The Arizona sentinel., 1888-03-24
TRAVEL IN RUSSIA.
Some of the Peculiarities of the Czar's
 Post Service.

some or lno Pecul1ar1CleS or the CZar's
 Post Service.
 Travellers in the country where there are no railways usually prefer to make use of the imperial post service. which exists upon the principal lines of communication, and will furnish re- lays of horses at intervals of twenty or thirty miles, In order to obtain them, one must secure from the postal authorities ''podoroz hnaya" "a for midable-looking document, which di- rects whom it may concern to assist the bearer on his way, to furnish him promptly with a certain number of horses, from certain points to certain points, for certain price named, and must be paid in advance at the re- spective road station. The "podor- ozhnaya" costs a considerable sum, itself, which is devoted to the repair of the roads. Armed with these cre- dentials the traveller applies to the nearest post station for a postil- lion, horses and vehicle known as ''tarantas," sort of overgrown drosky. heavily and strongly made. with exceedingly stiff springs. and a general condition of discomfort Sometimes the horses are very fine and fast; sometimes they are only or dinary; but their appearance is no test of their speed. for have seen the most "ornary' looking brutes gallop over distance of twenty miles in two hours and half without turning hair. Usually they are driven three abreast, but often when the passenger is in hurry. or the roads are bad. or the distance is great, four or even five are harnessed abreast. There is no tongue or pole. but only q pair of thills, no matter how many horses. One is hitched in the thills and does the steering; the others are fastened to the axle or the whiffletrees, and their heads are kept together by straps. Very seldom do they trot. but com- monly go at gallop mile after mile.
 In the winter months travelling is much more agreeable, uotwithstand- ing the cold. The sledges are much more comfortable than the wheeled ve- hicles, and one can sleep in a nest of furs that is provided fer him. Pas sengers are often frost-bitten, but Russian thinks no more of such an ac- cident than of a mosquito bite. The latter would probably annoy him more. He does not go to a fire to warm when frost-bitten, but rubs the part with snow until the friction thaws it out. and no discomfort follows.
 But the natives of all classes are capable of enduring an almost incred- lble amount of heat and cold. They dress warmly in furs and fannels. but even such garments would not recon cile an ordinary man or woman to a temperature which sends the mercury down to thirty or forty degrees below zero, day after day and week after week, almost continuously from No- vember till April The Russian peas- ant is frequently alluded to as first cousin to the polar bear, and his hab- it's and endurance seem to establish the relationship. He will drive sledge across the bleak plains, with the wind bowling at the rate of thirty miles an hour and the thermometer frozen. without the slightest apparent discomfort, and he will sit on the box of coach or a sledge before the thea ter, or a house in which there is a re- ception, hour after hour. and chat so- cially with his fellows, when the mer- cury is down to forty below zero. " E. Curtis, ip Chicago Nea0s.