The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-17
RACES ON THE NEPA.

mujik-from Vladimir, it was said-who
had come into the city bringing wood or
frozen provisions, stood looking on from the
height of his rustic troika. He was clad in
the usual greasy touloupe, with an old matted
fur cap aud felt boots, white with hard sur
face; q beard unkempt and lusterless bristled
upon his skin. He had a team of three little
horses, disheve!ed, wild-lookiug, shaggy as
bears, frighttully filthy, with icicles hanging
down underneath them, carry their head.
low, and bitiug at the snow hsaped up in
masses on the river. A dougs like Gothic
window, printed with glazing colors in stripes
and zigzags, was the part OF the equipage on
which most care had been Observation-Disclosures
less, the work of the mujik's own Ratchet
This wild and primitive equipage offered
the strangest possible contrast 10 the luxuri-
GUS sledges, the triumphant troikas, and all
the other elegant vehicles which stood drawn
up along the edges of the track. More than
one laughing glance ridiculed the humble
troika. And, to tell the truth, in this brilliant
scene it had much the same effect as a spot
of wheel grease on an ermine mantle. But
the little horses, whose hair was all matted
through their stiffened, shaggy forelocks at
the high bred animals that seemed to shrink
away from contact with them-for animals,
like the rest Of us, feel contempt for pow
erty. CLEAN of fire shone in their som ore
eyes, and they struck the ice with the small
shoes attached to their slender, sinewy legs,
bearded like an eagles quilts. The
mujik, standing upon the SEA, contemplated
the course, without appearing in the least
surprised by the prowess of the horses Now
and then, even faint smile cleaned below
the frozen crystals of his mustache, his gray
eyes sparkled mischievously, and he seemed
to say: We, too, could do as much" Taklnk
a sudden resolve, he entered the lists to try
his luck. The three little uulicked bears
shook their heads proudly, as if they under
stood that they were to maintain the b ,nor of
the poor horse of the steppes, and, without
being urged, they went off at such pace
that everybody else on the track began to
take the alarm; they went like the wind, with
their little, slender limbs, and they carried off
the victory from all the thorough
breds OF Eoglish race, barbs, and Orloy
horses-by minute and some seconds
The mujik had not presumed too much
upon his rustic steeds. The prize was ad
judged to him, a magnificent piece of chased
silver by Valiant, the most fashionable gold
smith of st. Petersburg. This triumph ex-
cited noisy enthusiasm among the crowd
usually so silent and so calm. As the con-
queror came off he was surrounded by anna
teurs proposing to buy his three horses; they
went so far as to offer him three thousand
ruoles apiece, an enormous sum for beasts
and man both. To his credit, be it said, the
mujik persistently refused. He wrapped his
piece of silver in a fragment of old cloth,
climbed upon his troika, and went back as he
came, not willing at any price to part from
the good little creatures who had made him
for the moment the lion of St. Peterburg.-
Theophue Gautier's Winter in Russia.