'7 - (2); I THE LAND OF THOR. BY J. ROSS BROWNE, AUTHOR OF "YUSEF," "CRUSOE'S ISLAND," "AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN GERMANY," ETC. CITustrateu bX the Olutpor. NE'W YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN S QUARE. 1867. BY J. ROSS BROWNE. AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN GERMANY. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. THE LAND OF THOR. Illustrated by the Author. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. CRUSOE'S ISLAND: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander Selkirk. With Sketches of Adventure in California and Washoe. Illustrations. 12mo, Clo~ $1 75. YUSEF; or, The Journey of the Frangi. A Crusade in the East. With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, by HARPER & BR.OTaERS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG......................... 9 II., A PLEASANT EXCURSION...................................... 25 III. VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY........................... 39 IV. MOSCOW........................ 52 V. TEA-DRINKING................................................... 60 VI. THE PETERSKOI GARDENS................................ 65 VII. THE "LITTLE WATER............................................. 73 VIII. THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW.V................................. 77 IX. THE NOSE REGIMENT.............................88...... 88 X. THE EMPEROR'S BEAR-HUNT.................................. 92 XI. RUSSIAN HUMOR.......................,97 XII. A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE.................................... 10 XIII. THE DENOUEMENT........................................ 125 XIV. THE KREMLIN.............................................., 134 XV. RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.......................... 155 XVI. DESPOTISM versus SERFDOM................................. 165 XVII. REFORM IN RUSSIA.............................................. 170 XVIII. A BOND OF SYMPATHY.................................... 185 XIX. CIVILIZATION IN RUSSIA................................. 193 XX. PASSAGE TO REVEL........................................ 209 XXI. REVEL AND HELSINGFORS............................... 218 XXII. A BATHING SCENE.............................. 227 XXIII. ABO-FINLAND...................... 236 XXIV. STOCKHOLM...................................................... 248 XXV. WALKS ABOUT STOCKHOLM........,............................. 262 XXVI. THE GOTHA CANAL,,........................... 272 XXVII. VOYAGE TO CHRISTIANIA,,.............. 291 XXVIII. FROM CHRISTIANIA TO LILLEHAMMER.... 302 XXIX. HOW THEY TRAVEL IN NORWAY........................... 310 XXX. A NORWEGIAN GIRL................. 317 XXXI. HOW THEY LIVE................................ 335 XXXII. JOHN BULL ABROAD.............................................. 34 XXXIII. WOMEN IN NORWAY AND GERMANY...................... 361 XXXIV. DOWN THE DRIVSDAL...........................368 XXXV, A NORWEGIAN HORSE-JOCKEY............................. 372 iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XXXVI. OUT OF MONEY.................................. 381 XXXVII. ICELANDIC TRAVEL............................................ — 383 XXXVIII. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.................................. 387 XXXIX. VOYAGE TO SCOTLAND........................................ 398 XL. THE JOLLY BLOODS............................................ 404 XLI. THE FAROE ISLANDS.......................................... 408 XLII. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ICELAND............................ 426 XLIII. REYKJAVIK, THE CAPITAL OF ICELAND................... 431 XLIV. GEIR ZOEGA...................................................... 440 XLV. THE ENGLISH TOURISTS..................................... 445 XLVI. THE ROAD TO THINGVALLA.................................. 449 XLVII. THE ALMANNAJAU............................. 465 XLVIII. THINGVALLA................................... 476 XLIX. THE ROAD TO THE GEYSERS................................. 490 L. THE GEYSERS................................................... 503 LI. THE ENGLISH SPORTS IN TROUBLE.................... 527 LII, A FRIGHTFUL ADVENTURE............................ 537 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE Laborers and Shipwrights............................................... 10 Russian and Finn..................................................... 11 Cooper's Shop and Residence............................... 15 Merchant, Peddlers, and Coachman........................ 18 Istrovoschiks.................................................... 21 Fish Peddler....................................................... 29 Young Peasants............................... 31 Dvornick and Postman............................................... 35 Glazier, Painter, Carpenters............................................. 37 Hay Gatherers................................................................ 46 Prisoners for Siberia....................................................... 58 Tea-sellers...............................................1................ 