EDUCATION IN FREE LABOUR.

203

labour now, and we have to give them pasture-land
and wood at a mere nominal price. But we get more
work for our money, and by and by the small farms
let out will become more valuable, and pay higher
rent, although madame's income from her land has
been for a time reduced considerably. The profits of
her works too are already so much increased, that,
on the whole, we thrive under the new system. This
will not be the case with many other proprietors who
have not taken care to conciliate the people, and find
good work for the surplus population. At first I was
much put to it for workers in the mills and shops.
Many of the people having heard of high wages in
Moscow and St. Petersburg, rushed there; but most
of them have since returned, bringing report home
that in the great towns work is scarce and living
high, and that, on the whole, they find themselves
better off in the Little village. I expect that as soon
as the serfs are free to go where they choose, great
bodies of them will rush to the capital and large
towns, expecting high wages. This will glut the
labour-market in places already fully stocked, and
they will return to their native homes. For a time
they may cause great loss and annoyance to those
who possess land and works in the interior, but a few
years will remedy the evil."

In the winter of 1862 many serfs, who had been
spontaneously freed by their barons, rushed to Mos-
cow. When I was in Moscow last, the city swarmed
with masses of starving peasantry, seeking work, and
finding none; on a late country journey, I saw thou-

204

RUSSIAN LIFE.

sands crawling back to their villages, and begging
their way.

Visiting madame at the great house, I found an
English governess at home with her there, in the
heart of Russia. It is a general practice among the
better classes in Russia to educate their children,
especially girls, at home. Placed under the charge
of a chief governess, a young Russian lady is often
attended by a retinue of tutors, comprising a Ger-
man, a Frenchman, an Italian, and an Englishman,
besides Russian dancing, drawing, and music masters.
I knew a case in which a young lady's education cost
her guardians two pounds a-day, for teachers' and
governesses' fees alone. All must be natives of the
country whose language they profess to teach, and
must come, or profess to come, from their capital.
Scotch or Irish men or women are tabooed either as
governesses, teachers, or companions.

Having complimented madame on the improving
condition of her estate,

"Ah, yes," she said; "my steward has done won-
ders outside, and we have not been idle inside. All
things are changed, and, O, how much better it is!
Formerly, when the people were my own, I was
obliged to have seventeen or eighteen servants of one
kind and another in the house, to wait on us four
ladies, and then we were not half served. Now, we
have only five hired servants, all free, besides the
gardener and coachman; and from these we get
better attendance. We are quieter, there is less
waste and stealing, and the cost is not one-half. The

SERVILITY.

205

effort was at first hard work; for sometimes when we
were teaching them to be free—poor things—they
did not know what it meant. But we persevered,
and now I am very happy. It will be a long time,
however, before I get the idea out of my old head
that these independent creatures are my children.
Lucy" (the English governess) "and Sanya have
started a school for the peasants' children. At first
they bribed the little things, and even the parents,
before they could get them to come; now they have
too many. The young ladies also visit the sick and
the aged; and Lucy has lately taken to remonstrating
with the few lazy and drunken fellows in the village.
About a year ago she gave me a little book of Scrip-
ture tales, of which I am extremely fond; it is in
English. Well, we three Russians soon translated
it into Russ, intending to get it printed for circulation
among the peasants and their children. But, you see,
at my last confession I had to tell the priest what
I and my girls had done. He saw the manuscript,
and prohibited the publication."

"And will you not publish it?"

"O no; it would be wrong. I dare not. It is as
much as I can do to get the school carried on. But
come here into this corner; I want to tell you about
Lucy. That young lady has a strong determined
character, and must have been trained in good prin-
ciples. During the first three months she was in my
family she effected a great change in it. You know
how abjectly the peasants behave when they ask a
favour or receive one?"

206

RUSSIAN LIFE.

"Yes; they cross themselves, bow down their heads level with their heels, kiss your feet, grovel on the very ground, and kiss the earth you walk on."

"So it is, and we are so much accustomed to it that this servility seems natural. They will do it to our children when occasion requires, crawling and grovelling before them. Poor young things, what can they imagine but that the abject souls are dogs and pigs compared with themselves? I have seen one little fellow, not disposed to grant a request to a great sprawling man, join to his denial a kick in the face. Well! one day, after Lucy had been a short time here, two male peasants came in and began their prostrations before the young girls; they had a petition to make to me, and wished for their intercession. Sanya, although she is a good girl, took it quite in order, as part of her natural birthright. Not so Lucy; I was in the next room, and heard her say, 'Get up, men, and stand on your feet like human beings; I will not hear a word while you lie on the floor;' and looking through the curtains, I saw her with her fingers in both ears. Sanya said, 'Lucy dear, let them go on: they are only moushicks.' 'They are men,' said Lucy; and turning to them, she said: 'Now listen, and remember what I tell you; never go on your knees and kiss the ground to me again. I won't have it; you must kneel to God only. Stand up and make your request in a respectful manner, then I will hear you, and help you if I can.' The moushicks did not understand her; they stared in blank astonishment; they heard her words of

THE BLACK VILLAGE.

207

rebuke, but supposed that they had not been abject
enough; and again cast themselves down at full
length. Lucy ran into my arms and burst into tears.
My Sanya could not for a long time understand it,
but I hope I did; and the end is, that this abomin-
able practice has been peremptorily abolished in my
family."

Now let me describe my visit to the Black village,
or, as the Russians call it, "Chernoi Deravonie."

We (for I was not alone) arrived about ten o'clock,
in fine time and humour for breakfast, but saw very
few evidences of life as we passed down the road
between the straggling, poverty-stricken, shapeless
hovels of mud and wood. On approaching the ba-
ronial residence and farm-offices, we found a small
crowd of some twenty peasant men and women
assembled at one of the barn-doors, where a middle-
aged lady was gesticulating with direful energy to
the assembled peasants. The lady was dressed in a
fur wrapper, had tied her head up in a comfortable
woollen shawl, had put her hands in good warm fur
gloves, and wore on her feet a pair of long velvet
boots lined with rabbit-skin. The peasants seemed
as if they had just risen from consuming fever. They
were lean, and wan, and haggard, with their hair
matted, their poor clothing tattered, and their faces
fixed in sullen discontent. The lady, busy among
her "souls," did not appear to notice our approach.
She was in too great a passion to attend to any thing
but the outpouring of her wrath.

"Dogs! sons and daughters of dogs! Is this the

208

RUSSIAN LIFE.

service you pay your baron? Pigs and swine! Is
this a time to come to your work? Rats and vermin!
You should have been here at four o'clock, and now
it is ten. Defilement of mothers! I will have every
one of you whipped. And you, starost, who ought to
be an example, are the worst of the whole pack of
thieves. You came here at this hour with seven-
teen souls, when you ought to have had forty here at
four o'clock to thrash and put that rye away. Devils
you all are! If my brother were well, he would
punish you like sons and daughters of dogs, as you
are!

The old starost, quite unconcerned under all this
abuse, merely shrugged his shoulders until they
reached his ears, and held out his two hands from
his sides with each finger as far separate from its
neighbour as possible. If any one will put himself
in this posture, and stare fixedly before him until his
eyes are glassy, he will have achieved the universal
deprecatory careless shrug of Russia.

"What is to be done, baroness!" he asked. "I
have been fighting the pigs all the morning to get
them to come, but, the deuce take it, they say they
are all unwell, and cannot work. See! These are
all I could get, and I had to pull them off their beds
to bring them here, and, deuce take me, they are not
worth bringing! But what's to be done, baroness?
It's God's doing."

"Go into the barn and work, you whelps," said
my lady. "Starost, drive them in, you old fool. Be
quick, pig!" And here she gave the old fellow a

FORCED LABOUR.

209

side blow with her gloved hand which made him stagger back. But, recovering himself, he pretended to make furious assault on the poor invalids, cuffing, kicking, and pushing them to the door of the barn, through which they huddled and disappeared.

"Now then, you old fool," said the lady, "go and bring the others."

"And who will watch these, baroness?"

"I will. Be off, thief!"

"I'll try, baroness. But they won't come."

"Begone, devil, and obey my orders!" Again she essayed to strike the man, but he started off in quick time to the village.

The language used towards these poor people did not astonish me. It is the usual style towards serfs. But it is not often that a lady is the speaker. I had been told of this baroness that she was a Tartar, and a Tartar she assuredly was. Observing us as the old starost left, she came hurriedly over to us. "Ah, bless me, is it you, my dears? Forgive me, you young ladies, I did not see you sooner. You are welcome, my darlings. How is your mother? Sanya, who is this you bring with you?" (I am introduced, and touch the Tartar's glove.) "You see what awful work we have with these serfs, sir? They think that since their freedom has been so much talked of, they are not to work any more. They are perfectly unmanageable. My brother's illness has forced me to take them in hand, and I'll let them know I am not to be played with. Now go to the house, dears, and take off your things. I will be with you as soon as I

P

210

RUSSIAN LIFE.

see these peasants at work." And off she went into
the barn.

The house was large and dilapidated. When we
drove into the front yard we found all silent and
empty. No one came to take charge of our horses, or
usher us in. Our coachman could not leave his
horses, one of them being rather restive; so, after
hallooing for some time, I was obliged to enter un-
announced. Just inside the door, and coiled up in a
corner like a huge boa-constrictor, lay what I sus-
pected was the porter, sound asleep. I gave him
a shake, but this had no effect. I then kicked his
legs, but he only groaned. Seeing a jug of water on
a little table in the passage, I poured it on him. He
started up half awake and made a fierce butt at me
with his head. Fortunately he missed me, and came
down on the floor head first. This had only the
effect of so far rousing him that, when he looked up
through his long tangled hair, and saw a baron
standing over him and inquiring for some one to take
the horses in hand, he jumped up and dived in at
a side-door, bawling, "Gregory! Visitors!" Fol-
lowing close at his heels, I found him tearing at the
beard of another fellow, who was sleeping on a wooden
bench. Gregory being awakened and informed of
what was wanted, dived into a passage, shouting,
"Evan! Visitors!" Finding that I had not yet got
at the right man, I again followed, and, crossing a
back court, entered an outhouse filled with straw.
Here I found Gregory pulling Evan by the legs out
of his comfortable bed of straw. As soon as he be-

THE MASTER AT HOME.

211

came sensible that visitors were at the door with
horses, Evan seized a long pole, with an iron hook
on the end of it, plunged it among the straw, and,
after various failures, ultimately succeeded in fishing
out by their gray ragged coats his two stable assistants.
Thus reinforced, he leisurely proceeded to the front
and took possession of our cattle. The battering-ram
was ready by this time to act his part of lacquey, and
conducted us into the house. Several female heads
popped out at various doors as we passed on, indi-
cating a numerous if not a select retinue; and our
conductor presently opening a door at the end of a
passage, shouted, "Visitors!" and left us on the open
threshold. Advancing a few steps, we were in the
presence of the lord and lady of the "souls," the pigs
and dogs, vermin and devils.

The master of the house was an invalid. On one
side he was nearly powerless, and he had partly lost
his speech from palsy. His other side, however, was
still serviceable, and with his sound arm he was
flourishing a crutch at a red-shirted peasant who
stood within reach: nor did it end in a flourish, for
the crutch came down upon the moushick's back as I
entered. I wondered the fellow did not run, but,
looking down, I found that he was tied to the great
arm-chair in which his paralytic lord was cushioned.
The man's offence was, that in exercising the razor on
his master's face he had made a deep gash. That he
might be safely within reach of punishment the poor
fellow was always tied to the chair while he dressed
his master.

212

RUSSIAN LIFE.

On a sofa lay a lady of portentous dimensions,
enveloped in a loose robe by no means carefully
arranged. Her face was hidden by a dense mass
of very long hair, and in her arms she held a cat of
Russian breed of wondrous size. On her knees on
the floor was a young woman, who had in one hand a
large comb, while the other grasped the locks of her
lady, and she combed and searched and scratched,
and picked away the particles of scurf which are apt
to collect on all heads and all hair. Cleaner skins,
cleaner heads, and cleaner hair, do not exist any
where than among Russians of this class, for the
process through which madame was going is a daily
process, in which she and all the Russian ladies take
delight. As the baron was still making wild efforts
to castigate the unfortunate barber, and as his lady
seemed unconscious of our presence, I turned to my
companions for counsel. But the young birds were
flown. I was alone in that august presence. Think-
ing discretion the best part of valour, I precipitately
followed, and soon found my companions, by the
sound of their laughter, in another room. There we
waited nearly half an hour, during which time I
received the following items of information regarding
our baron, which, as he is one of a large class, shall
be repeated.

He had been an official in a hospital department
or something of that kind, at Cronstadt or St. Peters-
burg, for many years. It was his duty to buy and
dispense the stores and necessaries. His salary was
below two pounds a-week, and this seemed to suffice

AN UPHOLDER OF SERFDOM.

213

for payment of the rent of a good house, and enable
him to keep a good table and entertain good com-
pany. It had given his daughter an expensive edu-
cation, and a dowry of more than two thousand
pounds on her marriage-day. It had educated his
son, a young man now nearly ready to enter the
army as an officer, and had kept him in pocket-
money. It had bought the Black village, and made
its paralytic owner a baron. Finally, it had kept his
widowed sister, the Tartar, for twelve years on the
estate as factotum in the absence of the baron him-
self. But age and inefficiency will make themselves
manifest even in government places, and the baron
had now retired to enjoy nobility on his estate among
the hundred and seventy souls out of whom he had
always tried to get the utmost amount of work and
obrok, and from whom he received with daily curses
the least possible amount of service.

“Ah, this horrid emancipation proposal!” said his
sister to me, after she came in and ordered coffee.
“It is a most shocking act of injustice on the part of
the emperor. His father was a gentleman, and would
never have done such a wicked thing. He is a —
Well! We shall all be ruined. My brother paid
twenty thousand roubles for this estate and the souls
on it, and by what right does the emperor take them
from us without sufficient compensation? We are
already feeling the bitter effects of it. Not one of
these moushicks will work for us if he can help it.
Even last summer a great part of our rye crop was
suffered to rot on the fields because I could not get

214

RUSSIAN LIFE.

them to cut it down in time. Think of ten souls out of seventy coming to the reaping-field, and these ten cutting only twenty-five sheaves a-day each instead of one hundred, which they can easily cut if they choose!

Here a servant entered the room carrying coffee-cups, followed by another with bread, and a third with the coffee-pot. Madame looked and cried:

"Where is the cream, you fool?"

"There is no cream, baroness."

"No cream!" screamed madame, "and six cows in the stable!"

Off she ran to make sure. One of the cows had got to the cream and lapped it all up.

