Public opinion has nowhere as yet, even in the lands where considerable success has attended the war on drunkenness, ripened sufficiently a desire to give, even incompletely, a summary of the information about that battle, and make my fellow-countrymen acquainted with a matter still little known in Russia, so I am prompted to write what follows.

The second edition of this book, with the surprising list of Russian treatises on drunkenness to which I have already alluded, is dated “June, 1895, Riga,” where he lived after his return from Siberia, as an official of the Government medical service, until his death in August, 1913.  During the stay in Tchita of the Alexyeeffs, the present Emperor (then the heir,) passed through it, on his way home (from the trip to India and Japan which came so near terminating fatally in the latter country) after having officially opened work upon the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.  A formal reception and ceremonies were organized in Tchita; and I allude to the matter because of a curious detail mentioned in a letter to me by Mrs. Alexyeeff.  Foreigners have very queer ideas, she said, as to the position and treatment of the political exiles in Siberia; some of the Tchita exiles served as heads of the committees for welcoming the heir, and he shook hands with them and treated them exactly as he treated the Governor General of the Province.

Whether it was his admiration for the American temperance movement which influenced Dr. Alexyeeff’s views on everything American, I cannot say.  But, assuredly, not many foreign visitors have pronounced upon our country such a panegyric as is contained in the preface to his “Across America.”  He writes: 

Conscientious fulfillment of every duty, industry, energy, and moral purity are the typical qualities of the genuine American.  It is difficult to form any idea of the wide development of philanthropy, the significance of religion, and the practical application to life of ethical principles, the application of moral obligations in business, the upright, God-fearing life of the Americans, unless one has lived among them.  They have neither prostitution, foundling hospitals, nor hospitals for venereal diseases.  A European is not accustomed to see empty prisons and hospitals in densely settled localities—­to come upon cities where there is nothing for the police, the Judges, and the doctors to do he finds startling.  They have attained the height where priests, pastors, preachers, and teachers are rarely obliged to contend with indifference....

After a trip to America it would be difficult to return an atheist—­you are more likely to come back in a religious frame of mind....  Idleness and luxury are not among the distinguishing characteristics of the descendants of the Puritans....  In the light, transparent atmosphere of the States, simplicity, the cheerful,