The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-05 00:00:00

THE STATE OF KERTCH.

KERTCII, Dec. 10.—Less than three years ago
few Frenchmen and, perhaps, fewer Englishmen
troubled themselves as to what towns or residences
the Russians owned on the Cimmerian Bosphorus.
Kertch, with its white quay and row of seaside es-
tablishments, its chapel and museum above—its
market-place and Woronzoff-street below, its visit-
ing aristocracy, its resident burghers, its Tartar
agriculturists, its Russian, Greek, and German
shopkeepers—Kertch was a comparatively unknown
locality. Yet it must have been a busy and attrac-
tive place. Its public offices must have been filled
with talkative clerks, its baths and assembly-rooms
must have been favoured by idlers and loungers,
its better mansions must have been enlivened by
the presence of a more or less brilliant society. In-
deed we feel assured that many a bright recollec-
tion, many a sigh for pleasures past, many a revo-
lution in a matter-of-fact mind, have been occa-
sioned by a sojourn at Kertch of the Crimea.
And what is the picture now ? How shall we
paint the scene as now acknowledged by those
whom the chances of war have made possessors of
this once favourite rendezvous ? The Russians
have destroyed our grain and fodder, it is true,
but they have left us an abundant store of another
character—" food whereon to moralise." This may
be part of their tactics, for they know that soldiers
do not fatten upon such sustenance.
Kertch is at this moment anything but a cheer-
ful or homely residence. Even the enemy are re-
ported to have withdrawn their outposts from its
vicinity. The stray Cossack has, within the last
few days, abandoned his marauding propensities, so
far as the neighbouring hamlets are concerned. Not
one
solitary horseman, from their numerous hordes,
thinks it worth his while any longer to show himself
on the summit of the distant hills to reconnoitre
our pickets or patrols. We dig our intrenchments,
erect our barricades, legislate for ourselves, our
armies, and the remnants of a ruined population
thrown upon us for protection ; but all in a kind of
solemn silence, broken b. y little else than the tramp-
ing of the Turkish soldiers, the pattering of rain,
or the noisy talk of a reeling drunkard.
Lines of roofless and gutted houses tell of a
wanton and unnecessary devastation, which now
brings a certain amount of retribution by depriving
the present garrison of the best of barracks, store-
rooms, and magazines. The interior of the once
elegant museum is a heap of broken and scattered
slabs and monuments ; here and there a complete
bas-relief and Greek inscription being discernible,
to excite the curiosity, and perhaps increase the
natural indignation of the antiquary.
The churches are unpretending in structure, but
sufficiently chaste to give the almost only pleasing
feature now left to the town. That of the Holy
Trinity stands in a neat plot of ground, enclosed by
green palings, at the northern extremity of the
main street, whore it branches off to the Arabat
barrier, the last-named building conspicuous in its
two uninjured eagle-griffins. In the enclosure is
also a belfry of considerable proportions.
The Turks, whom curiosity leads into the house
of Christian prayer as spectators (te plunder, pos-
sibly, were they not under unusual control) had
selected this spot for the practice of their band, and
had already commenced disturbing both priest and
congregation bysecnlar melodies, performed in most
irreverent key. It may be needless to add that such
desecration was stopped when brought to notice.
Immediately behind the church, and close to the
angle formed by Pentecost and Woronzoff-streets, is
a long row of 9-pounders, marking the locality of
a battery of Turkish artillery. Further towards
the Arabat barrier on the left are the cavalry bar-
racks, which give shelter to the fine troop of her
Majesty's 10th Hussars, lately welcomed to the
Crimea from Western India. The quarters afforded
are spacious and airy. This place was formerly an
academical institution for young ladies, known as
" Kushinkob's Kertch Institute;" the said Kushi n-
kob being, it is affirmed, a Russian General. The
former inmates transported themselves, or were
transported by others. on the sacking of the town ;
and scarce a vestige now remains of their occupa-
tion save the inscription outside the house. They
did leave, so the story goes, their pianoes. If such,
indeed, were the case, those who succeeded them
were not so considerate to their successors. The
church at the southern end of Kertch is that of
Svetato Joanne Preteschi, Saint John the Fore-
runner.

