Year: 1877

I'll DODOlIV 40 We Sdb az bHS NlISh
window Of Anton's Hotel in the main
thoroughfare of Orenburg, watching
the camsls fling across the road to
the market place and the bullet head.
ed Tartar children rolling u the dust
Of the street below.


"WelI," resumed the lieutenant, 81
was in St. Petersburg the winter be-
fore last and fins time I had of it
there. That's the place for man to
live, instead of a hole like this, where
there is nothing to do but drink cog
nae and smoke papiro8si-paper ci.
garettes, or sit on the boulevard and
watch tho Ural flowing past under.
meath. That winter, | do believe, l
wac out every night.-balls, dinners,
the opera, the French theatre, aud
what not; and rs for cards-why !
lost thousand roubles in one week


"Now ought to tell you that just
about that time, there was q great to.
do about street robbcries. There are
always pleuty Of them for that mat
ter; but at this particular time there
seemed TO be quite an epedemic Of
robbing. One fellow in particular
seemed 10 have regular system of
his own he used to take a cabman
and make him drive slowly about the
streets after dark, till somebody came
in sight with specially good fur cap
on and then while the cabman put
his horse to the gallop, the thief
would lean forward, snatch off the
mans cap as he passed, and be out Of
sight in a moment. However, he
caught Tartar at last, fora man who
had heard of him, went out sne night
with now cap tied on tightly, and
when the thief clutchod it, seized him
by the wrist, whisked him out Of the
drosky on to the pavement and gave
him such thrashing that every limb
Of his body was as soft as buckwheat
POI ridge.


"But this was not all for now there
began to get around strange tales Of
people who had gone out to evening
parties and never come home again
ofcabmen with rich furs and silks found
iii their possession, which they could
not account for-of bodies discovered
under the ice of the canals sand other
tales of the kind, till az last there was
n regular panic, and no lady would
stir out alone after dark AS a matter
Of course while all these pretty stories
were going about they revived for the
hundreth time, the old tale Of the lady
being put under the ice Of the Moika
Canal by a cabman, and her husband
happening to remember the number Of
cab and tracing tie man out by it,
I've heard the tale myself at least fifty
times, and there's no more truth in it
than in tie history Of BoUa Kerolevitch
Ga mythical Russian champion, but the
people will believe it the same for ali
Of that.


Well, as you may think, when these
became the stock subject Of talk about
town the fellows at our mess must have
their say about them, too; and after u
time they became a regular subject of
dispute with us after dinner Most of
the subalterns-and | myself among
thsm, / must confess-poO- poohed. the
whole thiRg, and said it was nothing
more than big hoax gotten up to
take in people who knew no better !;
bwt the older heads among us, VINO had
seen such things before, thought other.
wise. They allowed there might be n
good deal Of exaggeration about some
of the stories, but nevertheless they
maintained that these rascalities were
going on, and was Of no use of saying
that they were not. Al last, one night,
when the argument was going on, and
had run pretty high, onr senior major,
battered old fellow, who had beer all
through the Crimean war, sa;d to me
very quietly: "Well, you'll begin to
believe in these things when you get a
taste of them yourself" And so did
too as you shall hear.


. That was a great winter 10 ST. Pc
tersbu.g for for fancy balls things
that / am very fond of, and you can
get more sport out Of them than any
thing else l know. Dozens of times
for a wager, have gone TO them in
some queer disguise, aud not one OF
my comrades, though they all were
there, could find me out; aud rare fun
it used to be next day, when repeat
ed the things they had said in my
hearing, and watched their faces Of
astonishment.


Well, one night. just after the new
year, there was a grand fancy ball at
Princess P--'s, and some Of our
fellows were.iuvited, Iamopg the mum
ber. A famous evening we had Of it
and wasn't till two o'clock-the very
deadest and loneliest time of the whole
night in fact-that ] started to GO
| home.