Omaha daily bee., 1888-10-07

pity or his countrymen, who were por-
ing owe the guide-book. 81 have Just
come back from there. Very little to
see. Best hotel is D~ussaux, where
they speak English and take Cooks
coupons"
Did you get any buckwheat cakes
therep"
There amt no b~uckwheat cakes in
all Moscow" was the reply: land if you
ask me my real opinion. I'll tell you
that Moscow and Russia is no country
for a white man; and I'm Just going to
take the express tonight, and / won't
get off them cars till | am on the other
side OF the frontier, out OF their blessed
bird-cage.n
Have you not had a good time in
Russia?n
Cant have no good times when you
can't read even the names, OF the sta
%tions," was the pcevish reply. "Have
to have chump-hcaded guides attached
to ones person all the time. No; | tell
you I'm sick O. Russia, and | have not
had a single cocktail since left Berlin
three weeks ago. This is no country
for a white man.
"Have you got your passport vised?"
Eyes. Had to wait over "a day to get
that done. The officials are in no hurry
here. What a system! My passport is
quite spoilt with their stamps and inn
prints, and in fees and what not it has
cost me over $40 Already
We need not give the conversation
further. The above citation sutiices to
show that the tourist, and especially the
American tourist of the cheapest kind,
has at last penetrated into Russia. In
June, July and August st. Petersburg
and NnGrnw arc nnW-a-loyG visited nv
between two and three thousand Arneri-
cans, and by a small sprinkling Of Eng
fish, and for the comfort of these trav-
elers certain arrangements have been
made. In some hotels at st. Petersburg
aud in one at Moscow the porter speaks
English. and some of the waters COM
prchend more or less. French and Ger
man are more widely understood and
spoken, but it is useless to disguise the
fact that the language of Russia is Rus
sian, and without, at least, a little Rus
sian the tourist must, rs the American
said. have Il ''chump-headed guide" at
tached to his person. ST. Petersburg
and Moscow are both vast towns: the dis
tances from point to point are enormous;
the squares are so broad that one can
hardly think of walking across them:
the streets measure miles in length and
furlongs in width. The consequence
is that in Russia nobody walks:
even the ~kitchen-maid, who
goes to market to buy a cabbage or a
watermelon rides in Il swift droshka.
Now, these drOshkas are subject to no
fixed tariff; in real Oriental fashion you
must bargain each time you hire one.
That wonderful writer. B~aedeker, tells
us, it is true, that we may and ought to,
abuse and even maltreat the droshka
driver, who will never lose his good
temper: but how can you abuse HIM II
you cannot speak his language? In the
museums, the churches, the public
monuments, and the shops this same
difficulty OF language stands very much
in the way of the tourists comfort. The
veracious guide books affirm that in the
best shops in st. Petersburg and Mos
COW French is spoken currently, and
yet I remember one day visiting thirteen
cigar shops in the Nevsky Prospect, the
Regent street of st. Petersburg. and in
not one of them was there IL soul who
could understand German or French,
much less English.
Such being the case in the capitals,
what must be the state of affairs in
minor towns? How delightful is the
situation of the tourist who starts on a
se~venty-hour railway journey, in the
course Of which he may have to change
trains four or five times, drive across
towns from one station to another
explain to p%ortcrs, ask information
from st~atiOnmaStcrs or train-cOnduc-
tors, who understand nothing but the
language of Gogul and P~ouchkine. Re
member. too. that the tourist who ar
rives unprepared in the country cannot
read ven the names OF the stations,
which are inscribed in Slavonic letters
only. In the hotels the bill of fare is