If you signify your desire to sleep at your host’s house, you will find your room all prepared. He is honoured by your preference, but when you come to some hours later you feel that all you ever did in your college days was child’s play by the side of a quiet evening with a Russian household. ’