Year: 1878

TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA Russia is the most
uncomfortable of countries 10 travelin in. Such
railways as there are run mostly in straight
lines from terminus TO terminus, without TAX
ing any account Of the towns ON their road.
II you want to alight at town half way down
the line you find that the station which bears
its name is some twenty miles distant from
the town itself You climb into a paraclad-
moi, three-horse truck without springs, and
ask that your luggage may be put in with you.
The station porter, clad in kaftan reaching
10 his feet smiles kindly, but cannot give you
your luggage without the permission Of some
official who is absent. II takes money to find
this official. When he has consented TO in
spect the luggage, he proceeds to examine ev-
cry article as If it were new and curious in
vention. More money is required to stop
him then you scramble into the truck again.
and of it goes like wildhre, the Kalmuck
driver yelling all the way and thwacking the
shafts with the stump of his whip, to make
you fancy that he il dragging the vehicle by
himself. The humping is something to re-
member for the roads are left to mend them
selves and in winter the ruts are big enough
TO hold collins. In some districts a chance Of
being chevied by pack of dinnerless wolves
adds TO the interest Of the journey, but if it
be night lantern with strong reflector hung
at the back of the carriage will be enough to
keep them from approaching. AT length the
town Of your destination is reached and,
pounding along the unpaved streets with q
last flourish of howls, the isvostchik gallops
into the courtyard of the place that calls itself
a hotel. Out tumbles a fat-nOsed hostler,
whom the driver begins to thump and swear
at, Just TO show his zeal in your service Then
comes the landlord, generally German who
talks broken French, and whose accommoda-
ton for travellers consists in two or three
rooms without beds and some hot water. 1t
is expected that traveller should bring his
own provisions if he has not done SO, he
must pay for food at famine prices-and what
food It's no use asking for a chop or a
steak, for the last gridiron seen in Russia lex
cept in private houses) was the one which
Ivan the Terrible used for the broilirg Of re-
fractory courtiers. chunk Of beef stewed
in sugar and vinegar and served with q saucer
full of salted cucumbers and picked cherries
will be about the extent of the bin of fare;
though if there happen to be q wedding going
on in the town, the landlord will run of to
beg some choicer dainties, and return in tri-
umph with the leg of q goose stuffed with
cloves, or a piece of pork braised with nut
megs and marsh-mallows. As to beds, they
are quite modern innovation in Russia, and
many well-to-do houses are still unprovided
with them. Peasants sleep on the tops of
their ovens, middle-class people and servants
curl themselves up in sheepskins and lie down
near stoves soldiers sleep upon wooden cots
without bedding, and it is only within the
last ten years that the students in State schools
have been allowed beds. A traveller must
therefore roll himself up in rugs and furs,
and spend his night on the floor of his inn
room. Russians see no hardship in this, even
| if they be rich and accustomed to luXuries.
| They rather prefer boards to mattresses, and
are frst-rate travellers, for they make shift to
sleep anywhere.