"Are you boiling the eggs?"

"Baroness, there are no eggs."

"No eggs, and a houseful of poultry!"

"The nests have been found empty."

"O, Heaven help us! The thieving villains, they will drive me mad! Quick, you fool of a girl, and bring the butter that was made yesterday."

"Baroness, there is no butter. The young baron's dogs and the pigs got into the cellar and ate it all up."

"Liar!" roared the Tartar lady, and cuffed the girl out of the room; the girl screaming as she fled, "It is God's truth!"

"Give such pigs liberty!" said the lady, catching her breath. "We have two-and-twenty servants in this house, and yet you see how we are served. We dare not punish them now as we used to, and they

TWO RUSSIAN VILLAGES.

215

don't care for my cuffing. Last July the young baron, my nephew, was here on a visit, and for some fault he lashed a peasant with his whip, and cut him over the eye with the handle. What do you think the wretch did? He complained to the"—I did not catch the name, but it was one of the 'icks'—"and there has been no end of trouble ever since about it. Ah! We used to get good work out of the moushicks once. They paid forty—some of the clever ones fifty and sixty—roubles obrok when they were out at work, and those at home were obedient and willing to slave for us five days every week. But now we can neither get obrok from those who are away nor work from those who remain. Heaven knows how it is all to end! but I think the world is turning upside down. The mud is coming to the top. We shall all soon be slaves to our own serfs."

"But, my dear madame," I said, "why do you not adopt Madame Obrassoff's plan? Give them their freedom at once, a few deciatines of land, and time to pay?"

"And who is to work our land?"

"You must work it by hired labourers."

"And where are we to get them, and how pay them?"

"That you must provide for. The surplus of these peasants, if fairly treated, will work for you after a time."

"Not one of them. You are a foreigner, and don't understand these people. They are all reveling in the anticipation of a life of idleness and high

216

RUSSIAN LIFE.

wages. They are already dividing and picking out the best land for their share. As for paying for it, or working for us, nonsense! A moushick is never satisfied. Give him land, and he will ask for pasture. Give him pasture, and he will ask for wood. What he don't get he will steal. No: our land must be cultivated by machinery and engines; and where the money is to come from I can't tell. Those who can buy engines and wait twenty years for a return of capital may hold on. As for us, we are ruined, and must sell what remains to us for what it will bring, if a customer can be found. That, Mr. Englishman, is the condition to which we are coming, if the barons don't soon put a stop to this emancipation folly."

A deciatine of land measures nearly three acres. This quantity has been for many years selling in Russia from three to ten roubles, according to quality. The serfs do not in law belong to the barons personally, but the land does; and as the serfs were, by imperial edict, long ago made fixtures on the land, so, by a curious fiction, whoever possessed the land possessed the serfs or souls on it. Although not slaves by name, they were really as much slaves as any African negroes are the property of any American planters. Now the emancipation edict severs that connection totally. A serf is no longer a fixture on his master's land. He is no longer a serf, but a free man; he can go where he likes. The land is the baron's, but these now free people must live on it or by it. The edict, therefore, enjoins that

EMANCIPATION.

217

a certain portion of it—five or six deciatines—shall
be sold to each male peasant, and for this he must
pay the baron fifteen roubles for each deciatine. The
general price of land in the market being (as I am
informed) not one-half of this sum, the price seems
a fair one, involving compensation: so on this head
the barons would seem to have little cause to com-
plain. But as the peasants are poor, it is decreed
that they are to have nine years to pay in, at a stipu-
lated sum per annum. Or if the baron be willing—
and, indeed, whether he be willing or no—the serfs
in a village may borrow money from the state, by
becoming security for each other, and pledging their
land, to pay the baron off at once. Thus they can
become immediately and wholly independent, with
the state for their only creditor, while the baron
obtains the wherewith to farm his own remaining
land. But such arrangements not being thought
sufficient to meet the present need of the great mass
of poor barons, the state has further devoted a large
sum to be expended in loans for a long time, at low
interest, on the security of the land, to these poor
baronial proprietors. Such, with some other arrange-
ments of less moment, are the terms of the famous
emancipation edict now at last in force.

CHAPTER XV.

COTTON-MILLS.

EVERY Russian peasant, male and female, wears cotton
clothes. The men wear printed shirts and trousers,
and the women are dressed from head to foot in
printed cotton also. When it is remembered that
Russia contains something like thirty-three millions of
serfs, besides other classes amounting to twenty mil-
lions, all using this article more or less, one can esti-
mate the demand for cotton goods. But a calculation
is not to be made from data afforded by free and
more prosperous countries. The peasantry are poor,
the cotton prints are dear. Hence there is not a
tithe of the right amount of consumption. Still the
cotton trade in Russia is a large trade, and it is
supplied chiefly by native labour in mills—containing
machinery made in Oldham and Manchester, and
superintended by Englishmen from the same and
neighbouring towns.

There may be five or six millions of spindles
at work spinning this cotton. Together with the
weaving and printing of the same, that forms, indeed,
a large item, perhaps the largest, among the manu-

COTTON-MILLS.

219

facturing processes of Russia, and employs a capital of thirty millions sterling. The largest mills are in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg, one of these having some hundred and twenty thousand spindles, and a few others are of seventy thousand and sixty thousand; but the great bulk of the trade is in the Moscow district, and scattered about the land in that direction. The number of spindles there may not be so great in any individual mill as in some of the large Petersburg establishments; but the mills are more numerous, some of them nearly as large, and all of them are of respectable dimensions, even according to an English estimate.

The chief causes producing this large manu-
facturing trade are, of course, the great demand
and a high protective tariff, which excludes the cot-
tons of England from the Russian market. England
and Englishmen have derived the chief benefit from
it notwithstanding. The mills are all filled, as I have
said, with English-made machinery; a good deal of
English capital is invested in them, and they are
almost universally managed by English skilled work-
men at high wages.

It is a notorious fact, that although cotton-spinning
has been in operation in Russia for upwards of fifty
years, and constantly on the increase, the people ne-
cessarily becoming practically acquainted with all its
details, still they cannot dispense with English superin-
tendence. Wherever native superintendence has been
tried it has failed. And it will always be so, not-
withstanding the admitted ability of the Russians as

220

RUSSIAN LIFE.

workmen, until a moral and intellectual training as freemen gives them confidence in their own powers, secured to them to induce exertion and competition in skill with their opponents of more favoured lands. But, account for it as we may, it is a disgrace to all concerned that no works requiring the least practical care, and the commonest skill in superintendence, can yet be carried on successfully without the help of highly-paid foreigners. What should we say of ourselves in England if a stranger could point to all the cotton-mills in Lancashire, all the flax-mills of Leeds, Dundee, and Ireland, and all the iron and engineering shops of Glasgow, London, and Liverpool, and say these were all managed and superintended by foreign skill; that the English employed in them were mere labourers and unskilled workmen under the dictation of strangers who could scarcely speak the language of the country? If to this were added the knowledge that the people of England had to pay two or three prices for the cotton goods, because of a high duty and other fiscal restrictions preventing imports at half the price, and that all this only served to make a few rich men richer, while the poor people who wore the cotton had to pay the entire cost of all the foreign cotton wool, foreign machinery, foreign agents, and foreign skill, without themselves deriving any sort of material or moral benefit, England could not long tolerate so great a blunder. This, however, is the state of things in Russia. Several great fortunes have been made by machine-makers and capitalists, and very nice pickings have been obtained by agents

COTTON-MILLS.

221

and superintendents, many of whom went to Russia
poor and left it rich. But that it has benefited the
Russian people, or in any way whatever added to
their comfort or improvement, I do not believe. The
poor baron has received more obrok from his serfs
employed at these places, because they got better
wages and paid him accordingly; and this has enabled
him to live in ease and frivolity without working his
lands. The free people, and the serfs under easy and
rich masters, have had more money to drink; they
have forgotten their patriarchal simplicity and virtues,
if they ever had any, and have learnt all the low vices
and drunken habits engendered wherever masses of
both sexes of ignorant and debased people mix to-
gether—as is the case in mills and factories in Russia
—without law, religion, or morality to guide them.

In the interior of the country a considerable
number of these "fabrics," as they are called, are the
grossest sinks of immorality, tyranny, and wicked-
ness. But there are a few both in Moscow and
Petersburg under management, so far as interior
arrangements are concerned, that fully equals that
of the best-regulated establishments in England.
In St. Petersburg particularly, there are the Koling-
kin Bridge Works, that might challenge competition
with any mill in existence.

The father of Russian cotton and flax-spinning
and other manufactures was General Wilson. This
gentleman is mentioned by Dr. Clarke in his travels
in Russia as a prominent character, and as one who
had even then effected great things, and he occupied

222

RUSSIAN LIFE.

an exalted position at the time of the doctor's visit. The writer of these notes knew General Wilson for many years, and enjoyed his hospitality, advice, and friendship on many occasions. A few lines he thinks due to one of the worthiest helpers in good work ever possessed by the Russian Czars, especially since the main facts can be given as they came straight from himself.

General Wilson left Scotland in the ninth year of his age, after having gone through a course of study at the High School of Edinburgh, to which city his parents belonged. He was the son of an ingenious blacksmith, where also his grandfather had lived as the "King's smith," at the old Mint in the Canongate. His parents went to Russia during the reign of the Empress Catherine, who, whatever her faults in other respects, never failed to encourage foreigners of merit who would settle in her dominions. In Russia the young Wilson grew and exhibited talents of no ordinary kind, which soon attracted the notice of General Gascoigne, who had some time before been brought from the Carron Iron-Works to instruct the Russians in the art of casting cannon. Appointed interpreter and secretary to this general, Wilson passed rapidly through various grades and ranks, until he became his assistant in the Imperial Establishment of Engineering at Colpino. When Gascoigne died, he succeeded him in the imperial direction of those immense works, from which a great portion of the armament of the Russian navy has been supplied. He also became, under Marie

GENERAL WILSON.

223

Feodorovna (the Emperor Paul's wife), the origin-
ator and superintendent of the Foundling Hospital,
and of the large flax and cotton manufactory at
Alexandroffsky, each the first institution of its kind
in Russia. Here, amidst inconceivable difficulties,
and in the face of prejudice and opposition before
which most men would have quailed, did this per-
severing Scotchman lay the foundation of that manu-
facturing enterprise by which Russia is either to
gain or lose. He has enjoyed the esteem and re-
spect of the successive sovereigns whom he has served,
and from each of whom he has received abundant
and tangible proofs of confidence in the highest of
those ranks and orders which the law of Russia
affords to a foreigner. After having been in the
imperial service for nearly eighty years, and in su-
preme command for sixty-eight, he is now, at the age
of ninety, laid on the shelf, and lives in retirement
on an ample pension from the present emperor.

Not only did General Wilson originate and carry
out the imperial manufactories, which at the outset
were designed for models, but he was the main-
spring of many private industrial enterprises which
have since grown to huge dimensions. He was the
first man among four who started the monster
Kolingkin Cotton-Works, and is at the present time
chairman of their board of directors. Another, and
now a large establishment, owes its existence chiefly
to the name and influence of General Wilson—
namely, that belonging to Messrs. Steiglitz and
Craig. The most admirable feature in General

224

RUSSIAN LIFE.

Wilson's whole career has been his incorruptibility in the midst of the notorious dishonesty of Russian functionaries. He has been pointed out as the man who never took and never offered a bribe; and though rich, is not enormously so, as he no doubt might have been had he acted differently. Without wife or children, he has devoted much of his later years to his books, his library being one of the best in Russia. He is now nearly blind, but his appetite for information is still as strong as ever, and he pays a young man of good education to read to him every day.

A friend supplies me with notes of his own experience to the following effect: I was in 18—chief engineer at the large cotton-works at C—, a day's journey from a chief city in Russia. The managing partner on the spot employed two assistants (English), carder and spinner, also a sub-director under himself. The sub-director was a man of some education and considerable general knowledge, and had at one time possessed a mill of his own; but from some cause had been unfortunate, and was now obliged to serve a man in every respect his inferior. The chief man was ignorant, low-bred, tyrannical, and exacting; as bad a specimen nearly as his country could furnish; but he was master over this work, employed from eight hundred to one thousand hands, and being in the interior—irresponsible and unchecked by any kind of popular observation—he gave free play to his unbridled temper and his greed.

The mill went night and day—"sootkie"—the workpeople were hired principally from the steward,

THE STICK.

225

some were paid wages, and found themselves, others
were paid nothing, but were fed, the chief paying the
steward a stipulated sum per soul per annum—from
thirty shillings to not quite five pounds. These peo-
ple were driven to work in gangs or shifts, by the
overseer and his men over hundreds and over tens;
and the scenes of cruelty and inhumanity which
constantly occurred were exceedingly excruciating
to my feelings. My windows faced the mill-yard,
and my study-window looked into the whipping-
court of the stanavog's house. Few days passed but
some of the poor creatures were led there to receive
punishment. If the chief was ignorant and low-bred,
he was a splendid slave-driver and detective. He
was in the habit of bouncing into the mill at all un-
likely hours of night or day, and then woe to the
skulkers, or any one he imagined to be in a fault;
he could swear eloquently in Russ or English, and
his English assistants sometimes received a volley of
abuse. He durst not carry a "cat"—that is against
rule in Russia—the thrashing must be done legally
and officially; but he seldom left the works without
carrying a list of names: this list, accompanied by a
note to his friend the "stan," securing the owners of
the names a certain portion of the "stick." I have
from my observatory seen married women, pregnant
women, girls, boys, and men gray-haired, tied down
on a board in that court, their clothes indecently torn
up, and the rods applied by a man on each side, for
faults of the most trifling character. I have remon-
strated with him; but was told, "No stick, no work."

Q

226

RUSSIAN LIFE.

Certainly this man fully believed and acted on that
Russian saying.

One day I met the starosta leading four women
through the yard.

"Tell me, Evan Evanovitch, what are you going
to do with these."

He handed me a paper, and I read—"Give these
four (here followed the names) thirty blows each,"
signed by the director.

This did not surprise me: but it may surprise my
readers that a magistrate would, without any trial or
investigation—without even knowing the faults for
which these people were sent, execute an order of this
character.

"Mother," I said to one of the women, "what have
you done to deserve this?"

"God knows; the master found me asleep."

"And what have you done?" I said to another.

"I was suckling my little one, and my machine
was standing."

"And you?" to a young woman.

"O, he knows very well I am not in fault; but
I would not go into his small room last night with
him."

"Have you been there before with him?"

"O yes, he takes any of us; he is a pig. I
won't go any more, for I am to be married next
week."

