Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1861-06-08

vi the Russian peasant he is not only the
patron. saint, but also the real benefsctor.--
He is the greatest engineer in the country,
and does more 10 the department Of roads
and bridges in q single night than the notori.
GUS Kleninmichel did in the whole course OF
his ministry. But when he approaches you,
you must not go out to meet him otherwise
than in q garment of fur, or the disrespect
may be visited upon you with severity. This
is the sole return he requires for his services
in enabling you to receive the veal Of A rch.
angel and the beef OF Steppes, which can
6nly be transported in the winter along his
excellent roads. The year was Id Moscow,
st. Nicholas was nearly false to his devotees.
The winter appeared to have set ip for a
continuance in November, and provisions
were beginning to arrive from the country,
when suddenly there was q tbaw, and soon
afterwards the smaller rivers, which as they
freeze the first, are also the first to break up,
we're pronounced unsafe.
Accordingly, the peasants on arriving with
their sedges at tie Okla, distant about twenty
miles from Nj Moscow, waited on its banks
before riskng their precious lives, and, what
was more important, their valuable provis.
ions, on its treacherous ice. As the thaw
continued, the liver became 10 some places
quite impossible, and the peasants found
themselves in this dilemma if they attempted
to cross the Okla, they and the contents Of
their sledges might be lost together but if
they remained where they were, the poultry
and meat which they had intended to convey
to Moscow, would inevitably spoil, and they
would have to return home without provis.
ions and without money. Now the peasants
on their road to the Moscow markets, take
their meals at the waysde inns on credit, and
pay as they 60 home, after they have effected
a sale so that to return without money wss
out of the question. Accordingly, rustici
erpectauerunt, and in this case, with some
reason; for though it was beginning to flow,
the river was certainly not destined to roll on
in omne uolubiiis evum.
In the midst of the difficulty, like the devil
in German legend, Jew appeared on the
banks of the Okla. The provisions were still
sound, and the Oka, though now nearly free
from ice, might be converted into hard road
almost in single night. AT all events if the
frost once recommended, the provisions we're
safe {; and Jew car always wait for bis
money, if by few days delay it will become
tripled and quadrupled Accordingly the
Hebrew offered some sort Of pottage on the
spot for the right of taking all the sedges
with their contents to the Moscow markets
as sc on as an opportunity presented ITSELF
Whether be also offered something to St.
Nicholas is unknown but that night the
mercury fell, the next morning the ground
was covered with snow, and before evening
the Okla was again road and the sledges on
their way to the Frozen Market" of los.
cow, where they arrived just in time for the
Nikolski fete.
The Frozen Market is one of the most
curious 10 Moscow, which abounds in markets
of curious kind. There is the market for
the hiring of domestic servants the horse.
market, beloved by gipsies the market for
earihen pots, aud the market for wooden
pals There is the fruit market, especially
pleasing to foreigners from its delicious water
melons in the autumn, and its admirable
frozen apples, like apple-ice, in the winter.
There is the hay market, where. besides the
hay cream, butter, eggs, and oil kinds OF farm
produce are exposed for sale. There is the
market of the Soukharef Tower, for the sale
of furniture, cloths, sledges, a.urns, screw.
drivers, rusty.nails, second hand books, and
especially stray numbers of the Russian
Messenger, the Contemporary. the National
Anndls, the Muscouite, and other ingenious
reviews. Then there is the market for odori-
ferrous sheepskins and moth. eaten Shoubas,
vamped up winter boots, huge leather gloves,
shaped like baby's mttens, Cossuck and
Crcassian caps, felt goloshes, caftans, and
girdles, to say nothing of fish. pies, salted
cucumbers, boiled liver, raspberry kvass,
black bread, and other "dellcaces of the
season." for buyers and sellers a market
whose popular aud emphatic name is "Louse
Market" and where you may have your hand
kerchief stolen from you at one end and
offered to you for sale at the other.
But none of these markets are so strikingly
Russian as the Frozen Market. 1t is not
until the tete OF ST. Nicholas-or later still,
the week between Christmas aud the new
year-that this strange exhibition is to be
seen in all its glory. By that time the severe
period Of winter has fairly sat in. The sol.
diers, tall, stalwart men, are wearing their
long grey coats over their heavy knapsacks,
which bulge out and make them look like
so many hunchbacks; while the broad black
bandages which protect their ears and cheeks
give them the appearance OF persons suffering
from toothache. The cold has, indeed, had
some effect upon them; for as they march 10
from the country their raw faces are as red as
beef, and their frozen moustaches as white as
horseradish Every moyik, with his long
and literally snowwhite beard, looks like an
allegorical figure Of winter.
The blackest horses are now piebald, thanks
to the hoar.frost which has decorated their
sides, while the congelation of their breath
round the long hairs that project from their
nostrils, adds to the popularity of their ap-
pearance, and furnishes them with set Of
spikes such as calves wear in weaving time
But although the drivers and horses of the
sledges, as they hurry towards the market
place, form a by no means uninterestng part
of the exhibition, their loads, when taken out
and arranged with q view TO sale, present o
picture which is far more striking. On one
side you see a collection of frozen sheep
stiff, ghastly objeets-some poised on their
hoo:s like the wooden animals in a child's
"Noah's Ark !" others on their sides, with
their legs projecting exactly at right angles
to their bodies; others, again, on their backs
with their feet 10 the air after the manner OF
inverted tables. The oxen are only less
grotesque from having been cleft down the
back.-an operation which seems to take them
out of the category of oxen and place them
in that of beef. The pigs are drawn up in
a line against wall, standing on their hind
legs, with their fore feet extended above their
heads, in on attitude Of exhortation.
Among the poultry and game, the hares
are especially remarkable, from the fact that
their fur, which through the summer is either
brown or gray, has at the approach of win
ter, turned completely whte-a provision Of
nature which enables the Russian and Siberi.