Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-01-06
RUSSIAN RAILROADS.
QUEER FEATURES or TRAVEL
IN THE CZARS DOMINIONS.
Three Glasses of Cars-Travelefs
Must Furnish Their Own Bed
ding I'm Sleepers-GoPgIng
at Railroad Restaurants.

n UssIAN cars, says Frank G.
x Carpenter in the New York
- Press are like no other cars in
Europe. They are half Eu.
ropean and half American. They are Of
three classes and the seats are no higher
than they are in the United States. The
distance from st. Petersburg to Moscow
is 400 miles, and the road is as straight
as a string. There are FIVE trains every
day and it takes ten hours to go from
one point to the other on an express
train. The first class express rates are
three and half cents a mile, while the
second class, which is almost as good,
are only two and quarter cents, and the
third class are less than two cents a mile.
have travelled quite a good deal in Sec
ond class cars and fiud them very com
Portable. Most OF the we'll to do Rus
slams patronize the second class cars aud,
as one is expected to carry his own
bedding, by the use OF little feeling you
can save money and make yourself com
Portable. found it very inconvenlent,
even in the first class sleeper, during the
first part of my present tour. l had
neither soap nor towels with me aud l
had to rely upon the guards for these, as
we'll as for my pillows and bedding. In
none of the sleepers do they expect to
furnish you much more than a place to
lie down upon. You are expecte to
carry your own sheets, and in first
class hotel, which I found at SlratoG, l
had to make a very pronounced kick be-
fore could get any bedding. There
was mattress on the iron springs, but
there were neither sheets nor pillow
cases and the nights were cold. After a
time got rather comfortable outfit
for the night, but the next day l found
that this was all charged up in my bill,
and have hal to pay for bedding at
half dozen hotels since then. The
passenger boats on the Volga-which,
by the way, are very comfortable in
other respects-do not furnish bedding,
towels or soap, and you always pay extra
for these when you order them. Ii you
don't understand the Russian tongue
sometimes you pay When you don't order
them.
The Russians are always gorging. The
average man is a glutton, and have
seen slender, ETHEREAL, eithetic looking
Russian girls during the past week who
could get away with more s)lds AMI
liquids than any beeiy E1glisAmln l
have ever met. The people seem to eat
at every station, and the beauty OF it is
you can find something good to eat
every time the train stops. l wish
COLD show you a plate Of Russian soup.
One plate Is big enough for a meal, but
tho Russians take it only as an appetizer.
The favorite soup is called staclec, anl
it is made of cabbage and other vegcta-
bles, with a piece OF meat about four
inches square and two inches thick IN the
middle of it. In addition to this they
bring you bowl of thick cream, which
is sometimes sour aud sometimes fresh,
to pour into it in order to give tia body,
and this molasses- like mixture you eat,
and you like it. But have never found
myself able to get beyond the irst course,
for after you have taken the liquid part
of the soup you are expected to carve up
and eat the meat, aud the meat forms
quite meal in ITSELF At every station
peddlers come around with fruits, cakes
aud drinkables, and common sight is
the old fellow with the samovar in which
be makes tea and serves to all who will
buy. 1t makes no difference how hotit
is this man always wears his overcoat,
aud long visored cap usually shrOud'
his eyes. He is generally bearde / and
he has a fat, jolly face like that OF Santa
Claus. His tea is good and he serves it
with a bit Of lemon and a lump Of the
hardest sugar you have ever put between
your teeth. If you drink the tea like he
does you will put a lump of sugar be-
tween your teeth and suck the tea
through this, aud the chances are that
when you get as old as he is your teeth
will be in the decayed condition of his.
Nine.tenths OF tho Russian peasants
have bad teeth, and there is more chance
for good enterprising dentists here than
anywhere else in the world. l don't
doubt but that there arc five hundred
million cavities ready at this writing in
this empire for FIVE hundred million gold
or amalgam plugs, aud the Russian with
sound teeth is the exception.
1t is wonderful how much travel is
done BY the poor class in Russia. The
third class cars are always full. They
are more like cattle cars than anything
else. There are no cushions on the
seats, and the people are crowded in all
sorts OF ways. They are not supposed
to have any rights that the railroad Of
Aclals are bound to respect. saw one
man knocked down and showed back
into the station just as the car was about
10 start because he did not have his ii c.
ket in his hand. He told the guard that
the party OF peasants with whom he was
t-u.otfnr, bod tho fickat and they had