"And what is your fault?" I said to the fourth, an
old withered hag.

"It was nothing. I only took a little yarn,—

THE STICK.

227

only a little to knit with, you know. What's to be
done?"

For faults such as these the poor creatures were
thrashed, by order of a foreigner, who for a few
roubles to the needy stanavog could, without judge
or jury, get all the hands in his mill lashed and
beaten, to suit his caprice or minister to his amuse-
ment, at any time.

It is not creditable to Englishmen that men such
as this are to be found among them. But there have
been and are found occasionally men who would
revive in Russia greater evils ten times than any
ever experienced under the old extinct factory system
of their own country. Such men are ignorant, to
begin with. They possess no fixed principles to go
on with ; and when they find themselves among a de-
graded people, and in nearly an irresponsible position
of authority, they finish by being heartless tyrants.
I have known some of them who could scarcely read
or write. One of them, who went to Russia fifteen
years ago to be a director of a cotton-mill, had to
make his + to documents; another sent the following
characteristic order to a friend of mine, which I shall
copy verbatim:

"Maeter Broon,—Ave you any pices of 8 Karter
piope, has we wants em to tprisnik to meend testome
piopes the Mugiks as you cent av al bin ont spree
frou Monday, cend the piopes and cend the plates has
wur ordered bee th' mon as wur cent on tusdy so no
more at preasante from your umble cert.

"GORG. ——'

228

RUSSIAN LIFE.

Such men, although deplorably ignorant in every
thing else, generally possess a good practical know-
ledge of their trade, and a powerful amount of self-
assertion. They have been overlookers, spinners, or
carders, in some well-regulated work in England,
under an educated director, and might have remained
decent worthy men in their own sphere, at wages
varying from 20s. to 30s. per week. To such people
appointments in Russia as head men, at 4l., 5l., or
6l. per week, suggest a Dorado—a great spring from
the pipe and glass of ale in a taproom to cigars and
brandy in a hotel. From very little men they swell
into very great men. Their wives commence at thirty
or forty years of age to learn to be "leddies," as one
of them told me herself, whom I found one day,
shortly after her arrival, buying rings, brooches, gold
watch and chain: "Maister says I mun learn to be a
leddy noo." And while she is undergoing this expen-
sive change, "Maister" is learning to be a tyrant,
and perhaps a drunkard. He kicks about "Jacky,"
as he styles the Russians, in grand style—speaks of
them and to them as to brutes.

But "Jacky" sometimes makes reprisals. He will
watch like a cunning wolf on a dark night, and with
a brickbat or lump of iron fell his tyrant to the earth
by a blow on the back of his head. This is of rare
occurrence, but it has happened of late on several
occasions.

The same day on which my friend saw the four
women going to be beaten he met the sub-superin-
tendent, and mentioned the circumstance.

THE STICK.

229

"Yes," he said, "the master takes the tyrannical way. I cannot prevent it, and do not intend to remain much longer to witness it."

"Do you never order any of them to be beaten?"

"No, never. The stick is not so powerful in Russia as it once was. And even on the score of policy it is better to avoid it, especially for a foreigner. I have studied the Russians a little since I came among them; and though they are sly, slothful, and the greatest of thieves, I do not think they are so far removed from the common feelings of our nature as to be altogether unsusceptible to kind and just dealings. They have little gratitude—in fact, I do not think they yet know what it means. Still I can manage them better, ay and get more work out of them too, by being cool and just and, above all, merciful. But this country is a bad school for an unruly temper."

"Do you never find signs of rebellion or insubordination among them?"

"Not till lately. Since this talk of emancipation, I think I can see a sort of mutual intelligence among them, which must spring from hope, and perhaps secret meetings and talk. Still I do not think them malicious; they seem easily to forget and forgive. Yet," he said, after a pause, "God knows, I should not wish to be the object of their hate; if once their passions broke loose, they would be demons, not men."

Poor man! these were the last words my friend ever heard from him; and that was the last time he saw him in life.

230

RUSSIAN LIFE.

That very night a part of the mill took fire;
whether by accident or design no one could or would
tell. It was observed in time, and the superintendent,
with his two English assistants and a few others, ex-
erted themselves to put it out. The director and the
"stan" were carousing in the director's house—a very
frequent occurrence; but when the alarm was given
both hurried to the scene of the fire.

Now, you know that in Russia the police enjoy the
peculiar and exclusive privilege of putting out fires,
and they take the lead in all the operations. Per-
haps that is the reason why fires here never are put
out, but are allowed to burn themselves out; in order
to facilitate which process all the doors are unlocked
or broken open, all the windows smashed, and the
roofs are, if possible, torn off: all this gives a noble
draught to the flame. There is no want of busde, and
in the cities generals in uniform hurry about giving
all kinds of orders; fellows in gray, with brass helmets,
knock against one another, and run their engines into
all manner of ridiculous places. There is plenty of
daring climbing, and pouring of water; but somehow
it all ends, as I have said, in the place burning until
there is no more to burn. On the present occasion
the subdirector determined on another method, and
taking the matter in his own hands, locked the doors
of the place on fire—it was the boiler-house—to pre-
vent any draught of wind fanning the rising flames,
and threw water on the burning timbers, while the
mill-engine was kept going to pump the water.
They were succeeding very fast in getting the fire

A MILL ON FIRE.

231

under, when the police, in the form of the drunken
"stan," demanded entrance, and the door was as-
sailed from without.

"On your life, Andrea, don't open the door yet.
It will be all out in a few minutes if the door's
kept shut."

And the superintendent, after issuing this order
to the man stationed at the door, hastened thither
himself, to prevent, if possible, what he so much
dreaded. But before he could accomplish his pur-
pose, the man, at the sound of the dreaded "stan,"
had turned the lock, and his highness was pushing
himself through the opening door, while the director
with a lot of "stan's" officials were pressing on
behind. The sub saw there was only one way to
save the mill. He heard his men crying, "For
heaven's sake keep that door shut! It's blazing up
again." He was a powerful man, and could have
thrashed ten "stans" into jelly; so he laid hold of
the official—words having no effect—hurled him back
among his satellites, shut and locked the door, and
stood sentry over it himself, until the fire was com-
pletely extinguished and the danger past.

The rest is soon told. On opening the door, he
was arrested by the "stan," in the name of the law,
for laying hands on him in the execution of his duty.
The half-drunken director offered no effectual re-
monstrance. My friend had left the village, and did
not return till next day; and so, in a bitterly cold
frosty night, this man, who had saved a large mill
from becoming a heap of ashes, was dragged, his

232

RUSSIAN LIFE.

clothes saturated with water, to the filthy lock-up,
and kept there all night. In the morning he was
liberated: in the evening he was attacked by in-
flammation; then came brain-fever, then death in
due time. Few recover here from diseases.

If this narrative should chance to be read by the
man who could have saved the brave fellow that
night and did not, may the remembrance burn into
his heart and mend his future ways! This noble
fellow died in a foreign land, and was buried among
strangers; his place at home was empty; his wife is
a widow, his children are orphans. But the other
lives; rich, prosperous, and I suppose happy, enjoy-
ing the abundant fruits of a life spent as I have tried
to describe amongst the Russians. Such men are,
however, the rare exceptions, not the rule, among
the English men of business in Russia.

CHAPTER XVI.

ST. PETERSBURG.

At the time of the Crimean war, and since, I have visited the northern Venice—city of useless canals and noble rivers, gorgeous stucco palaces and wooden booths crawling with tarakans and reeking with dirt, of dirty barracks and excellent clean hospitals, of narrow mud lanes and broad ill-paved streets, of many churches and innumerable bells that minister to ceremonial religion. But, as English readers know enough about St. Petersburg, I shall take the whole guide-book for granted.

An Englishman, worthy of the name, is always in a false position in a country like Russia. He cannot grumble, or write to the newspapers; he cannot speak at public meetings, for there are none; he cannot abuse the Government for doing this, or not doing that. He must bear all without hope of remedy until the powers give forth the “ukase.” At the same time I am bound to add that a great many former notions about secret police, family spies, sudden disappearances, whipping of fine ladies whose tongues had been too free; about a social atmosphere of dread and suspicion, in which every one doubted his friend,

234

RUSSIAN LIFE.

and feared to breathe a political whisper, have not
been confirmed by my fourteen years' experience.
I never knew or heard of the sanctity of an English-
man's home being invaded, or (unless in a case I will
mention presently) that his political opinions brought
him into trouble. I never heard of his letters being
opened or examined, unless by a small post-office thief.
One letter of mine to a friend in Moscow enclosed
a fifty-rouble note. The keen Russian money-scent
was too much for my poor envelope. As I stood at
the counter of the St. Petersburg post-office, sticking
on the double-eagle stamp—price 10 kopecks—I felt
that I was doing a foolish thing in sending off an
uninsured letter. I looked suspiciously at the seedy
official, luxuriating in a salary of twenty roubles
a-month, who had sold me the stamp, and I am sure
my tell-tale face informed him that I was surrep-
titiously passing a money-letter through his hands.
When my friend wrote that he received the empty
note, I drove to the post-master general, attacked his
assistant, whom I found coolly cutting his nails, with
the wrath of an injured man; and was told by him,
as he carefully nipped off the corner of the nail of
the little finger of the left hand, that it served me
right for attempting to defraud the government of
the insurance, and that I was liable to prosecution.

On the other hand, I once sent a sum of money
to a person in the interior, but this time I insured it,
and got a receipt. When it reached its destination
the man had removed; in trying to find him, the
packet travelled to all the Evanoffskys in Russia, to

THE POST-OFFICE.

235

Siberia, to Odessa, to Kief, to Karkoff, crossed the Ural mountains into Asia, and back through all the offs and skys in every government of the empire. After having made the tour of the Russian dominions it was returned to St. Petersburg at the end of fifteen months. But as my friend to whom it was addressed was by that time toasting his toes at an English grate, I presented my receipt, and received the letter with the money enclosed just as I had put it in. The large envelope was covered, back and front, with the seal of every government-town through which it had passed. From this I could calculate pretty nearly that my letter had travelled thirty thousand miles for fourpence. It may not be generally known in England that the Russians had a cheap uniform postage before us—five kopecks, or two pence, for town letters and letters in one government or county; and ten kopecks, or four pence, for any letter all over the empire: and if the quality as well as length of roads are taken into account, and that all the mails are carried on springless carts by horses, and sometimes dogs, deer, and other quadrupeds, when vehicles are impracticable, the cost will appear even less than our celebrated penny-post in England.

I can say too for the Russian post-office officials that in civility, activity, and business habits they offer a very striking contrast to the officials of any other department of the government.

Foreign newspapers are obtained through the post-office only, by paying a year's advance. A list of those papers which are "permitted" is circulated

236

RUSSIAN LIFE.

early in November; and those favoured to appear on
the list are there not because of the nature of their
politics, but simply because such papers are in de-
mand by the foreign residents; and should you re-
quire some one not on the list, a requisition to the
proper department will bring it at once. But no
single newspaper from abroad is allowed to reach its
destination, or, if it do, it is charged so enormously
that your friend's kindness in sending you a copy,
which cost him a penny in England, will mulct you
of six shillings. Up to January 1863, the cost of
papers was ridiculously high. The *Times* cost four-
teen pounds delivered, the *Evening Mail* about seven
pounds per annum; the rest in proportion: but at
the time mentioned a reduction was made of about
fifteen per cent.

Of course every one knows that the government
takes a parental care and displays a tender solicitude
as to the ideas set before its children. Those re-
morseless scissors of the censor, which used during
the Crimean war to cut the newspapers into waving
strips of paper-bunting, are now laid aside for the
" blacking brush;" and even this is in a great measure
a thing of fits and starts. During the Polish insur-
rection, several long articles in the *Times*, and even
an entire debate in Parliament, were remorselessly
stamped out.

The stringency of the censorship over native jour-
nals is much relaxed. "Men of the pen and mighty
thought" are now breathing more freely; and many
new journals have started and are starting into life.

CENSORSHIP AND THE PRESS.

237

The censorship is now wholly abolished as regards
newspapers and books above the size of pamphlets of
a few pages, and the French system of warning is
adopted. This is not a free press, but a great ad-
vance on the old plan of censorship.

Subjects, the bare mention of which would have
entitled a Russian to police surveillance, or a worse
fate, a few years ago, are now more freely discussed.
Parliamentary representation, that bugbear and terror
of all despots, is becoming a subject of open consider-
ation. In fact, if the present liberal-minded Emperor
be not scared from his intentions and designs by
ignorant, impatient, and designing marplots, great
changes and reforms are looked for.

The Athenians were prohibited, on pain of death,
from making any more gods, because the state found
there were more gods in Athens than people. If
Petersburg has been likened to Venice for its canals
and rivers, it may also be very justly compared to
Athens for its gods and images, and outward glare of
superstitious worship. Not content with having noble
churches in every street, filled with images and saints,
and open all the night and day, these holy Russian
people are so very pious that they must erect small
Gothic-looking huts, filled with images, and gods,
and holy water, and oil; and the sacred offering-box
at the corners of streets, and, if the street be long, in
a niche of some centre wall, and on the ends and
centres of bridges, in the squares, at the entrances
and in the centres of the market-places; so that no
time for worship may be lost, no opportunity missed,

238

RUSSIAN LIFE.

whether the people be engaged in amusement, business, or pleasure.

Nothing strikes a stranger more than this never-
ceasing devotion and crossing. Get into an omnibus
at the end of the Nevsky Prospect, the main street
of the capital, and you are startled every few minutes
by your companions doffing hats or caps, piously
crossing themselves, and sometimes muttering a
prayer; look out of the window at these moments,
and you will perceive that you are passing a church,
or one of the image-huts. I have seen men lying
drunk in a cart, sprawl to their knees on passing
one of these places, go reverently through the opera-
tion, and then fall back amongst the straw content.
"Oberesis," or images, are placed over the doors of
every house, and one in the corner of every room;
having invariably a burning lamp suspended before
it, whether night or day. Even foreigners, let them
be the most violent opponents of image- or picture-
worship possible, must have a joss hung up in their
kitchens at least, otherwise no servant would remain
in the house an hour. He who has a workshop, or
"magazine," must have a handsome one conspi-
cuous in or facing the entrance, that prayers may
be said going in and coming out; and so small an
influence have these devotional exercises on the
morals of the people, that the very oil used to illu-
minate their sacred images or pictures is not safe in
their hands. I knew at one time an old superin-
tendent of a manufactory, noted for his extra piety,
who charged each man under him, to the number of

IMAGE-WORSHIP.

