Manners of Peter the Great

He once pulled off a man's wig, looked it over and threw it on the ground with an expression of large dissatisfaction.

Peter the Great’s 

“Rough and Uncouth Manners”

He was an untamed savage at the best. His manners were intolerable and his habits dissipated in the extreme. Once in the city of Amsterdam, he called to a lady, "Stop!" The woman halted, affrighted, and Peter grasped her watch chain, the curious workmanship of which had caught his eye, pulled on the watch, and after examination returned it, with never a word to say. 

Another time, he pulled off a man's wig, looked it over and threw it on the ground with an expression of large dissatisfaction. In England the Government assigned him a country seat by the Thames, where he lived a double life of studying and rioting. His favorite amusement was to drink brandy until drunk with plenty of boon companions in a tavern near at hand. His house was surrounded with a magnificent hedge, which he ruined by running a wheelbarrow.

In Russia, Peter gave great parties, and the Nobles brought their ladies to attend under an Imperial edict, danced French and Polish dances, and prisoners of war were brought from their captivity to show them how to perform. More than this, every Noble was compelled to give three parties a week, at which the guests must wear European costumes, and in this way was reversed the social life of Russia. The people did not welcome these changes.–Los Angeles Herald, 1886

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