61 Mujiks at Tea............................................................... 63 Russian Theatre............................................. 68 The Peterskoi Gardens..................................................... 72 Vodka.....................................75................ 75 Old-clothes' Market..........................;.............................. 78 Cabinet-makers......................................................... 84 Pigs, Pups, and Pans.......................................... 87 Imperial Nosegay.......................................................... 90 Skinned and Stuffed Man................................................. 100 Frozen Animals in the Market.......................................... 101 Mujik and Cats.................:............................................. 103 Effects of "Little W ater".......i......................................:111 Russian Beggars.......................................... 115 Gambling Saloon.......................................................... 122 A Passage of Politeness................................................... 157 Serfs..................... I...................................... 168 In Norseland................................................................. 292 The Steamer entering the Fjord......................................... 295 Coast of Norway......................................... 297 The Islands............................................................... 29 Approach to Christiania............................................ 303 Station-house, Logen Valley................................... 313 Station-boy.................................................... 321 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ~*~~~~ ~~~iPAOGE "Good-by-Many Thanks!"............................................ 322 Norwegian Peasant Family......................., 324 The Post-girl.................................................................. 330 Waiting for a Nibble.................................... 341 Snow-plow..................................................................... 344 A Drinking Bout......................................................... 345 A Norwegian Farm.............. 347 Norwegian Church.......................................................... 348 Parish Schoolmaster......................................... 349 Dovre Fjeld.................................................................. 353 Playing him out............. 356 English Sportsman.......................................................... 358 Bear Chase.............359 Peasant Women at Work................................................. 360 Wheeling Girls............................................................... 363 Justice otfthe Peace........................................................ 365 Model Landlord............................................................. 367 Drivsdal Valley.................. 369 Passage on the Driv............. 371 The Prize............................................. 375 Traveling on Foot............................................. 382 The great Geyser..385 Hans Christian Andersen...................., 394 A Dandy Tourist..........., 406 Thorshavn................. 407 View in Faroe Islands......................... 409 Faroese Children................ 412 Faroese Islanders............................................................ 414 Kirk Giboe........................................ 421 Farm-house and Ruins.................................................... 423 Faroese on Horseback.................................................... 425 Natural Bridge.......... 427 Coast of Iceland................................................ 429 The Meal-sack............... 430 Reykjavik, the Capital of Iceland..........432 Governor's Residence, Reykjavik... 434 Icelandic Houses............................................................ 435 Church at Reykjavik.............. 436 Icelanders at Work........................................................ 438 Geir Zoega................................................................ 441 Icelandic Horses............................. 443 Vinglish Party at Reykjavik.............. 447 A Rough Road.......... -451 Taking Snuff................................................................... 454 An Icelandic Bog............,,-, 459 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii PAGE Geir Zoega and Brusa.................... 463 Entrance to the Almannajau.............................................. 466 The Almannajau............................................................ 467 Skeleton View of the Almannajau........................................ 469 Outline View of Thingvalla................................. 470 Fall of the Almannajau.................................................. 472 Icelandic Shepherd-girl......................................... 473 Church at Thingvalla............................. 477 The Pastor's House....................................................... 479 The Pastor of Thingvalla................................................. 485 Skeleton View of the L6gberg....................................... 488 Thingvalla, LMgberg, Almannajau.......................... 489 Diagram of the LMgberg....................................... 