239

five hundred, ten kopecks per month (one kopeck being sufficient) for oil to burn before the workshop idol. His real salary was twenty roubles per month; but he thus managed to save forty-five roubles, or about 6l. 10s. a month, by robbing the saint and his votaries. Perhaps he had as good a right to a profit of nearly nine hundred per cent on his oil, as the priests have to a like profit on their candles.

There is a market-place in St. Petersburg called the Apraxin Dvor, which during the incendiary fires of 1862 was burned down, but is rebuilt on the same spot much as before. Foreigners have very appropriately named it the "Loose Market;" for loose it is,—with loose characters, loose goods, and loose morality. It may cover fifteen acres of ground, and is in the very centre of the city. The shops, stalls, and booths contain every known and every unknown article under the sun, secondhand. The merchants here are all pure Russians, from the old woman with a few rabbit-skins, to the merchant with a large stock of furs: but they are all a set of the most arrant chaffers and traffickers in stolen goods. The old glory of Field Lane in London, where one might lose his handkerchief or watch at one end, and find it ticketed for sale by the time he got to the other, is the glory of this Loose Market every day. Here come the household servants to sell their plunder; and here also come their masters and mistresses to buy it back, if possible. I have bought books with my own name, or with the name of a well-known English ambassador, legibly inscribed on them, for

240

RUSSIAN LIFE.

a tenth of their value. Here are old clo', old iron,
old steam-engines, old power-looms, old pictures, old
epaulets, old orders, stars, and ribbons; endless old
curiosity shops; old birds of every plumage, and
young bears, dogs, cats, rabbits, poultry, sledges,
carriages, furniture, kitchen utensils, cutlery, Tartar
and Circassian caps, belts, swords, pistols, every
musical instrument produced since Pan made his
own pipe, and tens of thousands of unmentionable
articles heaped in glorious confusion in the stalls and
booths of the bearded rascals, who drive a roaring
trade in buying from and selling to the poor what
has been filched from the rich. Yet in this place,
the very sanctum of robbery, you will find the joss
placed in every conspicuous corner of the lines and
alleys of the shops; and before the josses prayer
and worship is going on from morning till night with
greaterunction and fervency than in any fashionable
church in the city.

One of our great sea-captains gave forth the
signal on the memorable morning of Trafalgar,
"England expects that every man this day will do
his duty." Another sea-captain of later times, to
whom also his country is justly indebted, gave out in
the Baltic the word, "Sharpen your cutlasses, and the
day is your own." So I daresay it would have been;
but the day never came. The Russian fleet knew
better than to try the edge of those sharp cutlasses.
It took refuge from the fire-eating admiral and his
sharp weapons behind the fortifications at Cronstadt,
and allowed him to cruise in their waters undisturbed.

NAPIER IN THE BALTIC.

241

I was one of four thousand loyal Englishmen who were cooped up in St. Petersburg during Sir Charles Napier's sojourn in the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland; and it may be imagined with what feelings we found ourselves in the midst of a people whose capital our fleet was blockading, and whose monster stronghold in the Black Sea our soldiers were reducing to ashes. When we were told that "fighting Charlie" had declared he would breakfast at Cronstadt, lunch at Peterhof, and dine at a fashionable hour in the capital, after his day's work, there were many of us who really believed that Sir Charles would dine some fine day in Petersburg after taking Cronstadt, and there were even certain preliminary arrangements made for a great banquet to be given to the conqueror. The distance to Cronstadt is only eighteen miles, and we listened every day, every hour for the roar of the battle. The Russians, who were as confident as we were that Sir Charles meant fighting, found their materials of war in a deplorable state; their powder was said to be mixed with earth in the proportion of three to one, the difference having gone into the pockets of the purveyor and the receiver of stores. Disorganisation and dread were therefore the order of the day for a short anxious period. Immense trains of civilians, with their effects, passed through Petersburg from Cronstadt to the interior. None but fighting-men remained in the doomed stronghold, and many of these were quaking in their boots.

It was and is still the opinion of all intelligent

R

242

RUSSIAN LIFE.

Englishmen who were in Petersburg then, that had our fleet made the attack at this moment, it would assuredly have taken Cronstadt. In which case, by this time the burning of Petersburg by the hands of the Russians themselves would have been a matter of as great historical interest as the burning of Moscow.

The English then in St. Petersburg were in great excitement; and although peaceable foreigners of all kinds had been by a special ukase guaranteed the Emperor's protection, still for a time considerable doubt existed. Public meetings were out of the question; but many private gatherings took place under the name of social family parties, birthday-feasts, and the like. I had heard of these, and managed to get myself entered for the next. It soon came. A great birthday was to come off in a certain well-frequented English lodging-house and private hotel in the Galerney Street.

That street, though narrow and gloomy when compared with other of the city thoroughfares, is one of the best known in St. Petersburg; particularly known to foreigners. The house appointed for the gathering was as well known as the street, although used principally by the humbler classes of English residents and visitors. The street contains many lodgings and counting-houses of foreign merchants. One end, flanked by the Senate-house, faces St. Isaac's plain and the Admiralty buildings, where rides Peter the Great on his war-horse. The other end is flanked by the building-yard of the New

THE ENGLISH IN ST. PETERSBURG.

243

Admiralty. In the centre is the palace of the Grand Duke Nicholas, brother to the Emperor; and branching off right and left are banking establishments and palaces of Mentchikoff, Bobrinsky, and others. Here stood the English lodging-house, for ninety years the home of a certain class of Englishmen and of Americans. It stood, and probably yet stands, in a court, and has the least possible claim to elegance. Crossing the dirty court, under a low wooden porch, and over an old horseshoe nailed to the threshold, we passed through a narrow passage, and at once entered the large dining-room of the establishment.

There was a long table, and round it, on paralytic chairs, sat some thirty or forty Englishmen smoking and drinking. Seeking a more retired spot, we passed through to a room adjoining; but here the noise was worse; and as the tobacco-smoke rolled by in clouds we could discern on the walls Bendigo, Tom Spring, the Flying Dutchman, and Voltigeur, in company with the Queen, Prince Albert, and Lord Palmerston. They looked down upon a company of eager men, smoking cigars, spinning cotton (verbally), making machines of all kinds, weaving calico, building ships, bridges, and engines. During the short time we could endure the smoke, the words that most assailed the ear were such as "valves, eccentrics, parallel motions, vacuum;" and, as ten arguments were going on at once, the cry was of "turbine, water-wheel, self-actors, gearing, power-loom, sewing-machines, shuttles, spindles, wheels, shafts, pulleys."

244

RUSSIAN LIFE.

My friend whispered to me that more machines had
been made, more engines built, more calico woven,
out of tobacco-smoke, in that small room during the
last thirty years, than in all Russia and England to-
gether.

Cards were in use at two tables, the players being
grooms and horse-boys—managers of the studs of
Russian counts and princes; for, even in respect of
horse-flesh, English skill is paid for in Russia at high
salaries. Among this company was also a Yankee,
proprietor of a living hairy woman, Julia Pastrana,
whom he was exhibiting in Petersburg. Since the
time of which I write, Julia, poor hideous creature,
has departed this life, so has her child. Their master
got them embalmed in Moscow, but the doctors kept
them as curiosities. Afterwards the Yankee claimed
and received the bodies, on the ground that he was
father of the one and husband of the other; and, after
exhibiting them in this state in various parts of the
world, he ultimately disposed of them for a considera-
tion to some one in London. Following the Yankee,
there were two clowns from the circus, some half-
dozen nigger singers and dancers from the Mineral
Waters, and a couple of chorus-singers from the
Italian Opera. In a corner sat a few commercial
gents, clerks and salesmen from the English maga-
zine, and mechanics from Baird's. There were cap-
tains of ships, boiler-makers, paper-makers, ship-
builders, master-tailors, farriers, coal-agents,—all of
them English, Scotch, Irish, and American.

Retreating from this din, we sought a quieter

AN ENGLISH LODGING-HOUSE.

245

life somewhere else; and popping our heads into a side room, off the right of the entrance-passage, found the other half of this odd corner of life. This was the "ladies" room: not a male monster amongst them. "Let us go," I said; "this won't do."

"Stop," said my companion, "do not judge too hastily; remember this is the only place in Petersburg where such a crowd of English can assemble, all sorts being welcome; and depend on it, you will find as sterling loyalty, good sense, and worth here as in many a place of more outward refinement. Let us sit down here among the engineers at the dining-table."

Here the noise was less, and the conversation rather interesting. "These men," said my Mentor, "are out of place. They have thrown up excellent situations and high salaries, rather than help the Russians against their own country. They have been employed in the building of steam-ships, frigates, engines, gun-boats, batteries, and docks for the Russian government. Almost to a man, as soon as war was declared, they demanded their passports, and they are now making arrangements to take the rather dangerous journey overland to England."

"That old veteran with the iron-gray hair and the massive forehead is from the celebrated Penns of London; he is a Scotchman, and is called Old Wallace. Young Wallace sits next him; you see he is a stout thick-set fellow, with arms and shoulders like his namesake. He is a highly-skilled engineer from Napier's on the Clyde; and was engaged only a few

246

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weeks before the war on a Russian first-rate, fitting
up two 600-horse-power engines. A few weeks more
of his skill would have sufficed to send this ship out,
an active enemy to England; but these few weeks he
would not give.

“‘No, no,’ said Wallace, ‘I winna stop a minute;
money won’t keep me, and war breaks a’ contracts.
I’ll be wanted at Clyde noo, I’m thinking; and the
sooner I’m hame, the better.’

“Beside him sits little Hargreaves, late engineer
of the emperor’s yacht; and Merriton, who has left a
situation worth 500/. a year with the American Com-
pany, rather than assist that company in building and
fitting out ten new gun-boats. Then there are Do-
naldson and Young, Thomson and Wilson, engineers
of boats belonging to the Baltic fleet. And there
are the managers of the various departments in the
large engineering establishment of Baird’s, in which
also Russian engines and boats are to be made and
built.

“About half-a-dozen who had been navigating
the Baltic, and had gained a certain knowledge of
these waters and of Cronstadt are to be sent into the
interior as prisoners of war. They know too much
to be allowed to go. Just now they are under police
surveillance, but only to see that they do not leave
the city.”

The feeling of nationality was intense amongst
these workmen; and there was sound sense and
judgment in their talking. The long delay of Sir
Charles Napier in taking Cronstadt seemed to fill

SPIES.

247

them with disgust. It could be done; the way was freely discussed, and to my mind evidently practicable.

In the midst of all this conversation two persons glided into the room, seated themselves a little apart, and called for "bottel vine."

"They are pretty well got up for Englishmen," said one of the engineers, "but their hats don't fit."

"Rats!" cried a voice, clear and distinct, above the Babel of sounds around; and immediately the weather became the one topic of conversation. Presently the landlord—a tall jolly-looking fellow, with black curly hair, broad good-humoured countenance, white vest and cravat, gold studs in clean linen, wine-coloured frock, and the genuine air of a butler—went to the strangers, while a circle of guests gathered round.

"What do you want here?" said Tom the landlord.

"O, noting; come spend money, make fun, drink glass grog; that all. Good Englishmen."

"No," said Tom. "You are Russians; you have mistaken the house. This is a party of my private friends, and you have no invitation. Get out directly! Away with you! My house admits none but clean English."

This was all I heard. The strangers seemed to resist being turned out. There was a great noise of voices, then a struggle for a moment, and then I saw the two spies lifted in the arms of several strong fellows, and unceremoniously flung out into the yard.

248

RUSSIAN LIFE.

After this, the business of the evening proceeded
as if nothing had happened. Supper came, and a
great feast it was. Tom's wife took the head of the
table, tucked up her sleeves to the shoulders, and be-
gan to carve in magnificent style. She was a tall,
stout, good-looking woman of a certain age, with an
eye like a hawk's, and a great power of tongue and
arm. Tom, in subjection to his helpmate, took the
foot of the table; and, as in many other things, mo-
destly followed the lead of the superior spirit. As for
Tom himself, he came to Russia many years ago in
the suite of Lord Bloomfield, when that nobleman
was ambassador to the Court of Nicholas; finding
diplomacy slow work, Tom sought distinction and
profit, as many others have done, in marriage. The
widowed mistress of the Galerney English lodging-
house was willing; so Tom entered on immediate
and permanent possession of a buxom wife and pay-
ing business. I am told Tom has a tender heart.
His house is open to all the unfortunate English
aspirants after fortune, who have fallen down the
ladder; such he will keep for years.

"If they get situations, they will pay me; if not,
it cannot be helped; they cannot be houseless in a
strange land and starve."

So he talks and so he acts. He will gallop through
town and country amongst English residents to collect
money for a needy widow, whose husband has left her
destitute with half-a-dozen little ones, and then ship
her off to her friends in England with five or six hun-
dred roubles in her pocket. This happens oftener

A PATRIOTIC SUPPER.

249

than might be expected, considering the high wages
that artisans and skilled workmen get. Be this as
it may, Tom's house is not only a refuge for those
who have fallen, but the starting-point for many of
those who would climb. Both men and women go
to Russia on speculation, with high hopes and empty
purses. Tom gives such people board and lodging,
and help till work is found.

But supper is over; the plum-pudding has dis-
appeared in the blue flame of brandy; confusion is
transformed to order by the election of a chair-
man. He opens with a speech upon the nature of
the war, and ends with the speedy reduction of
Cronstadt by the English fleet under "old Charlie."
A song follows; it has been made for the occasion by
the singer, is very well received, and so apt to the
excited feelings of the company, that at its close all
rise and give three tremendous cheers. Here is a
verse of it:

"There's a fleet that dares not leave her ports,
Nor sail in any sea;
But, crouching close behind her forts,
She skulks, and shuns the free.
The coward slaves, who tread the deck,
No flag have e'er unfurled;
They know 'twould sink in smoke and wreck—
A lesson to the world."

Chorus, something about a "dastard flag, deny it who
can," and ending with "man to man."

It touched the right spot in each patriotic heart,
and judging by the feeling it excited, there existed
nowhere on earth truer and more loyal subjects of

250

RUSSIAN LIFE.

Queen Victoria than were assembled here on this occasion. Champagne (at fifteen shillings per bottle) sparkled, glasses jingled, toasts, speeches, songs followed one another: "The Queen, God bless her!" "Lord Pam," "The vigorous prosecution of the War," "Old England," "Home," and many others; and the meeting separated not long before dawn. It was two A.M. when I reached the third line Vasilli Os troff, my temporary domicile.

Mr. Beadly (let me call him) of the evening party was in bed at eight o'clock A.M. when his wife rushed in, with a terrified look, and roused him from sleep: "O William! what can you have been about last night? Here are the police inquiring for you; I told them you were unwell, and could not be seen." Mr. B. gave his benediction to the police, and asked who had come.

