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After Maïkof, a stranger to Polonski, who happened
to be present, spoke, by invitation, and, although there
was nothing in the speech, received hearty applause. It
was not difficult to make an impression of eloquence
here; for it seems that, with the exception of the
advocates, no man in Russia has the talent of speaking, nor
the courage to try. Not a single Russian arose who did
not have his speech on paper in his hands, and who did
not read it. Even among the advocates, there are not
many who have a reputation for eloquence; perhaps the
best known are Alexander Passauvert, “the great
advocate,” Prince Urussof, Koni, and Utin. Yet it is
significant that he who is most popular and makes the
most money is the Pole Spasovitch, author of the volume
which treats of Poland in Pypin’s great work about
Slavic literature. It is certain, in any case, that even if
in Russian Poland, as here, all public and political life,
which are indeed the natural school of eloquence, are
wholly prohibited, yet the Poles have access to three
parliaments out of Russia; and their natural gifts, from
ancient times, lead them in the direction of weighing
and selecting their words. One will seldom hear a more
eloquent man than the Pole Joseph Koscielski: he is a
member of the Prussian House of Lords and of the
German parliament.
Among the persons present at the festival for
Polonski, whose acquaintance a foreigner would be interested
to make, the old lyric poet Pleshcheyef must also be
mentioned, — a man of large frame, with white hair and
beard, one of the few old men in Russia who have been
true to the convictions of their youth; and Dostoyevski’s
widow, a lady between forty and fifty years old, with
delicate, regular features, who must have appeared to
great advantage by the side of the irregular, plebeian,
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