Note 31 — Chapter XVIII · NAGASAKI—WLADIVOSTOK

The Russian soldier does a great amount of day labor. Far from disporting himself in brilliant uniform before the admiring eyes of boys and “servant girls,” he digs, builds, carpenters, makes shoes and harness, and does a good civil day’s work in addition to his military duties, and is paid for this as “piecework” on a fixed scale, his daily earnings being duly entered in a book. When he has served his time these are handed over to him, and a steady, industrious man makes enough to set himself up in a small business or on a farm. Vodka and schnaps are the Russian soldier’s great enemies.