"It is Evan Petrovitch, the head of the — Chast, and his man; they are in the next room."

"Ah! quite so," said Mr. Beadly. "I see I must be quick, or somebody will get into trouble."

Now it must be mentioned that this gentleman had been in Russia long enough to know both men and things indifferently well, and had had dealings, always beneficial to his countrymen, with the police on more than one occasion. He gave two or three terrible groans, sure to be heard in the next room, and while hastily pulling on his clothes continued the groans at intervals. In a minute or two he was ready. "Now," he said, "Mary, go to these police gentlemen, place brandy and wine, cheese and bread

BUSINESS WITH THE POLICE.

251

before them. Tell them I am bad with toothache,
engaged with my dentist; and they will oblige me
by waiting a little. On no account allow them to
come in here." As he said the last words, he opened
the door leading to the back lane, rushed through
a passage down stairs, mounted a droshky, and drove
off to the — Chast, where he popped fifty kopecks
into the hand of the janissary at the door, and
was in a trice ushered into the presence of the
magistrate of the district in which the meeting had
taken place.

This gentleman was a quiet, easy, good-natured
man. He had not opened out for the day, but was
leisurely sipping his coffee and smoking a "papeross"
in his own sanctum—no doubt calculating the num-
ber of "takes" he was likely to get that day, and
dreaming of a nice little emeanie (estate), valued at
300 *souls*, that he would be able to buy if he could
only hold this particular "chast" another year or so.
But the worthy man had an enemy, an active one,
who had been plotting to deprive him of it. This
was no other than Evan Petrovitch, at that moment
drinking wine and eating cheese in Mr. Beadly's
house. Now, on a clear calculation of illicit fees,
the one "chast" was worth 3000 per cent more than
the other; hence the struggle of the one to retain,
and the other to obtain it.

"Good morning, Nicholi Ephraimovitch; I hope
you are well."

"Thank God, I am well; are you also enjoying
health, Gospodine Beadly? Pray what brings you

252

RUSSIAN LIFE.

here so early? No trouble, I hope. Take a paper and tell me."

"Yes, trouble; but to yourself. Last evening, while you were drunk at the Traktere, there was held a great meeting in Tom B.'s under your very nose. I will give you the particulars. Take your pen. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Well," continued Beadly. "Birthday-party on a large scale; supper, champagne, toasts, speeches, Queen's health, Emperor's health" (this Beadly says is the only thing on his conscience), "talk about the war, the fleet, Cronstadt, all bombast, songs, birthday gift; all harmless and quiet; left at two o'clock. That is your report. Now listen: Evan Petrovitch, your friend, is even at this moment waiting in my ante-chamber until I get several teeth extracted—bad toothache, you see. He wants some information; and he wants your place. While you were at the Traktere playing billiards, he was at the party, capitally got up. I thought at one time that I knew the fellow; but afterwards could not find him. Now I am sure it was he; and as he knows me, he imagines I may give him a hint to help his report. You must get your report in before him; do you see?"

The "stan" had been writing very fast while Mr. B. was speaking, and finishing the paper, he rang a hand-bell, which brought an official.

"Order my droshky out. It must be ready in five minutes. Begone! Ah, I see, Mr. B.; just give

POLICE REPORTS.

253

me a few of the names of the guests; any of them
will do. Good morning, Mr. B. As your teeth are
now pulled out and your toothache is better, go back
to Evan Petrovitch, and oblige me still more by
keeping him engaged just one quarter of an hour;
that will be plenty of time. I am quite satisfied that
your meeting was all quite regular and proper. Evan
won't get my chast this time, the pig!"

Off sped B. to give audience to Evan Petrovitch,
and off drove Nicholi to General P., the head of the
secret police, with his report.

The general, after reading the report, merely
said, "Very good; I am not afraid that the English
will hatch any treason. They can meet and have
their grog and beefsteak, and make speeches, as much
as they like among themselves. You are quite right,
however, to be diligent. But there is one thing which
must be attended to—" At this moment an attendant
announced Evan Petrovitch. "Admit him," said
the general. The moment he entered, and found
Nicholi there, he saw he was foiled. Nevertheless he
presented his report. His Excellency read: "A trea-
sonable and dangerous meeting among English last
night in the Galerney lodging-house, No. 31;" and
then he read the whole report *sotto voce*, and said:
"But that is not your chast, is it, sir?"

"No, your Excellency; but, as I told your Ex-
cellency before, that chast is not properly looked
after. If I may—"

"No, you may not. I think differently. It ap-
pears to me that it is particularly well looked after.

254

RUSSIAN LIFE.

There are two reports about a very simple affair, and I find them substantially the same. You, sir, had better mind your own district; but allow me to tell you both, as I was about to say when you, Evan Petrovitch, were announced, that I have had a fuller and more perfect account before any of yours came; and the only objectionable incident is one that neither of you notice. A scurrilous song was sung, reflecting, in bitter terms, upon our country, the Czar, and the Russian fleet. The singer of the song is the author of it; and had he done nothing but sing it, I should not have cared to trouble him; but he gave copies. He is known; but those who received copies my informant does not know yet. Now mark me; I want a copy of that song. When you get it, apprehend the author. That is his address."

This took place about nine o'clock. Early the same morning the author of the song was roused from his sleep by a message from the head of police summoning him to appear immediately. On obeying this summons, he found, to his astonishment, that he had been invited to a talk about very ordinary affairs. At parting, however, the general, in a casual manner, said, "O, by the bye, Mr. —, you make verses sometimes, do you not? A poet, I believe." This, said with a peculiar twinkle of intelligence in the eye of the querist, opened the eyes of our poet. He had a sudden vision of a prison and Siberia; but, controlling himself with difficulty, and laying hold of the back of a chair to support his shaking knees, he said:

SUB JOVE TEMPERIES.

255

"Your Excellency, I am no poet. I may have made a few verses; but Russia is a bad place for the muse."

"Ah, I see. That will do. I am glad you are not a poet. I don't care, you know; but others might. Suppose any one I knew or respected had really made some rather strong lines on the present war: suppose he had sung them; last night, for instance; and even given away a few copies of them; I would tell him he was a great fool, and that he was playing with edge-tools—an egregious fool, certainly, in these times. But then, you know, fools are sometimes necessary to their families, and so on; and as these families might be inconvenienced by an extended absence of their head, I would advise such a fool to lose no time, not a minute, in getting back these copies and burning them to tender. I know nothing of such a foolish person, of course. I hope there are none such under my orders. But if you know of any, just hint as much from me. Tell him what I have said. Good morning."

The poor fellow could not speak; but giving the kind-hearted general a look of heartfelt gratitude, he sprang down stairs, ran home, and burnt every scrap of tell-tale paper; then muffling himself up in a large cloak, he got out horses and drove to the homes of those to whom he had given copies of his song. In two hours all was safe. During the day his house was searched, and his papers were examined; so were the houses of those who had received copies; in fact, he assisted in one search himself. But, of

256

RUSSIAN LIFE.

course no paper of any consequence was found; and
so the matter dropped.

By what means the general got his information
I cannot tell; but it was whispered to me that there
were such things as renegade Englishmen found
sometimes among the Russian secret police.

CHAPTER XVII.

OFFICIAL AND COMMERCIAL.

PROFITABLY to understand trading in Russia, though import duties and the excise laws, the restriction privileges, grants, and concessions, the guild corporation and town dues, the police regulations and custom house requirements, where one can trade and when not, what one can trade in and what not, to what extent, under what guild one can export and import take contracts, commence a manufactory, or open shop, to discover the duties and prices of the subordinate icks and so forth, would require, as was said by a celebrated English commercial reformer who visited Russia some years ago, a course of many years' training at a university teaching the principles and practice of chicanery, bribery, smuggling, and lying.

English merchants have had no cause to complain of their "returns" in Russia. They have held, and hold now, a great share of many of the main branches of Russian export and import; they have the flax, hemp, grain, tallow, hides, and bristles, together with the chief importations of machinery, and other things.

The centre about which their organisation revolved

258

RUSSIAN LIFE.

is the Factory, while the circumference touches the farthest points in the interior of Russia's vast empire on the one side, and on the other the strong rooms and iron safes of the great London banks, and of the merchant princes of England. Admission to the circles of the Factory, to the small exclusive coteries of first-guild English merchants, is charily given. It is not difficult to find society amongst the free and polite circles of the Russian nobility; but an introduction from Earl Russell to the embassy, with documentary evidence as to "weight" from Threadneedle and Lombard Streets, are the only certain passports to the society of leading English merchants. In other respects they are all honourable men, kind and generous, liberal to the poor, and in all cases good and loyal subjects of our Queen. There are merchants in this circle who are, in the truest sense of the word, English gentlemen, and bring the nicest sense of honour to their dealings under a corrupt commercial system.

But my purpose now is to speak of its influence on the character of the mass of traders. I cannot show this better than by repeating the substance of a conversation I had with a rich trader who lives on the Island that is the quarter in Petersburg where "merchants most do congregate." He soon told me that his motto was, to do in Rome as the Romans do. "Fight them with their own weapons, sir; that is the plan. Drive a mine under theirs and blew them up; but do it safely, legally, you know. Difficulties? Yes, I believe you. But money overcomes all difficulties

GOVERNMENT CONCESSIONS.

259

in Russia. The great thing is to meet the Russians on their own ground, and just do as they do.

“Take a government concession. Well, sir, some fellow with a scheming head and not a kopeck in his pocket discovers that Petersburg or Moscow is dark, so he will offer gas; or dry, so he will offer water. Of course you know as well as I do that his mind is set neither on gas nor water. He wants roubles. He is great as a draughtsman; or, if not, he employs somebody who is. A fine array of plans and drawings on a large scale, beautifully coloured, is got up. I have observed the Russians, in their present state of national childhood, to be very fond of pictures. The projector then talks of a concession or privilege for ninety years. He does not know how to get it. He comes to me. I make a bargain, and direct him where to go. General Butteraloaffski and his Excellency Count Takethecreamoffski, for thirty, forty, or fifty thousand roubles, undertake to get the concession. The battle is won, and victory sits smiling on the projector's brazen—what is it? The great men with the long names having obtained the privilege, the company is formed and shares are issued. The thing is to pay fifty per cent. The office is opened and besieged with buyers. Shares go up. The company's grant or concession usually extends to the unlimited importation, duty free, of all materials necessary for the works. Enormous quantities beyond what is required are imported, and sold at a large profit; which, together with ten or fifteen per cent from the makers and builders of the works, nearly all goes into the

260

RUSSIAN LIFE.

projector's pocket. He also gets a large sum from the company for management, and from fifteen to twenty thousand roubles for the original plans, long before the works are ready. Of course, also, long before they have been practically tested he is a rich man, and retires to 'Vaterland,' leaving the whole affair in irretrievable confusion. His plans are at last found to be mere fancy pictures, and the works erected in accordance with them—as in the case of the Petersburg Water Company—become a monument of the projector's incapacity and the stupidity of shareholders. The shares go down, and great is the rage of the said holders. But what cares the fortunate projector? He has caught his hare.

"Contracts are different things, and rather curiously managed. 'Torgs,' as they are called here, or auctions, as you English would call them, take place in a government office. The contract is offered at an upset price, and knocked down to the lowest bidder. Some time ago I travelled from Moscow to Petersburg with twenty tailors. I had gone to Moscow on purpose to do this. The twenty men were going to attend a torg for 100,000 suits of sailors' and soldiers' clothes. I wanted the contract, and had bought up all the competing tailors in Petersburg; but the Muscovites I knew must also be purchased. Eighteen of the twenty had no other intention than to be bought. They lived by torgs, and were easily managed. But the other two 'meant it;' and with them I had some tough bargaining, and much striking of hands, before I persuaded one of them not to bid for the contract.

GOVERNMENT TORGS.

261

The other, an old, wily, oily, long-bearded, hook-nosed
schneider, was incorrigible. He was determined to
go in and win. I was not less determined. The fact
is, sir, I had already sold the contract, and must get
it. What was to be done? We were approaching
Bullagonie, a station, as you know, where the up and
down trains meet. I took my course; paid my men,
the tailors, an extra sum, and the guards of the two
trains got something. The result was, that they
managed to get my obstinate friend into the Moscow
train, and before he found out the trick he was far on
the way back to his own home. On the same day at
eleven o'clock I got the contract, and the schneider
lost his bribe. A man should not be stubborn, you
see, but do as others do."

"How much did you make by this torg?" I
asked.

"O, that is my own affair. But I can tell you
that those tailors got more than would keep them all
comfortably for a year or two. As I said before, they
live on torgs. I know a countryman of yours who
makes a very good thing also of the government
torgs, and it was I who put him up to it. He came
to me, and wanted my help to negotiate a government
contract. We drove to the proper bureau to examine
the plans and specification. By calculation done on
the spot, your countryman found that the work could
be done for forty thousand roubles, and at that sum
leave a profit. But the contract was too large for
him, so he said he should think no more of it. Now
that did not suit me, and I soon convinced him that

262

RUSSIAN LIFE.

it would not suit him either. He therefore put in as a competitor for the work. Six other contractors had come to the same conclusion, that the work could be done for forty thousand, though the government offer was an upset price of one hundred thousand, the lowest bidder under that sum getting the contract. The seven met. One of them bought out the other six; and when the torg took place it was knocked down to him for ninety-six thousand roubles; the difference between this sum and forty thousand being sheer surplus. Your countryman received his share from it for backing out; I got my little commission; and the government paid exactly fifty-six thousand roubles too much for its whistle."

"But," I asked, "how came the government to put so ridiculously high a price upon the work?"

"Your simplicity is great. Do you not know that the government appoints an architect to make the plans, and fix the price. Now there is a rule quietly kept in such matters, that the successful competitor shall pay the architect ten per cent on the gross amount of the contract. Do you not see that it is his interest to make the price given as high as possible? Had it been brought down to its real value in this case, four thousand roubles is all he would have taken; whereas he got nine thousand six hundred. Do you see now why the government upset price is ridiculously high?

"Sir, I am speaking of things that are no secret; but these are nothing to the doings at the custom-house. It is astonishing how many fellows make

SMUGGLING.

263

large and small fortunes there on little pay; so very
little indeed, that it would not keep them in cigars,
but for the nice way they have of managing.