The less injured houses are occupied by the offi-
cers and troops of the garrison. There is the Eng-
lish quarter, the French quarter, th• Turkish
quarter. New names have been put upon the
streets (or rather translations of the old names),
and huge, unsightly numbers have been daubed
upon the dwellings. The abode of staff officers
and public officers are indicated in crooked painted
characters. Russian and Tartar men and women
are accommodated with stalls in the market, and
sell fruit, vegetables, and many varieties of petty
trumpery to the soldiery. The buyer and seller
have but few words in common. These few are the
names of current English, French, and Turkish
coin. The fingers form the language of numbers
and are in constant requisition. In Woronzoff-
street—the Grande Rue of the place—are centred
the principal shops. They form there a nearly un-
broken line ; the rest are scattered, few and far be-
tween. The owners are Russians, Germans,Greeks,
Italians,Maltese, Jews, Circassians, Persians, Turks,
Tartars. Each pays a monthly rent, and each
is subject to fine for infraction of municipal
laws. There is but one trade, however, which can
bo termed thriving or attractive. The sale of liquor
in retail is the one great source of profit, and thus
naturally commands the chief attention of the uew
colony of shopkeepers.
It is difficult to find the one tailor of the town
(a German Jew), who is content to use his legiti-
mate profession to earn his bread. Fortunately
among the ranks of the 71st Highlanders may be
obtained a willing hand for the relief of absolute
necessities ; and, beyond this, officers, as well as
men, should learn to stitch on their own buttons.
The writer of these lines has yet to acknowledge
the existence of the Kertch shoemaker. A. hatter
must, of course, be visionary ; and a bookseller is
represented by a woman at a market-stall, who
dispenses copy and story hooks published at Mos-
cow. Even a barber is a rare article—a clean one
an impossibility. One is obliged to resort to one's
own servant for hair-cutting. This would be no
fair complaint in the field, under canvas, or any-
where, indeed, in an enemy's country save in a
town yet full of tradesmen of all sorts. It is this
Demon of Retail in the liquor department who
blights all honest traffic. There are nearly 100
registered shops in Kertch, and scarcely one that
does not keep its glass or two for the ready retail
customers. Pocket-handkerchiefs are sold with
spirits, sheets of writing paper are sold with spirits,
mustard is sold with spirits, pictures, looking
glasses, crockery, pamphlets, loaf sugar, candles,
all kinds of small ware and Bag Fair merchandise
are sold with spirits, and, except the clean-looking
German couple who sell pork sausages up a by-
street one hardly knows whom to denote as free
from this sweeping assertion. But these good peo-
ple only distribute these good things once a-week !
Let no one be deceived by the signboards of the
whilom inhabitants of Woronzoff-street. Beneath
a full-length portrait of a lady en pleine toilette,
with a Russian inscription inviting the passers-by
to the pleasant fineries of a modiste's department,
the Highlander and Chasseur, the marine and the
mariner, wend their way to and fro, in hope or
memory of a morning, midday, or afternoon dram.
A most respectable-looking shop at the corner has
become the cabaret of a reckless Italian, who dis-
penses the petit verre at all hours to his compat-
riots, in company with every class of dissipated
Levantines. The large substantial shop at the op-
posite corner shares a like fate, and is also kept by
an Italian. We may add, en passant, that it is an
Italian keeps the solitary restaurant (6-decant
Hotel do l'Univers) of the town. The few vagrant
or impoverished Russians who have been left be-
hind in the general evacuation emulate the example
of their country's invaders by endeavouring
cel them in courting inebriety to every possible ex-
tent. Not only do they sell liquor where a shop is
to be secured, but they themselves drink with a
gusto of the most determined kind. A drunken
Russian is no uncommon sight ; and, certes, very
few specimens of utter demoralisation can come up
to the huge, vociferating, stumbling creature in
furs, sheepskins, and unclean boots and nether gar-
ments, whose loss of laid!seems to have been com-
pensated by the loss of reason and intellect.
The rulers of the town must not be blamed for
the truthfulness of this picture. It is easy enough
for good, honest men at home to blame them ; but
good, honest men at home are too apt to be simple
and ignorant. For the manifold questions which a
commission of pure morality would put to any sup-
posed responsible parties in these gloomy proceed-
ings a like number of answers are ready and appro-
priate. It would haply be as ill-advised an attempt
at remedy to close at once all liquor depots as to de-
port the whole civil population of this unfortunate
town vi et armis. The authorities no more slumber
on their posts than they wink at the irregularities
committed. The measures of reform may be slow,
but it is hoped they will only be the more sure and
salutary. To limit the number of retail vendors,
restrict them by severe rules, the infraction of
which entail severe penalties, and to compel them,
if they must needs sell in retail, to purchase high-
priced licences,—measures such as these may be
effectual in checking at least the prevalence of the
evil as it now exists ; and such measures, it is he-
, lieved, are already in operation. Whether they
actually will serve to achieve the desired object is
a Problem ; but a problem is better suited to the