and none the less told this story. He said that some of
the Russian troops in the Archangel district refused to go
to the front. Their commanders, unable to compel them,
resigned and were replaced by others who, since the men persisted
in refusal, appealed for help. The barracks, so he said, were
then surrounded by American troops, and the Russians, who
had refused to go to the front to fire on other Russians, were
given the choice, either that every tenth man should be shot,
or that they should give up their ringleaders. The
ringleaders, twelve in number, were given up, were made to
dig their own graves, and shot. The whole story may well
be Archangel gossip. If so, as a specimen of such gossip, it
is not without significance. In another part of the carriage
an argument on the true nature of selfishness caused some
heat because the disputants insisted on drawing their
illustrations from each other's conduct. Then there was the
diversion of a swearing match at a wayside station between
the conductor and some one who tried to get into this
carriage and should have got into another. Both were fluent
and imaginative swearers, and even the man from Archangel
stopped talking to listen to them. One, I remember, prayed
vehemently that the other's hand might fly off, and the other,
not to be outdone, retorted with a similar prayer with regard
to the former's head. In England the dispute, which became
very fierce indeed, would have ended in assault, but here
it ended in nothing but the collection on the platform of a
small crowd of experts in bad language who applauded
verbal hits with impartiality and enthusiasm.