“Smuggling is an ugly word; and they are only
low creatures, who do not know better, who will
venture to run cargoes or smuggle by land. No
doubt this is done to a great extent, considering the
enormous frontiers of Russia, and her suicidal tariff;
but it is always dangerous, besides being demoralising.
I should advise no man to try it, when he can manage
the whole thing by commission safely and legally
through the custom-house itself in a business-like
manner. I had at one time some experience in
‘running’ and smuggling; but I have dropt this vul-
gar practice long ago, and now follow the proper
way of trade—that is, bring every thing through the
custom-house in a regular form. And, sir, it pays
better; that is the main point.”

“But, my dear sir,” I said, “how can you smug-
gle through the custom-house? It seems incredible.”

“I do not smuggle. I pay a commission, and the
thing is done. Just look at this pianoforte—a first-
rate ‘grand’ from Broadwood. Had that instru-
ment come through the ‘Tamoshny’ as a ‘forte-
piano,’ it would have cost me one hundred roubles,
that is fifteen pounds of your money. But, sir, I
shipped it as a thrashing-machine—my children have
certainly made it one—and it cost me no duty at all;
machinery, you know, is the only thing duty free. I
paid my expeditor his little commission, and he
managed to convince the examining official, by what

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RUSSIAN LIFE.

means I do not stop to inquire, that a thrashing-machine it was, and as such it passed. Now do you comprehend?

"Not quite. What is an expeditor?"

"Well, an expeditor is a man appointed to help foreign traders. He is supposed to prevent needless delays, and overcharges of duties, and to make the declarations and entries in the custom-house books. The merchant is supposed to look to him for justice and fair play, against the extortion of officials. He ought to represent the merchant and importer, and to see that he is not cheated in any way. That is the theory of his office; and if you make it worth his while no doubt he will act up to it all, and do a great deal more for you. He can get the officials to pass any thing under any name you choose, only, you know, the commission varies with the case. His own interest is of course the principle on which the expeditor acts, and not the interest of his employer. Those who pay him well enough get all they want; those who stand up for plain dealing and justice get what they don't like. I know the case of a simpleton who was beginning business in Petersburg, and imported a rather large quantity of plain white glass ware. This article figures in the tariff list at two roubles and twenty-five kopecks per pood. He meant simply to pay the proper duty in a straightforward way. He was ignorant, and had to be taught. A competent commission was not offered to the expeditor. Well, by some singular optical delusion the examining officials, under the inspection and in the presence of

THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.

265

his expeditor, found that all this man's white glass
was coloured and gilded. The duty was thus raised
to ten roubles per pood. But that was not all. Be-
cause the glass was called 'white' glass in the decla-
ration, when the expeditor and his accomplices had
transformed it into coloured and gilt, he was fined
fifty per cent for a false declaration. This added
another five roubles to the ten already put on; and
the end of the matter was that the importer had to
pay forty-five shillings per pood, instead of seven
shillings, and his clear loss from the transaction was
about one hundred pounds. Protest or redress was,
and always is, out of the question; the expeditor
and the officials being leagued to maintain their
own decisions. This and some other transactions
with the custom-house of a like nature, in which
the same man stood out for payment of just dues and
no corruption, ruined him. Still you will perceive
that it was all his own fault. He had nobody to
blame but himself; he set himself against the customs
of the custom-house, and lost the game. No, sir, it
will not do to live in Rome and not do as the Romans
do. I don't say that all the expeditors are of this
stamp. Some of those who are employed exclusively
by the large firms are far above such things, and of
unblemished character; but the system gives ground
for a general complaint among the ignorant trades-
men and smaller merchants of Russia that the custom-
house is to them a place of robbery. To us who
know the value of an opening for profit, and who
have been educated by experience, it has a very

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RUSSIAN LIFE.

different aspect. We are quite satisfied, and want no
change."

Without vouching for every word told me by my
commercial friend, I may say from my own know-
ledge that his experience is common enough to be
well worth the attention of the high dignitaries of
Russia who have the good of their country at heart.
The same determined will and generous spirit that
decreed and firmly carried out the emancipation of
about thirty million of slaves may find it a more
difficult task to purify the public departments of the
government.

Although my friend had told me that direct
smuggling, or "running a cargo," was in a great
measure superseded by the case with which fraud can
be practised legally and safely through the custom-
house itself, I chanced to find very soon after this
conversation that direct smuggling is still carried on,
to some extent at least.

One evening I was on the quay in front of the
custom-house looking for a ship whose captain, I
knew, had brought me a small parcel from friends far
away. It was dusk, and the patrol were in their
gray coats, walking about in various directions, while
the deck of every vessel in the harbour had the cus-
tom-house men in command, and every hatch was
sealed up till morning brought the labourers to work
again. When I had made out the well-known hull
of the ship I wanted to find, carrying my eye along
the bulwarks, I saw somebody seated on the rail, and
taking him to be the man I wanted, scrambled over

RUNNING A CARGO.

267

three lighters, stumbling over as many watchmen, who lay there drunk or asleep—drunk no doubt.

"Dolphin a'hoy," I cried, "send a boat to the stairs; I want to see the skipper."

A voice from the figure on the rail replied in a much lower key, "Is that you, Smith? Don't make such a fool's noise, but stand where you are a minute."

Presently a boat, sculled by a boy, came under me, into which I dropt, and I was soon on the deck of the ship, face to face with Captain Stripes. I am not Smith, and consequently the skipper, I saw, was disappointed.

"Ah! it is you; how are you? I imagined it was Mr. Smith. But never mind, come into the cabin. Here, Tom, keep a look-out for Smith, and bring him on board."

As I crossed the after-hatch to reach the cabin, I found the ship's crew busy passing boxes, bales, and hampers over the side.

"Now," said the captain, after he had given me my little parcel and placed a square bottle with a box of cheroots on the table, "make yourself comfortable till I come back. I won't be long; but stay where you are till I do come."

Genuine cognac and the best cubans are not to be despised after a winter's poisoning with the villeanous compounds sold in Petersburg and Moscow; so I bided his time philosophically. When he came back,

"Excuse me," he said, "for keeping you a prisoner

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RUSSIAN LIFE.

so long. The fact is, we have a little job on hand to-night, and I was waiting for Smith to pilot us."

"What!" I said, "smuggling?"

"A little that way. By the bye, you might be able to tell me how to find the place we want. Do you know Prince D—’s country-house?"

"Prince D—? why, that is the chief of—"

"Hold hard," said the captain; "that’s the man. Do you know his place, and could you direct me how to find it?"

"Yes; I know his place perfectly. It is on the K— Island; but unless you know some of the bearings, I could not direct you to it."

"What ever am I to do if that fellow Smith don’t come? We are all ready. The officers on the quay are all bought; the watchmen in the lighters and on board are all lying in the scuppers drunk. Two of the ship’s boats are full, and men are in them ready to heave off. It is now dark, and past the time. Will you not oblige me by steering the first boat to this place?"

"Not likely," I said. "I have no mind to become a contrabandist, and a target for the blunderbusses of the custom-house officers. I shall be off, wishing you a good-night and a safe run."

He followed me to the deck, and said something in a low voice to his men. In a moment I was lifted from my feet, put over the side, and received kicking in the arms of the men below, who placed me in the seat of honour, with the tiller in my hand.

There was no help for it. I could not jump over

PRESSED BY THE SMUGGLERS.

269

and swim on shore. I could not bawl out, for I
might be taken as an accomplice; besides, I own I
had no wish to betray the skipper. But then, what
was to be done? There were two large boats loaded,
no doubt with brandy, gin, whisky, cigars, wine,
tobacco, silks, lace, woollens, perhaps arms for the
Poles; and a British subject was impressed against
his will to become the pilot of a smuggling party on
a large scale, "running" the goods from under the
very shadow of the custom-house, and landing them
at the residence of the chief officer and comptroller
of customs. So I understood at the time, but after-
wards learnt that the contemplated landing was at
a place adjoining, and for another sort of customer.
There was little time for thinking; the boats had put
off, and were pulling slowly into the river, round the
custom-house corner. The men in my boat were
sniggering, and I heard the skipper's satisfied guffaw.
This was a small foretaste of what I might expect
pretty generally if their little scheme succeeded, and
the thing got wind. "Wait a little, jolly tars,"
thought I, and resolved to take them round the
island to the spot from which we started. The Neva
has three courses to the gulf. The main course runs
past the old city, and between it and the islands
which lie in clusters along the Finnish coast. The
largest two are called the Williams and the Peters-
burg Islands; these, as well as the smaller islands,
are, of course, surrounded by smaller and larger
branches of the main streams, so that a sail round
any or all of these islands in very small steamers is a

270

RUSSIAN LIFE.

favourite summer excursion with the Petersburgians. Having had many trips of this kind, I well knew the windings of the stream. The prince's residence is on one of the smaller islands to the right, and might easily be reached by an hour's pull; but I proposed to give my merry friends a little exercise. The boats were heavy; still we made good way up the "little Neva," passing under the Samson Bridge, and after a time we found, by a shouting in our rear, that somebody was giving chase. By my orders the sailors put on a spurt, and, in nautical phrase, "gave way with a will." Thus keeping our distance, as we passed the prince's place (which was unrecognised by any but myself), the pursuit was hotter, and the bawling to us to stop was louder. I had no doubt that Smith, having been late, and finding the boats gone, was following in a river boat. Had it been a government boat that followed, there would have been at least six oars, and we should soon have been overhauled; besides, there would have been its bullets whistling past our ears. We were a long way beyond the prince's country-house. But my crew were easily urged to pull for their lives, and Smith shouted in vain, until he gave us up. When my captain asked whether we had much farther to go, I replied, "Yes, a good bit." And so by one ruse and another, losing my bearings, running a-ground on shallows, getting into creeks and bends with no outlet, and so on, I managed to keep them all pulling away round this island during four or five hours. Just as daylight began to break, I had placed them in the

PRESSED BY THE SMUGGLERS.

271

"Churney Retchka" (Black Stream), and almost within hail of their own ship. Another ten minutes would bring us alongside of the Dolphin. I had no wish to tread her decks again, and, telling the man in my boat to pull to the side where there was a landing-stage, I stepped from the boat; and, hailing my worthy skipper, said to him: "Captain Stripes, this is where I get out, and yonder ship is yours. Next time you try running a cargo, get a willing pilot. A volunteer is worth twenty pressed men. Who has the laugh now?"

He shook his fist goodnaturedly, and was so tickled with his own stupidity that he exploded in a burst of laughter; and as I turned away I heard him say to his man, "Sold, slick!" Then he shouted to me, "Stop and liquor. Coffee and rum in the Dolphin." But I hailed a cab instead, and drove home shivering with cold. I heard no more of the matter; but no doubt Smith was more punctual to his next appointment.

## CHAPTER THE LAST.

### BOND AND FREE.

THE great holiday—the Carnival in some countries
—Maslinitza or Sweatoi in Russia, the butter-week
before Lent, is a time when the Russians give full
scope to their powers of frolic. Waistless peasant
women come abroad in all their finery of pink skirts,
straight from heels to armpits, snowy teraphins, high-
crowned head-dresses quivering with tinsel ornaments,
red handkerchiefs, wide white sleeves, red ribbons,
and with much cordage of Siberian beads adorning
their dun-coloured necks. The unmarried girls, with a
yard of plaited black hair, are long-tailed charmers of
the males, who don their best gray felts and sheep-
skins, blue caftans, polished boots, little low-crowned
hats studded with white buckles and small peacock's-
feathers, and gird their loins with a red, blue, and
white worsted sash. Such holiday-makers had taken
possession of Evanoffsky, and were to their best ability
making merry. They must make the most of their
seven days, for after them shall follow a fast of seven
weeks, during which no animal food is eaten. No
man may then look on his wife, no sweetheart think
of her betrothed; deeds of charity, prayer, penitence,

BUTTER-WEEK.

273

confession, and self-denial are supposed to constitute
the sum of human life. Harry and I during those
weeks must kill our own meat, for nobody else will
be our butcher. And so, to make the most of the
holiday-week, parties of drunken moushicks stagger
through the roads clasping one another round the
neck, others lie sprawling on the ground among the
dogs and pigs. The cabaks are full of customers,
gulping down fiery vodki. You may see men go
in quite sober, stand at the counter five minutes,
throw back their heads four or five times as each
tumbler-full vanishes, crying "Augh, charoshy!"
(good) at each drain. Having in this short time
drunk four English gills of the strong rye brandy,
they stagger out, go a few steps, and fall into the
nearest ditch. There are parties with bottles in their
hands hugging and kissing each other, and singing
snatches of plaintive songs in a minor key; others,
again, with an accordion—price sixpence—play some
jingling tune to others, who dance—or rather make
desperate efforts to dance—before groups of admirers,
who all join in chorus. The songs are all simple.
Take for example an universal favourite,—*Auch! mi
paddy protch*, of which here is one verse literally
translated:

"O, dear me, go away with you!
Take off your hat and pay your respects:
I'm not a baron; I'm not a merchant;
But for all that, I'm a very nice young man.
Then go away with you!
Take off your hat and pay your respects."

Then there is the never-failing Punch hard upon

T

274

RUSSIAN LIFE.

Judy; there are swings, hobby-horses, shows and theatres, dancing-bears, jugglers, and monkeys. But the grand feature of a Russian village carnival is the dreadful labour to which horse-flesh is subjected. Every horse that can stand, even on three legs; every sledge, or, if the snow be gone, every vehicle that can be patched up with birch-bark, or tied together with twigs or ropes, when these are attainable, is being driven about, without any definite object, from one point to another through the village, at a rate limited only by the full powers of each horse, and the strength of the driver's whip-arm. Those who have no horses bargain with those who have. Men and women, boys, girls, old gray-headed moushicks and hooded babas with infants,—all who are sober enough to hold on, ride at this jovial time, whooping, singing, and shouting at the full stretch of their voices. Moushick wit is flying in all directions, as the carriages pass one another; and two dozen of neck-and-neck races may be going on at one time. All this continues from morning till night for three days, when the cattle are dead beat with fatigue.

At Evanoffsky this junketing was over, Maslinitza, the butter-week, was past, and fasting had begun. Priests and people had scarcely slept off the effects of the revelry when the people were summoned to the church to hear read by the holy father, our old friend of the cards, the ukase that would make them free. As all ukases are promulgated from the altar, the priests all over Russia read this document, gave it their blessing, sent the people away,

ENEMIES OF EMANCIPATION.

