St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-05-04
Russian Hotels.
Fr,m D. Mackenzie wallace's Russia"

Even i'll good hotels, when they are
of the genuine Russian type, there are
certain peculiarities which, though not
iu themselves Objectionable, strike il
foreigner lis peculiar. Thus, when you
alight at such an hotel, you are expect
ed to examine Il considerable number of
rooms, and to inquire about the resprc-
tive prices. When you have fixed upon
suitable apartment, you will do well,
if you wish to practice economy, to
propose to the landlord considerably
less than he demands; and you will gen
orally find, if you have a talent for bar
gaining, that the rooms may be hired
for somewhat less than the sum first
stated. You must he careful, however,
to leave no possibility of doubt as to
the terms of the contract Perhaps YOU
assume that, us in taking cab, horse
is always supplied without special stIp-
ulatiOn, so, in hiring Il bedroom, the
bargain includes ii bed and the necrssa-
ry appurtenances. Such an assumption
will not always be justified. The land
lord may perhaps give you hedstead
without extra charge, but if he be un
corrupted by foreign notions, he will
certainly not spontaneously supply you
with bed-linen, pillows, blankets and
towels. On the contrary, he will assume
that you carry all these articles with
yOu, and, if You do not, you must pay
for those which you borrow from him.
Thisancient custom has produced among
certain Russians curious kind of fas-
tidiOusneSS to which we are strangers
They strongly dislike using sheets,
blankets and towels which are in IA GER
tain sense public property, just as we
should strongly object to putting on
clothes which had been already worn
by other people. And the feeling may
he developed in people not Russian by
birth. For my own part, | confess to
having been conscious of IL certain dis
agreeable feeling on returning. in this
respect, to the uSages of so-called civ
ilized Europe. Evidently fastidieusness
is not an innate quality, but the result
of the conditions to which we have been
accustomed and, as such, it may easily
take very curious forms. The incon-
venience of carrying about these essen
tial articles of bedroom furniture is by
no means so great as may at first sight
he supposed. Bedrooms in Russia are
always heated during cold weather,
so that one light blanket, which may be
used also It's a railway rug, is quite suffi-
cient, while sheets, pillow cases and
towels take up very little space in IA
pOrtmanteau. The most cumberOus OBJ
Ject is the pillow, for air-cushions, hav-
ing always Il disagreeable odOr, are not
well suited for the purpose. But Rus
slams are accustomed to this incum-
brance. In foImer days us at the
present time N those nDrtS of thn
try where there are neither railways
nor macadamized roads people trav-
eled in,carts or carriages without springs
and in these instruments of torture a
huge pile of cushions or pillows is nee
essary to avoid cOntusionS and disloca-
tions. On the railways perhaps
the infamous line which connects the
VOlga with the Don - the iolts and
shaking are not deadly enough to re-
quire such an antidote; but even in un-
conservative Russia, customs outlive
the conditions that created them and
at every railway station you may see
men and women carrying about their
pillows with them as we carry wraps
and hat boxes. A genuine Russian mer-
chant who loves comfort and respects
tradition may travel without a port
manteau, but he considers his pillow as
an Indispensable article de voyage. To
return to the hotel. When you have
completed the negotiations with the !
landlord, you will notice that, unless
you have servant with you, the waiter
prepares to perform the duties of valet
de chambre. Do not be surprised at
his otficiousness, which seems founded
on the assumption that you are three
tourths paralyzed. Formerly, every
well-born Russian had valet always
IN attendance, and never dreamed of
doing for himself anything which could |
by any possibility be done for him.
You notice that there is no bell in the |
room, and no mechanical means of COM
municating with the world below stairs. |
That is because the attendant was sup |
posed to be always within call, and it is |
so much easier to shout than to get I'D |
and ring the bell. In the good old times
all this was quite natural. The we'll
born Russian had commonly supera-
of domestic serfs, and there |
was no reason why one OF two of them
should not accompany their master
when his honor undertook Journey.
An additional person in the Tarantass
did not increase the expense, and coli
siderably diminished the little unavoid-
able Inconvenience of travel But