Part 60 (1/2)

8. Comment on the aptness of the t.i.tle.

BABANCHIK

CHRISTINA KRYSTO lived the first nine years of her life, from 1887 to 1896, in Russia. She then came with her father's family to America, settling on a ranch. Her vocation is ranch-work; her avocation is writing. Miss Krysto's _The Mother of Stasya_ is published in the June (1918) _Atlantic_.

An Armenian, a Revolutionist, a voluntary exile, desiring in his old age nothing so much as the privilege of serving Russia, whose government, inst.i.tutions, and rulers he had fought all his seventy years--such is Babanchik. Russia had driven his twenty-year-old daughter into an exile of hard labor, had imprisoned his son for the best ten years of his life; and Babanchik died because his strength was too weak to carry him back to serve her. Shall you call it patriotism in a man who cursed his native land with a hymn of everlasting hate? racial instinct in one whose Armenian birth made him an object of official suspicion? Here there could be no overpowering conviction that his country's civilization must be protected against the dreaded Kultur. Yet the desire comes--not only his own, but the command of his imprisoned son, that he serve Russia.

There are other beautiful things in Christina Krysto's story, not the least of which are the suggestive bits of description of the life in the Georgian village. Yet Babanchik, of the caressing name, product of that strange country whose people grow more incomprehensible as the Great War progresses, interesting as he is, directing the summer play in the Caucasian Mountains, is a thousand times more wonderful when swayed by the unnamed power that returns him dead to Russia.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. What are the characteristics in Babanchik that make him a favorite with the children?

2. Contrast the Babanchik who played with the children with the Babanchik who talked with the father.

3. What were Babanchik's most serious interests?

4. What circ.u.mstances of his birth hampered his influence with the Russian government?

5. How was his ambition to become a member of the city Duma crushed?

6. In spite of government intervention, what were some of the beneficial influences which Babanchik found that he could exert?

7. What was there in the government of Russia that was particularly distasteful to a man of Babanchik's nature?

8. What strong traits of Babanchik are brought out in that long furious fight for his children in the Russian prison?

9. What effect did the war have upon Babanchik's view of Russia?

10. What hastened the old man's desire to return?

11. Comment upon the author's artistic close.

ROSITA

ELLEN MACKUBIN was, several years ago, a frequent contributor to the _Atlantic_. Nearly all her stories are tinged with the military spirit with which she was thoroughly familiar.

The cause of the deed is never revealed to the garrison; its consequences can only be surmised. Indeed the true standing of the affair as tragedy is only guessed. The instigator of the quarrel between Major Prior and Jerry Breton, the perpetrator, and the victim of the tragedy unite in the person of one christianized just enough to suffer for the savage instincts she had never learned to control. We see her just once, Rosita, the beautiful, the impulsive, the pa.s.sionate; the next time she is dead. It is the feeling of repressed power that makes Ellen Mackubin's story grip the attention. In a few short pages, three--possibly four--characters are made to live, and a tragedy wrecks two lives.

_Suggested Points for Study and Comment_

1. Discuss which of the common elements of story--setting, plot, character, theme, or style--is here most prominent.

2. Discuss the way in which the separate characters are introduced and the complication arranged.

3. How can Jerry's treatment of the commanding officer on the day of the dress parade be condoned?