275

and washed their hands of the job. Emissaries, how-
ever, from the disaffected, who ground their teeth at
the new policy, and called the Emperor the Great
Moushick, were sent amongst the serfs, and caused a
little trouble in some districts distant from the capital.
Crafty agitators went about reading false papers, that
purported to give immediate release from work. The
serfs in Kazan and some other governments were
caught in the trap. Some seventeen thousand collec-
ted in one place, set the local law and their masters at
defiance, and proceeded to acts of violence and plun-
der. The soldiers were called out, and the serfs were
put down, but not until some hundreds had been
shot. With this exception, and one or two smaller
affairs, the peasantry, as at Evanoffsky, received the
news quietly. Tumultuous rising among the serfs,
in order to damage their cause, was the point aimed
at by the emissaries of their enemies; in this they
failed, but the peasants did get it into their heads
that the Emperor meant more for them than was told
in the ukase. They had hopes that the land would
be given them without purchase; that money would
also be given to help them to work it. Some of them
fancied that a millennium of wealth without labour
was at hand; and though Alexander II. has since that
time made the tour of his chief cities and towns for
the express purpose of explaining in person that no
more was to be expected from him in that direction,
still the serf holds out his hand and says "prebavit,"
still he looks for more favours. In this lies a future
difficulty. It is in the nature of Russian peasants to

276

RUSSIAN LIFE.

depend on gifts of others rather than on independent labour. It is said, that when a Russian child first opens his mouth in the world he says “prebavit,” that is, “add to it.” If you pay a Russian ten times the value of any piece of work, he will invariably, in a piteous whining tone, hold out his hand and say “prebavit”—add a little more. This propensity is strangely manifested in regard to the new law, and troubles may yet come of it. A beggar will never work until his own trade altogether fails him.

For some weeks before the great holiday the peasants at Evanoffsky and the workmen at the factories had shown insubordination to the steward. He found it impossible to carry on the necessary work. Half the “souls” pretended to be on the sick-list. The starost and his sotnicks had a hard time of it in dragging the refractory, by orders of the steward, to the stanovog for punishment, and then driving them to work. It was of little use; the souls resisted sulLENLY; what work was done was spoiled, and several machines were broken. A plot was discovered just in time to save a large steam-engine from being wholly smashed.

Groups of able-bodied peasants gathered in the roads or sauntered through the villages. The steward sent for the military commandant; but he replied that so long as the moushicks were quiet he must refer him to the resident magistrate, the stan. The stan would not take the responsibility of bringing in the soldiers; and with all these difficulties the steward, poor man, was nearly mad with rage and

THE UNJUST STEWARD.

277

vexation. Regardless of the altered and altering state of the peasants' feelings, he kept the stick in constant work. His house-servants came in for a full share of his bad temper. They had long suffered his kicking and cuffing for faults and no faults. So keenly did their tormentor relish the stick-discipline, that he had made it a rule every morning while enjoying his pipe and coffee to have one or two of his servants, male or female, beaten by men from the police-station. In fact he had been and was a merciless tyrant; but the tables were about to turn.

On the third morning after Maslinitza, just as he was turning on his other side to try another nap (I have the scene from one of the actors), a big strong moushick, who acted as the steward's coachman, entered the room rather unceremoniously, and bawled out in a peremptory voice,

"Come, master, get up quick! You're wanted in the great hall."

The steward started at the unusual summons, and stared at the fellow in blank astonishment, unable to understand what he meant.

"Come, I tell you; rise—you're wanted."

"Dog!" roared the steward, almost powerless with rage—"what do you mean by this insolence? Get out!"

"No," said the man, "I won't get out. You get up. They are all waiting."

"Pig! I'll make you pay for this, let me get hold of you, you villain!" and he jumped out of bed; but as he did so he perceived three of his other men ser-

278

RUSSIAN LIFE.

vants at the threshold ready to support the coachman.

"O, this is a conspiracy; but I'll soon settle you. Evan, you devil, where are you? Come here."

Evan thus called—he was a lacquey—appeared at the door with a broad grin on his face.

"Did you call, master?"

"Yes, villain; don't you see? I am going to be murdered by these pigs. Go instantly for the police-men."

"No, no, baron; I have gone too often for the stan's men. We can do without them this morning."

"Come, come, master," again struck in the tall coachman, "don't you waste our time and keep the company waiting. Put on your halat; never mind the rest of your clothes; you won't need them for a little. You won't come—nay, but you must." And he laid hold of him by the neck. "Come along!" and so they dragged their victim into the great dining-hall.

There, sitting round the room on chairs and lolling on the sofas, were all the souls belonging to his domestic establishment, about thirty in all. Pillows were spread on the floor in the middle of the room; to these the steward was dragged, and forcibly stretched on them face down, with two men at his feet and two at his head.

The coachman, who had been pretty frequently chastised in former times, was ringleader. He sat down on a large easy-chair, the seat of honour, and

THE TABLES TURNED.

279

ordered a pipe and coffee. This was brought him by one of the female servants. When the long cherry-tree tube began to draw, in imitation of his master's manner he puffed out the smoke, put on a fierce look, stretched out his legs, and said, "Now then, go on. Give the pig forty blows! creapka (hard) !"

In an instant the halat was torn up, and two lacqueys, standing at either side, armed with birch rods, slowly and deliberately commenced the flagellation. The coachman told off the blows as he smoked in dignity, "one, two, three," and so on to forty.

"Now, then," said coachee, "stop. Brothers and sisters, have we done right?"

"Right!" they all said.

"Is there one here whom he has not beaten?"

"None."

"Are you satisfied?"

"Yes."

"Then go, all of you, home, and leave this house. Not one must remain. Release the prisoner."

Up jumped their tyrant, little the worse bodily for the beating he had got, but he was livid with rage. His face turned green and purple, he gnashed his teeth, and spat on his rebellious slaves. Speech seemed gone, and they all laughed in his face.

"Master," said the coachman, walking leisurely towards the door, "we have not hurt you, but have given you a small taste of your own treatment of us for many years; how do you like it? We are free now, or will be soon, and will not be beaten any more. Good-bye; don't forget the stick. And listen. If

280

RUSSIAN LIFE.

you whisper a breath against any of us for this morn-
ing's work, your life is not worth a kopeck two hours
after." Each made a respectful bow as he or she
went out, and the tyrant was left alone in the de-
serted house.

It may be supposed that this incident is height-
ened by the imagination of the writer. I can only
say that it is repeated as I got it in Russian from
Mattvie, the starost's son, one of the actors. It was
much talked of in Russia at the time it happened.

This was a memorable day in Evanoffsky. When
I had breakfasted, and was listening to the conclusion
of Mattvie's account of the steward's castigation, I
observed that several parties, evidently from distant
journeys, drove by my windows, and turned into the
gate leading to the court-house. I did not know
why there should be so many ghosties, but could
guess they boded no good to the unjust steward.
Dismissing Matt with a rebuke for his share in the
morning's work—a rebuke which, by the bye, did not
come from my heart—I sat down at a window facing
the main road leading to the lake. This window was
not far from the ground, and had been dismantled of
its winter frame. Various bands of peasants were
to be seen lounging about the road, and particularly
around the gates leading to the works and the
count's house. Small crowds had collected, and
in the centre of one of these my late visitor Matt
could be seen, gesticulating violently, as his tongue
went at full speed. Presently I saw the steward
come from the direction of his own house. He

A SULLEN CALM.

281

seemed to speak angrily, with stamping of his feet
at the first two or three parties he passed; but they
heeded him not, farther than to get beyond reach of
his arm. He was a rather corpulent man, low in
height, with a very large flat flabby face, and his
cheeks hung down on either side; his nose had grown
big at the point, divided in the middle like Dum-
barton Rock, and was covered with a mass of blue
and purple pimples. When he came to the main
group at the gate he peremptorily ordered them to
go to work. I had opened the window and could
now hear every word. The men shrugged their
shoulders; he went passionately in amongst them,
calling them pigs, &c. They made way for him,
but lounged into a new position, exhibiting by the
act contemptuous indifference. The crowd began to
concentrate itself about the gate, and I heard an
unwonted sound, ominous at that hour—the steam
blowing off. This indicated a stoppage of the mills
and the release of perhaps a thousand hands.

Yet still, in the fury of the moment, though alone
among these people, every one of whom could have
slain him without compunction, the unhappy steward
went on kicking, cuffing, and swearing. Seeing Matt,
he ordered him off to the stables, using a foul expres-
sion. Matt only gave the usual shrug and main-
tained his ground, receiving for his contumacy a slap
in the face from his master's right hand. Matt was
a strong fellow, and the blow fell on his cheek like
a passing breeze, but I saw his eyes glare and his
cheek flush. Matt looked the tyrant straight in the

282

RUSSIAN LIFE.

eyes for a moment, and then spat in his face. The
Russian spit of contempt, the most unpardonable of
Russian insults, is unlike any other kind of spit-
ting. The Yankee squirt is a scientific affair; Eng-
lishmen who smoke short black pipes in bars, on rails,
and elsewhere, expectorate in an uncleanly clumsy
way. But with an intense look of detestation, as he
says, "Ah, pig!" the Russian, with the suddenness and
good aim of a pistol-shot, plunges a ball of spittle
right into the face or on the clothes of his adversary,
making a sound like the stroke of a marble where it
hits. It is a weapon always ready. I have frequently
seen a duel maintained with it for a considerable time
at short range.

Matt, having thus shown his contempt, coolly
leaned himself up against the gate; but the steward,
insulted as he had never been before in this charac-
teristic manner, before so many of his cringing slaves,
lost any remains of reason his rage might have left
him. He used hands and feet on the crowd of pas-
sive and hitherto quiet serfs; and seeing the old
starost—Matt's father—coming up the road, he ran
and collared the old man, dragged him to where
his son stood, and roared out his orders to take the
devil into the stan's yard for punishment.

"Old devil!" he said, "you are at the bottom of all this rebellion, you and your son. You shall flog him; and then I shall make him flog you. Go, pig, and take him away!"

The old man, for the first time in his life, openly
disobeyed his tyrant's orders. He folded his arms

THE RISING OF THE STORM.

283

across his sheepskin coat, gave the usual shrug, spat contemptuously on the ground, and said, "No, steward, that is your work. Now I will not."

"Dog! devil! do you refuse to obey your master? I will, if it is my work, drag you to punishment myself."

With that he seized the starost by his luxuriant white beard, and began pulling him towards the next house, which, I have said, was the magistrate's and the police-station. The old man resisted with all his might, and in the struggle he fell, leaving a large mass of gray or rather white hair in the steward's hands. The steward, finding he could not pull the starost by main force, lifted his foot shod with heavy leather goloshes, and struck the old man twice on the head. The blood immediately ran down. Up to this moment the crowd of peasants, which had increased enormously, had been quiet spectators of the scene; but the sight of the old man's blood gave the finishing touch to their patience. Without a word the crowd began slowly to move and concentrate itself around the steward and his fallen official. There might then have been five or six hundred people, and the numbers were increasing every moment, as the men came in from the stopped works. A rush took place, and the centre space was filled up with the mass. The bleeding starost was passed to the outside. The steward was surrounded, and many hands were laid on him. I do not believe there had been any premeditated design to hurt the steward, cordially as they all hated him. Had he applied the

284

RUSSIAN LIFE.

lesson given him that morning, and apprehended the changed feelings and circumstances of the serfs, he might have passed from among them without further injury. But his passions were ungovernable, and he was slow to believe in the possibility of any resistance on the part of the poor slaves he had so long driven. The crowd swayed heavily from one side to another, tugging and pulling the poor steward about; and now he was in peril of his life. My window was wide open. He made a mute appeal to me for help. I signed to him to try the window. By some extraordinary effort he broke loose, and made a rush and a spring to catch the sill. He succeeded so far, and two pair of strong arms were trying to drag the fat body through into the room; but we were too late, or rather he was too heavy for us. The crowd tore him down, and held him fast. Then a voice was heard, clear and decided as that of an officer giving the word of command,—"To the water!" The voice was Mattvie's. A leader and an object had been wanted, and here there were both. Instantly the order was obeyed. The crowd, dragging the steward, left the front of my house, and took the direction of the lake.

Without thinking, I picked up my double-barrel and six-shooter, and was rushing out of doors, with what intention I know not, when I ran against Saunderson. He no sooner saw the weapons, than he cried out in broad Scotch, "Whaur noo, ye mad deevil? guns and pistols! it's no wolves and bears ye're gaun to shoot, is it? Lord, man, you're surely mad."

A WILD OUTBREAK.

285

Pit them up, pit them up; there maun be nae shootin'
this day. It winna do."

"Mr. Saunderson, let me pass; I cannot see that
man, bad as he is, murdered before my eyes without
trying to help him."

"Ay, an' get yersel' torn to pieces for your pains.
Come, lay by the barkers; this quarrel is none or
ours. Whaur's yere man Friday? I hope he is safe
out of this scrape."

As the man Friday he always spoke of Harry.

"I cannot tell; he was here a minute or two ago."

"Weel, never mind; lay by the weapons, and let
us go and try what smooth words will do; come
quick, or we'll be too late."

A moment's reflection told me Saunderson was
right. The deadly weapons were laid aside, and we
hurried through the court-yard down to the end of
the cotton-mill, and came out on the banks of the
lake, just as the raging crowd of serfs were tying a
mat with a large stone in it to the steward's neck.

Around the margin of the lake the ice was to
some extent broken, and their evident intention was
to throw him in. We ran to meet them, and if pos-
sible prevent the horrid act of retribution. But we
were too late; they had selected the part of the bank
nearest the road, as it was higher than the rest; and
just as we came panting up, we saw the body
of the steward swaying in the hands of a dozen
of the men, and heard the fatal words given out by
Matt: "Ras, dwa, tree" (one, two, three); then a cry
of despair, above the yelling of the crowd; then a

286

RUSSIAN LIFE.

plunge in the water; no, two plunges. The ragosh-
kie, or bark mat, containing the heavy stone which
was to keep the steward down, had not been a good
one; for as the body passed through the air, the stone
fell from the mat, splashing a second or two before,
and a little beyond the spot where he came down.
He disappeared under the water for a moment or
two, then made desperate efforts to scramble to
his feet, in which he succeeded, standing up to his
shoulders in the shallow water, with the mat-bag,
drenched and limp, hanging from his neck. There he
stood within twenty feet of the bank, facing a thou-
sand yelling enemies. Outside was plenty of firm
ice; but between it and him there might be thirty
feet of deep clear water, the bed of the lake dipping
many feet immediately beyond where he stood. He
seemed to comprehend his position, and was evidently
making up his mind to contend with the deep water
rather than with the turned worms upon the bank.
He had raised one arm, either for entreaty or de-
fiance, and had taken a few steps towards the ice,
when one of the many stones thrown at him struck
the uplifted arm, and it fell powerless to his side.
Another, but a softer missile, struck him on the head.
He fell again under the water, and again recovered
his feet; but the stones were now dashing like hail
about him. The serfs were as boys pelting a toad or
frog,—and their victim in the water did look like a
great over-grown toad.