490 An'Artist at Home........................................................ 492 Lava-fjelds........................................................ 494 Effigy in Lava............................................................... 495 The Hrafnajau......................................... 497 The Tintron Rock................................................. 499 Bridge River........502 Shepherd and Family.............. 506 The Strokhr......................... 516 Side-saddle.................................................................... 519 Great Geyser and Receiver........................................ 525 Strokhr and Receiver...................................................... 525' Oh'o-o-ah!............................................................. 529 The English Party............................................ 533 Interior of Icelandic Hut................................................. 536 An Awkward Predicament.....................,............... 540 THE LAND OF THOR. CHAPTER I. IMPRESSIONS OF ST. PETERSBURG. I LANDED at St. Petersburg with a knapsack on my back and a hundred dollars in my pocket. An extensive tour along the borders of the Arctic Circle was before me, and it was necessary I should husband my resources. In my search for a cheap German gasthaus I walked nearly all over the city. My impressions were probably tinctured by the circumstances of my position, but it seemed to me I had never seen so strange a place. The best streets of St. Petersburg resemble on an inferior scale the best parts of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Nothing in the architecture conveys any idea of national taste except the glittering cupolas of the churches, the showy colors of the houses, and the vast extent and ornamentation of the palaces. The general aspect of the city is that of immense level space. Built upon islands, cut up into -various sections by the branches of the Neva, intersected by canals, destitute of eminent points of observation, the whole city has a scattered and incongruous effect-an incomprehensible remoteness about it, as if one might continually wander about without finding the centre. Some parts, of course, are better than others; some streets are indicative of.wealth and luxury; but without a guide it is extremely difficult to determine whether there are not still finer buildings and quarters in the main part of the city-if you could only get at it. The eye wanders continually in search of heights and A 2 FE-=-~1?;I-~LABORERS AND'.-)SHIPWRIGiHT S. —~ —~ THE- LAND OF THOR. 11 prominent objects. Even the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, and the Izaak Church lose much of their grandeur in the surrounding deserts of space- fiom the absence of contrast with familiar and tangible objects. It is only by a careful examination in detail that one can become fully sensible of their extraordinary magnificence. Vast streets of almost interminable length, lined by insignificant two-story houses with green roofs and yellow walls; _'A fr., RUSSIAN AND FINN. vast open squares or ploschads; palaces, public buildings, and churches, dwindled down to mere toy-work in the deserts of space intervening; countless throngs of citizens and carriages scarcely bigger than ants to the eye; broad sheets of water, dotted with steamers, brigs, barks, 12. THE LAND OF THOR. wood-barges and row-boats, still infinitesimal in the distance; long rows of trees, forming a foliage to some of the principal promenades, with glimpses of gardens and shrubbery at remote intervals; canals and dismal green swamps —not all at one sweep of the eye, but visible from time to time in the course of an afternoon's ramble, are the most prominent characteristics of this wonderful city. A-vague sense of loneliness impresses the traveler from a distant land-as if in his pilgrimage through foreign climes he had at length wandered into the midst of a strange and peculiar civilization a boundless desert of wild-looking streets, a waste of colossal palaces, of gilded churches and glistening waters,-all perpetually dwindling away before him in the infinity of space. He sees a people strange and unfamiliar in costume and expression; fierce, stern-looking officers, rigid in features, closely shaved, and dressed in glittering uniforms; grave, long-bearded priests, with square-topped black turbans, their flowing black drapery trailing in the dust; pale women richly and'elegantly dressed, gliding unattended through mazes of the crowd; rough, half-savage serfs, in dirty pink shirts, loose trowsers, and big boots, bowing down before the shrines on the bridges and public places; the drosky drlvers, with their long beards, small bell-shaped hats, long blue coats and fire-bucket boots, lying half asleep upon their rusty little vehicles awaiting a customer, or dashing awayat a headlong pace over the rough cobble-paved streets, and so on of every class and kind. The traveler wanders about from place to place, gazing into the.strange faces he meets, till the sense of loneliness becomes oppressive. An invisible but impassable barrier seems to stand between him and the moving multitude. He hears languages that fall without a meaning upon his ear; wonders at the soft inflections