And there are, indubitably, persons
scattered through the vast Russian Empire who entertain parallel
opinions with regard to the total prohibition of liquor just effected,
and with regard to the projected change in the calendar now assumed to
be imminent. I trust that I shall not increase their numbers to
dangerous proportions if I call attention to the fact that these reforms
have also, like Peter the Great's ideas, been imported from the
West--from the Far West, the United States. I am sure my
fellow-countrymen will be gratified to learn the truth, and I cheerfully
accept the risk, and assume that Russia will, in all probability, remain
ignorant of my interference!
It is true that we do not have actual, effective prohibition anywhere
here in America, and that we do not seem to be within measurable
distance of such an achievement; that Russia has distanced us again in
this, just as she distanced us by emancipating her serfs, without a
war, before we emancipated our slaves, with the aid of a war. But we
have supplied the scriptural mustard seed in the case of prohibition in
Russia, and have either furnished the seed for the change in the
calendar, or, at any rate, have provided elements that have hastened its
growth to a very remarkable degree.
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