Saunderson and I had made several attempts to
be heard, or to divert the attention of the people; but

HARRY TO THE RESCUE.

287

it was spending idle breath: "Go away; it is not
your business," some of the men said; others, more
savage, asked how we would like the same treatment.

Saunderson whispered in my ear, "Look to the
other side of the loch, and tell me if yonder is not a
conveyance coming."

"It is," I said.

"Then, thank God, that's the Count. O for five
minutes! But how to get them. You see, I'm a man
wi' a family, so are you, or we might jump beside
him and gain a few minutes."

He had scarcely spoken, when my man Harry,
who had been standing at our backs, and had heard
Saunderson's remark, said, "I'll try. Blow me if I
don't: the buffer's a bad lot; but I sha'n't see him
killed. Here goes!" with that he jumped into the
water, and was by the side of the steward in a mo-
ment.

The noise and stoning ceased when the serfs saw
Harry—who had become a prime favourite amongst
them all—place himself in front of the poor battered
half-drowned steward.

"Now then, you murdering humbugs, fire away!
but mind, the moushick as strikes me with a stone,
I'll settle him with my fist when I get out."

They did not understand a word he said; but for
a little they were amazed at the daring act. This
mood soon passed, and a voice, Matt's again, cried,
"Come out, Harrie Harriovitch, and let the niemitz
die alone!"

"For shame, Mattvie Gregorovitch," cried Saun-

288

RUSSIAN LIFE.

derson; "is this learning to be free? Do you begin
your new life with murder?"

"My God, baron, how can I help it? He has
brought it all on himself, has he not? Am I to
blame? Let him die! Harrie, come out. You must;
if not, I'll send men to force you away from that son
of a she-wolf. Don't you see five hundred stones
ready? I cannot now stop them if I would. But I
don't want to stop them. Let him die, I say."

Harry, who knew enough Russian to understand
the purport of this speech, shouted, "No, you mur-
dering thief; I mayn't leave him now with my life.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Fire away, you
cowards!"

"Then go pull him away," said Matt. "Harrie
Harriovitch must not be killed."

A rush of many men into the water—a fierce
struggle—several knocked down by Harry's ponde-
rous arms. But after all, despite his strength, num-
bers prevailed, and he was pulled to the bank kick-
ing tremendously. Just at this moment, when the
attention of all was fixed on the scene in the water,
a sleigh, drawn by three magnificent greys, dashed
into the crowd and drew up in the very centre of
it. Three gentlemen, muffled in furs, occupied the
sleigh; two of them were men in official costume.
The third rose up, threw back his rich black foxskin
cloak, and the assembled mob had before them the
old Count Pomerin, dressed in the full uniform of
a general. He was a tall, well-built man. I had
seen him last when he was a disguised man, evad-

A DAY OF RECKONING.

289

ing political exile, a good deal nearer to his own
estate than people thought; but the ban was taken
from him now, the great beard had disappeared, and
he looked the nobleman he was. No man had been
better informed than he as to the past mismanage-
ment of his estate. He glanced rapidly at the mob;
then at the man in the water, and appeared to com-
prehend the whole case in a moment. He then said,
with a quiet and significant smile, while breathless
silence was in all the crowd, "Is that my steward
having a bath in this cold weather? It is a sin-
gular taste surely, but he knows best; I hope, my
children, you don't interrupt him. Now go home:
put on the best holiday clothes you have, and meet
me at my house in two hours. I want to see every
one of you. Mr. Steward, please to leave your cold
bath, and meet me in the contore (office) as soon
as possible. We have some accounts to settle, and
must have you there. Mattvie Gregorovitch, see
my orders obeyed. Drive on." And with a kindly
nod to me and Saunderson as he passed (for we had
been in his secret, and knew that he was come well
prepared to surprise his steward), he drove off, and
was round the corner and out of sight in less than
a minute. I need not tell how the people shouted,
how they were too late to get the horses out, that
they might drag their returned master in triumph
to his house; how tenderly they helped the steward
out of his cold bath. He stared as if he had seen
a ghost. Mattvie attended him with ten others to
his house, and prevented him from making his es-

U

290

RUSSIAN LIFE.

cape with a bundle of important documents and
any money he could lay his hands on. The peas-
sants, a few minutes ago yelling for vengeance, now
yelled as loudly for joy; danced and kissed one
another, and went home and got out their best
kaftans and teraphins, and polished up their lea-
ther boots. The pope set the church-bells ringing.
The stanavoie and his men kept good order, when
there was no use for them. And my man Harry
stood on the bank dripping wet, shaking hands with
the moushicks he had been knocking down.

In the contore, or counting-house, about an hour
after, the steward showed himself in no agreeable
state of either mind or body. He had been flogged,
drowned, and stoned by the serfs; now he was about
to be skinned by the Count, and this skinning pro-
cess would be the unkindest cut of all. As he sat
shivering, his left arm in a sling, the picture of
sullen dejected, detected rascality, I almost pitied him.
Besides the Count there were present many country
dealers in wood, wool, corn, and other produce;
also several merchants from Moscow and Peters-
burg, with whom the steward had had large busi-
ness transactions. The books of the estate were
there on one table, and on another were a vast num-
ber of documents tied up and labelled. These last
were under the immediate care of the Count.

"Now," said he, addressing the steward, "the
time has come, sir, when you and I must square ac-
counts. You may not be prepared to meet a mas-
ter you imagined to be dead; —but a just steward

A DAY OF RECKONING.

291

is always ready. At all events I am prepared per-
sonally to examine your accounts, and, on certain
terms, give you a settlement. This must be done
at once—now. Or you may prefer being handed
over to the police. How shall it be ?"

The steward instantly, though very faintly, said,
“Now—now; no police.”

“Well, now let it be.” Then taking up a bundle of papers, he said, “Here are eighteen documents made out by you, and given to my Countess, purporting to be the yearly statement of your eighteen years’ management of my estate and people; income on one side, and expenditure on the other. By examining these and looking no farther, I find myself considerably poorer than when I left you in charge. Here are mortgages, sales, and liabilities. My people are fewer, poorer, and ten times more miserable. It is impossible to go over all the accounts, indeed it is not necessary; but I have picked out a few which require explanation. For the four years during which my wife and son have kept account of their expenditure, I find a difference of nearly 100,000 roubles between your account and theirs. Take the year 1859, when my son travelled in France, Italy, and England: your statement gives 70,000 as my family expenditure—whereas they acknowledge to no more than 40,000. Your vouchers amount to no more. Can you produce others to make up the difference?”

“No; I am caught in a trap like a wolf. Have
mercy on an old man!”

292

RUSSIAN LIFE.

"Can you make up the difference on the other three years?"

"No! Have mercy, Count!"

"Then I write down against you 100,000 roubles. Take now the horse account. Since you began to deal with Baranoff, there are 245 horses bought, at a cost, according to your statements, of 42,000 roubles. Stand forth, Baranoff, and say what you received for these horses."

Baranoff, one of the chief gipsy horse-dealers, advanced, and produced a paper showing that 15,000 roubles was the real sum paid him for the cattle.

"It is false!" cried the steward; "don't believe him, your Excellency. Ah, God help me; I am in a trap."

"It is not false. I have very good reasons to know that he speaks the truth. If you can show receipts of his for more, do it. No? Then I write 27,000 roubles against you on the horse account."

"Ah, this is dreadful. Have mercy, Count!"

Then came the corn and rye account, and 57,000 roubles were added to the list; Alexy Evanoff and Abraham Isaacoff, the Jew corn-dealers, being witnesses. The wool-merchants, wood-dealers, lessees of the works, those who had employed the "souls," and a host of other parties, whose accounts had been falsified, came rapidly in review; the sum against the steward mounting higher and higher at every step, until the enormous total of 1,000,000 roubles was made out. This sum he was compelled to refund on the spot, in cash, bills, and other securities..

FREEDOM.

293

After which he had twenty-four hours given him to leave the estate, and was not sorry to go, taking with him the detestation of every soul on it; and, we had no doubt, a large remainder of ill-gotten gains.

The strict examination of his steward's accounts had consumed several hours; so that it was long past noon when the Count met his serfs, according to his orders, at the front of his own residence. On this large flat piece of ground were assembled several thousands of peasants, male and female. On the front step, on his own threshold, stood the Count, and beside him his Countess, his son, and several more distant relations, with others of less note, myself, Saunderson, the two popes of the village, and many of the merchants who had been assisting at the stripping of the steward. Several attempts had been made by the peasants to throw themselves on the ground; but the Count ordered them in a peremptory tone to stand up and hear what he had to say. After referring to his long absence, and telling how he came, by the clemency of the Emperor, to be again amongst them, he said, "I have ordered you to meet me here, that I may personally give every one on my estate freedom to leave and seek employment elsewhere. If what I am about to propose do not suit you, you know, my children, that Alexander, the son of Nicholas, has wisely ordained that in two years from now your connection and mine, as it now exists, is to cease. Now, I do not intend to wait so long. The law allows us to dis-

294

RUSSIAN LIFE.

solve that old connection when we please. I will
dissolve it now; and so far as I am concerned, it is
dissolved from this moment. I hold no serfs. You
are all, men and women, free. Go in peace; and I
thank the Almighty God that I have been preserved
and brought back to do you this act of justice."
Here he paused, and stood uncovered for a minute.
Then a murmur of dissatisfaction seemed to pass
through the crowd. The Count continued: "Do not
imagine that I want any of you to leave me. Hear
my proposition, and then go and decide.

"The law gives each male peasant five deciatines of my land. For this you must pay me fifteen rubles each deciatine, and be independent. Can you do this? Tell me."

A loud "Neato, neato," ran round the crowd.

"Well, the law gives you nine years to pay that sum to me in yearly instalments. This makes you, after 1863, my tenants for nine years. Such a state of things I do not intend to permit. As you cannot pay for the land now, and as I want you all to have absolute freedom, I give it to you without price. It is yours. Every male peasant on my estate will be, as soon as possible, put in possession of this quantity of such land as a joint committee of two on each side shall decide. All disputes, before going before the government referee, will be referred to me. In giving you this land, you will remember I am giving away a sixth of my estate for nothing. Do you accept the terms?"

The whole assembled multitude this time went

FREEDOM—"PREBAVIT."

295

down on their knees and cried, "Thanks, thanks, good Count, illustrious master—God bless you!" After the first emotion had partly subsided, ten old grey-bearded moushicks advanced to the Count, and after making the usual salutation, one of them said, "We hear, O Count, and give you thanks,—high-born master! It is a great gift you bestow, and we are grateful; but prebavit (add to it)! Five deciatines will no doubt give us garden-land, and corn and rye and farm-land. We had this before. But where are our cows and horses to get grass, and where can we make hay? For many years this land you now give us will not support our cattle. We have always been allowed pasture. Add this to your gift; and may God give you blessing, and peace, and plenty, Alexander, the son of Gregoriva!" Prebavit!

A voice at my ear whispered, "Gie Jacky an inch, an' he'll tak an ell. The eternal 'prebavit.'"

I could see that the Count winced at this demand; but smoothing his countenance he again spoke: "I had not expected that, after receiving a free gift of nearly a sixth of my property, you would ask another large slice in the shape of pasture-land. But I will not do things by halves. For ten years I shall allot you a sufficient extent of land for this purpose; but at the end of this time you must be prepared to do without it, or pay for it. Will this content you?"

Another kneeling, prostration, and loud murmuring of thanks. A pause. The ten old moushicks advanced again to the charge.

The same voice whispered, "Prebavit again, no

296

RUSSIAN LIFE.

doubt. If he gies in to them, they'll no' leave him a
stick that he can ca' his ain."

"Alexander, the son of Gregoriva, again we hear
and give you thanks, and the blessing of the poor
moushicks be with you! But hear us this once.
You have given us farm-land and pasture-land; we
thank you and bless you. These are great gifts. But
what are we to do for droff (firewood)? Where
are we to get wood to make our jelogas and to build
our houses? Add to the gift droff. Prebavit! We
have always had this. Our fathers had it. So had
our grandfathers and great grandfathers. If it please
your high-born excellency, add droff to your gifts."

"Prebavit, prebavit, always prebavit," said the Count. "When will you have done? I have already given you land—much land—without price, and made you independent farmers. You might have been content, and bought your wood from me. But since long use has given you the idea that the wood is free to you, and as there is plenty of it for all, let it be so. I shall mark off a sufficient range of wood for your use. The rest I retain for myself. Is this satisfactory?"

Thanks, prostrations, consultations, and again
"prebavit" for liberty to fish in the lakes,—granted
under certain restrictions. Again came "prebavit"
for something else—I forget what. Put the Count,
who seemed to have reached the limits of his gene-
rosity, peremptorily declined listening to the petition,
and concluded the meeting by saying, that as many
if not all of them were too poor to be able to put all

THE NEW POWERS OF THE FREE.

297

their strength on their land, he would, of course,
employ any who chose to work for him as free
labourers in the factories and on his estate. They
who wished an advance of money to help them, by
giving their land as security, might have it at easy
interest. They who preferred roaming the country
in idleness or in quest of other work and other homes
might get their passports and depart. All the ar-
rangements were ready. He advised them all to go
home, and appoint their starost, overseers, and com-
mittee, that they might be ready at once to act with
him and his agents in carrying out the change on
which they were agreed.

Thus ended that memorable day for Evanoffsky.
Count Pomerin was only one of many generous
landowners who have freed their serfs in this manner
before and since the emancipation-law was promul-
gated. And they have nearly all gained by their
gift of a more perfect freedom.

I have visited the estate of Count Pomerin since,
in 1864; and I can only say, that in that short time
the change which has taken place is almost miracu-
lous. Evanoffsky is not now a large straggling vil-
lage of mud huts, but a thriving town. The people
are not like the same beings; and there is now de-
cided evidence of the rise of a middle class,—a class
once unknown in such places.

It has been my object in these sketches to give as
faithful a view as I could of the condition of Russia
immediately before the promulgation of the emanci-

X

298

RUSSIAN LIFE.

pation ukase. Still living among the Russians, I
take note of the progress of events under the new
system; and in ten years from the date of the extinc-
tion of Russian serfdom, I may, if I live, describe the
change it will have made in Russian Life. It is
now too soon after the event to judge by its fruits.

I put forth my little record of what serfdom was
when this grand act of justice came; and though I
may not live to tell, Russia will live to know what it
is to have given freedom to so many of her children.

THE END.

4

LONDON.
ROBSON AND SON, GREAT NORTHERN PRINTING WORKS,
PANCRAS ROAD, N.W.