of the voices; vainly seeks some familiar look or word; thinks it strange that he alone should be cut off from all communion with the souls of men around him; and then wonders if they have souls like other people, and why THE LAND:OF THOR. 13 there is no kindred expression in their faces-no visible consciousness of a commron humanity. It is natural that every stranger in a strange city should experience this feeling to some extent, but I know of no place where it seems so strikingly the case as in.St. Petersburg. Accustomed as I was to strange cities and strange languages, I never felt utterly lonely until I reached this great mart of commerce and civilization. The costly luxury of the palaces; the wild Tartaric glitter of the churches; the tropical luxuriance of the gardens; the brilliant equipages of the nobility; the display of military power; the strange and restless throngs forever moving through the haunts of business and pleasure; the uncouth costumes of the lower classes, and the wonderful commingling of sumptuous elegance and barbarous filth, visible in almost every thing, produced.a singular feeling of mlinl gled wonder and isolation-as if the solitary traveler were the only person in the world who was not permitted to comprehend the spirit and import of the scene, or take a part in the great drama of life in which all others seemed to be engaged. I do not know if plain, practical men are generally so easily impressed by external objects, but I must confess that when I trudged along the streets with my knapsack on my back, looking around in every. direction for a gasthaus; when I spoke to people in my peculiar style of French and German, and received unintelligible answers in Russian; when I got lost among palaces and grand military establishlments, instead of finding the gasthaus, and finally attracted the attention of the surly-looking guards, who were stationed about every where; by the anxious pertinacity with which I examined every building, a.vague notion began to get possession of me that I was a sort of outlaw, and would sooner or later be seized and dragged before the Czar for daring to enter such a magnificent city in such an uncouth and unbecoming manner. When I cast my eyes up at the sign-boards, and read about grand fabrications and steam-companies, and walked along the quays of the' 14 THE LAND OF THOR. Neva, and saw wood enough piled up in big broad-bottomed boats to'satisfy the wants of myself and family for ten thousand. years; when I strolled into the Nevskoi, and jostled.y way through crowds of nobles, officers, soldiers, dandies, and commoners, stopping suddenly at every picture-shop, gazing dreamily into the gorgeous millinery establishments, pondering thoughtfully over the glittering wares of the jewelers, lagging moodily by the grand. caf6s, and snuffing reflectively the odors that came from the grand restaurations-when all this occurred, and I went down into a beer-cellar and made.acquaintance with a worthy. German, and he asked me if I had any meerschaums to sell, the notion that I had no particular business in so costly and luxurious a place began. to grow stronger than ever. A kind of dread came over me that +the mighty spirit of Peter the Great would come riding thrlough the scolrching hot air on a gale of snowflakes, at the head of a bloody phalanx of Muscovites, and, rising in his stirrups as he approached, would demand of me in a voice of thunder, "Stranger, how much money have you got?" to which I could only answer, " Sublime and -potent Czar, taking the average value of my Roaring Grizzly, Dead Broke, Gone Case, and Sorrowful Countenance, and placing it against the present value of Russian securities, I consider it within the bounds of reason to say that I hold about a million of rubles!" But if he should insist upon an exhibit'of ready cash-there was the rub! It absolutely made me feel weak in the knees to think of it. Indeed, a horrid suspicion seized me, after I had crossed the bridge and begun to renew my search for a cheap gasthaus on the Vasoli Ostrou, that every fat, neatly-shaved man I met, with- small gray eyes, a polished hat on his head drawn a little over his brow, his lips compressed, and his coat buttoned closely around his body, was a rich banker, and that he was saying to himself as I passed, "That fellow with the slouched hat and the knapsack is a suspicious character, to say the least of him. It becomes my duty to warn the police of his ~ir~~lp= — -— ~ -L —- — jk *c.Z r —, r, — r —~ ---- -" \\I If ii 1..=-, ii 1, i ~~r ~r s r% ~~r ~ ~ ~~~ // ~,,4 IIII 3~ -e COO'PEB'B 8HOP BND ItPIBIDENOE. 16 THE LAND OF THIOR. movements. I suspect him to be a Hungarian refugee." With some difficulty, I succeeded at length in finding just such a place as I desired-clean and comfortable enough, considering the circumstances, and not unusually fertile in vermin for a city like St. Petersburg, which produces all kinds of troublesome insects spontaneously. There was this advantage in my quarters, in addition to their cheapness-that the proprietor and attendants spoke several of the Christian languages, including German, which, of all languages in the world, is the softest and most euphonious to my ear -when I am away from Frankfort. Besides, my room was very advantageously arranged for a solitary traveler. Being about eight feet square, with only one small window overlooking the back yard, and effectually secured by iron fastenings, so that nobody could open it, there was no possibility of thieves getting in and robbing me when the door was shut and locked on the inside, Its closeness presented an effectual barrier against the night air, which in these high northern latitudes is considered extremely unwholesome to sleep in. With the thermometer at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the atmosphere, to be sure, was a little sweltering during the day, and somewhat thick by night, but that was an additional advantage, inasmuch as it forced the occupant to stay out most of the time and see a great deal more of the town than he could possibly see in his room. Having deposited my knapsack and put my extra shirt in the wash, you will now be kind enough to consider me the shade of Virgil, ready to lead you, after the fashion of Dante, through the infernal regions or any where else within the bounds of justice, even through St. Petersburg, where the climate in summer is hot enough to satisfy almost any body. The sun shines -here, in June and July, for twenty hours a day, and even then scarcely disappears beneath the horizon. I never experienced such sweltering weather in any part THE LAND OF THOR. 17 of the world except Aspinwall. One is fairly boiled with the heat, and might be wrung out like a wet rag. Properly speaking, the day commences for respectable people, and men of enterprising spirit - tourists, pleasureseekers, gamblers, vagabonds, and the like-about nine or ten o'clock at night, and continues till about four or five o'clock the next morning. It is then St. Petersburg fairly turns out; then the beauty and fashion of the city unfold their wings and flit through the streets, or float in Russian gondolas upon the glistening waters of the Neva; then it is the little steamers skim about from island. to island, freighted with a population just waked up to a realizing sense of.the pleasures, of existence; then is the atmosphere balmy, and.the light wonderfully soft and richly tinted; then come the sweet witching hours, when' ii l j!~~~~~~~~ i s' G!'! G 38 THIIE LAND OF THOR. such a thing, neithef had the young Mechlenberger, and they both agreed that cats must be a very disgusting article of food. The Russian, however, seemed to regard it as nothing uncommon, and gave us some very entertaining accounts of various curious dishes in the interior of Russia, to which cats were not a circumstance. With such flimsy. conversation as this we entertain ourselves till we reach a village of summer residences on the Kamennoi Island. Here we pause a while to enjoy the varied scenes of amusement that tempt the loiterer at every step; the tea-drinking parties out on the porticoes, the gambling saloons, the dancing pavilions, the caf6s, the confectioneries, with their gay throngs of customers, their gaudy colors, their music, and sounds ofjoy and revelry. A little farther on we come to a stand of carriages, and near by a gate and a large garden. For thirty kopecks apiece we procure tickets of admission. This is the Vauxhall of Kamennoi. We jostle in with the crowd, and soon find ourselves in front of an open theatre. So passes away the time till the whistle of a little steamer warns us of an opportunity to get back to the city. Hurrying down to the wharf, we secure places on the stern-sheets of a screw-wheeled craft not much bigger than a good-sized yawl. It is'crowded to overflowing-in front, on top of the machinery, in the rear, over the sides-not a square inch of space left for man or beast. The whistle blows again; the fiery little monster of an engine shivers and screams with excess of steam; the grim, black-looking engineer gives the irons a pull, and away we go at a rate of speed that'threatens momentary destruction against some bridge or bath-house. It is now two o'clock A.M. The rays of the rising sun are already reflected upon the glowing waters of the Neva. Barges and row-boats are hurrying toward the city. Carriages are rolling along the shady avenues of the islands. Crowds are gathered at every pier and landing-place awaiting some conveyance homeward. Ladies are waving their handkerchiefs to the little steamer to THE LAND OF THOR. 39 stop, and-gentlemen are flourishing their hats. The captain blows the whistle, and the engineer stops the boat with such a sudden reversion of our screw that we are pitched forward out of the seats. Some of the passengers clamber up at the landing-places, and others clamber down and take their places. The little engine sets up its terrific scream again; the hot steam hisses and fizzes all over the boat; involuntary thoughts of maimed limbs and scalded skins are palpably impressed upon every face; but the little steamer keeps on-she is used to it, like the eels, and never bursts up. Winding through the varied channels of the Neva, under bridges, through narrow passes, among wood-boats, row-boats, and ship: ping, we at length reach the landing on the Russian Quays above the Admiralty. Here we disembark, well satisfied to be safely over all the enjoyments and hazards of the evening,. Evening, did I say? The morning sun is blazing out in all his glory! We have had no evening-no night. It has been all a wild, strange, glowing fireak of fancy. The light of day has been upon us all the time. And now, should we go to bed, when the sun is shining over the city, glistening upon the domes of the churches, illuminating the windows of the palaces, awaking the drowsy sailors of the Neva? Shall we hide ourselves away in suffocating rooms when the morning breeze is floating in fiom the Gulf of Finland, bearing upon its wings the invigorating brine of ocean, or shall we,'"Pleased to feel the air, Still wander in the luxury of light?" CHAPTER III. VIEWS ON THE MOSCOW RAILWAY. THE St. Petersburg and Moscow Railroad has been in operation some eight or ten years, and has contributed much to the internal prosperity of the country. In the 40 THE LAND OF THOR. summer of 1862 it was extended as far as Vladimir, and now connects St. Petersburg with Nijni Novgorod, one of the most important points in the empire, where the great annual fair is held, where tea-merchants and others from all parts of Tartary and China meet to exchange the products of those countries with those- of the Imerchants of Russia. During the present year (1862) it is expected that the line of railway connection will be completed from St. Petersburg to the Prussian frontier, and connect with the railroads of Prussia, so that within twelve months it will be practicable to travel by rail all the way from Marseilles or Bordeaux to Nijhii Nov*gorod. The Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway is something over four hundred miles in length, and consists of a double track, broad, well graded, and substantially constructed. The whole business of running the line, keeping the cars and track in repair, working the machine-shops, etc., embracing all the practical details of the operative department, is let out by contract to an American company, while the government supervises the financial department, and reserves to itself the municipal control.* It is a remarkable fact, characteristic of the Russians, that while they possess uncommon capacity to acquire all the details of engineering, and are by no means lacking in mechanical skill, they are utterly deficient in management and administrative capacity. Wasteful, improvident, and short-sAighted, they can never do any thing without the aid of more sagacious and economical heads to keep them within the bounds of reason.'Thus, at one time, when they undeitook to run this line on their own account, although they started with an extraordinary surplus of material, they soon ran the cars off their wheels, forgetting to keep up a supply of new ones as they went along; ran the engines out of working order; kept nothing in repair; provided against no contingency; and were finally likely to break down entirely, when * This contract terminated last year (1865). rHE LAND OF THOR. 41 they determined that it would be better to give this branch of the business out by contract. One great fault with them is, they labor under an idea that nothing can be' done without an extraordinary number of officers, soldiers, policemen, and employes of every descriptionupon the principle, I suppose, that if two heads are better than one, the ignorance or inefficiency of a small number of employes can be remedied by having a very great number of the same kind. In other words, they seem to think that if five hundred men can not be industrious,- skillful, and economical, five thousand trained in exactly the same schools, and with precisely the same propensities, must be ten times better. Even now there is not a station, and scarcely a foot of the'railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow, that is not infested with an extraordinary surplus of useless men in uniform. At the great d6epts in each of these cities the traveler is fairly confused with the crowds of officers and employ(s through which he is obliged to make his way. Before he enters the doorways, liveried porters outside offer to take his baggage; then he passes by guards, who look at him carefully and let him go in; then he finds guards who show hirm where to find the ticket-office; when he arrives at the ticket-office, he finds a guard or two outside, and half a dozen clerks inside; then he buys his ticket, and an' officer examines it as he. goes into the wilrthsaal; there he finds other officers stationed to preserve order; when the bell rings the doors are opened; numerous officers outside show him where to find the cars, and which car he must get into; and when he gets into a car he sits for a quarter' of an hour, and sees officerls going up and down outside all the time, and thinks to himself that people certainly can not be supposed to haye very good eyes, ears, or understanding of their own in this country, since nobody is deemed capable of using them on his individual responsibility.' I only wonder that they don't eat, drink, sleep, and travel for a man at once by proxy, and thereby save him the trouble of liv 42 THE LAND OF THOR. ing or' moving at all. In fact, I had some thought of asking. one of these licensed gentlemen if the regulations could not be stretched a point so as to embrace the payment of my expenses; but it occurred to me that if I were relieved of that responsibility, they might undertake at the same time to write these letters for me, which would be likely to alter the tone and thereby destroy my individuality. But it must be admitted that good order, convenience, politeness, and comfort are the predominant characteristics of railway travel. in Russia. The conductors usually speak French, German, and English,.and are exceedingly attentive to the comfort of the passengers. The hours of starting and stopping are punctually observed-so punctually that you can calculate to the exact minute when you will arrive at any given point. Having no watch, I always knew the time by looking at my ticket. Between St. Petersburg and Moscow there are'thirty-three stations, seven of which are the grand stations of Lubanskaia, Malovischerskaia, Okoulourskaia, Bologovskaia, Spirovskaia, Tver, and Klinskaia. The rest are small intermediate stations. At every seventy-five versts —about fifty miles-the cars stop twenty minutes, and refreshments may be had by paying a pretty heavy price for them. At the points above-named there are large and substantial edifices built by the qompany, containing various offices, spacious eating-saloons, ante-chambers, etc., and attached to which are extensive machine-shops, and various outbuildings required by the service. Occasionally towns may be seen in the vicinity of these stations, but for the most part they stand out desolate and alone in the dreary waste of country lying between the two great cities.' At every twenty-five versts are sub-stations, where the cars stop for a few minutes. These are also large. and very substantial edifices, but not distinguished for architectural beauty, like many- of the stations in France and Germany. Usually the Russian station consists of an immense plain circular building, constructed THE LAND OF THOR. 43 of brick, with very, thick: walls, and a plain zinc roof, the outside painted red, the roof green; wings or flanges built of the same material extending along the track; a broad wooden esplanade in front, upon which the passengers can amuse themselves promenading, and a neat garden, with other accommodations, at one end. Some of the large stations are not only massive and of enormlous extent, but present rather a striking and picturesque appearance as they. are approached from the distance, standing as they do in the great deserts of space like solitary sentinels of civilization. The passengelrs rush out at every stopping-place just as they do in other parts of the world, some to stretch their limbs, others to replenish the waste that seems to be constantly going on in the stomachs of the traveling public. I don't know how it is, but it appears to me that people who travel by railway are always either tired, thirsty, or hungry; The voracity with whicl, plates ofisoup, cutlets, sandwiches, salad, scalding hot tea, wine, beer,- and brandy are swallowed down by these hungry and thirsty Russians, is quite as striking as any thing I ever saw done in the same line at Washoe. But it is not a feature confined to Russia. I notice the same thing every where all over the world; and what vexes me about it is that 1 never get tired myself, and rarely hungry or thirsty. Here, in midsummer, with a sweltering hot sun, and an atmosphere that would almost smother a sala-mander, were -whole legions of officers, elegantly-dressed ladies, and a rabble of miscellaneous second and third class passengers like myself, puffing, blowing, eating, drinking, sweating, and toiling, as if their very existence depended upon-keeping up the internal fires and blowing them off again. It is di'eadful to see people so hard pushed to live. I really can't conjecture what sort of a commotion they will make when they come to die. A sandwich or two and a glass of tea lasted me all the way to Moscow-a journey of eighteen hours, and I never.suffered from hunger, thirst, or fatigue the whole way. 44.THE LAND OF THOR. If I had " gone in" like other people, I would certainly have been a dead man before I got half way; and yet, I think, two sandwiches more would have lasted me to the Ural Mountains. It continually bothers me to know how the human stomach can bear to be tormented in this frightful way. Per Baccho! I would as soon be shot in the hand with an escopette ball as drink the quantity of wine and eat the quantity of food that -I have seen even women and children dispose of, as if it were mere pastime, on these railway journeys. I think it must be either this or the frost that accounts for the extraordinary prevalence of red noses in Russia, and it even occurred to me that the stations are painted a fiery red, so that when travelers come within range of the refracted color their noses may look pale by contrast, and thereby. remind them that it is time to renew the caloric. With dte exception o6f the seventy-five versts between Moscow and-Tver, I can not remember that I ever traveled over so desolate and uninteresting a stretch of country as that lying between St. Petersburg and Moscow. For a short distance out of St. Petersburg there are some few villas and farms to relieve the monotony of the gloomy pine forests; then the country opens out into immense;undulating plains, marshy meadows, scrubby groves of young pine, without any apparent limit; here and there a bleak and solitaryvillage of log huts; a herd of cattle in the meadows; a wretched, sterile-looking farm, with plowed fields, at remote intervals, and so on hour after hour, the scene offering but little variety the whole way to Tver. The villages are wholly destitute of picturesque effect. Such rude and miserable hovels as they ale composed of could scarcely be found in the wildest frontier region of the United States.- These cabins or hovels are built of logs, and are very low and small, generally consisting of only one or two rooms. I saw none that were whitewashed or painted, and nothing like order or regularity was perceptible about them, all seem THE LAND OF THOR. 45 ing to be huddled together'as if they happened there by accident, and were obliged to keep at close quarters in order to avoid freezing during the terrible winters. Some of them are not unlike the city of Eden in Martin Chuzzlewit. The entire absence of every thing approaching taste, comfort, or rural beauty in the appearance of these villages; the weird and desolate aspect of the boggy and grass-grown streets; the utter want of interest in progress or improvement on the part of the peasantry who inhabit them, are well calculated to produce a melancholy impression of the condition of these poor people. IHow can it be otherwise, held in bondage as they have been for centuries, subject to be taxed at the discretion of their owners; the results of their labors wrested from them; no advance made by the most enterprising and intell-gent of them without in some way subjecting them to new burdens.? Whatever nmay be the result of the movement now made for their emancipation, it'certainly.can not be more depressing than the existing system of serfage.. Looking back over the scenes of village life I had witnessed in France and Germany-the neat vinecovered cottages, the little flower-gardens, the orcha-rds and green lanes, the festive days, when the air resounded to the merry voices of laughing damsels and village beaux"' The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade, For talking age and whispering lovers made"the joyous dancers out on -the.Village green, the flaunting banners and wreaths of flowers hung in rich profusion over the cross-roads —with such scenes as these flitting throuqgh my memory, I could well understand that there is an absolute physical servitude-to which men can be reduced, that, in the progress of generations, must crush down the human soul, and make life indeed a dreary struggle. In the splendor of large cities, amid the glitter and magnificence of palaces and churches, the varied paraphernalia of aristocracy and wealth, and all the excitements, allurements, and novelties apparent to the su 46 THE LAND OF THOR." perficial eye, the real condition of the masses is not perceptible. They must be seen in the country-in their far-off'villages and homes throughout the broad land; there you find no disguise to cover the horrible deformities of their bruised anid crushed life; there you see the full measure of their civilization. In the huts of these poor people there is little or no comfort. Many of them have neither beds nor chairs, and the occupants spend a sort of camp life within doors, cooking their food like Indians, and huddling round the earthern stove or fireplace in winter, where they lie down on the bare ground and sleep in a bmass, like a nest of animals, to keep each other warm. Their clothing is of the coarsest material, but reasonably good, and well suited to the climate. The men are a much finer-looking race, physically, than their!AY GATHERERS. THE LAND OF THOR. 47 masters. I saw some serfs in Moscow who, in stature, strong athletic forms, and bold and manly features, would compare favorably with the best specimens of men in any country. It was almost incredible that such noble-looking fellows, with their blue, piercing eyes and rhanly air, should be reduced to such astate of abject servitude as to kiss the tails of their master's coats! Many of them had features as bold and forms as brawny as our own California miners; and more than once, when I saw them lounging about in their big boots, with their easy, reckless air, and looked at their weather-beaten faces and vigorous, sun-burnt beards, I could almost imagine that they were genuine Californians. But here the resemblance ceased. No sooner did an' officer of high standing pass, than they manifested some abject sign of their degraded condition. Some of the agricultural implements that one sees in this country would astonish a Californian. The plows are patternied very much after those that were used by Boaz and other large farmers-in the days of the Patri — archs; the scythes are the exact originals of the old pictures in which Death is represented as mowing down mankind; the hoes, rakes, and shovels would'be an ornament to any museum, but are entirely indescribable; and as for the wagons and harnesses-her'ein lies the. superior genius of the Russians over all the races of earth, ancient or modern, for never were such wagons and such harnesses seen on any other part of the globe. To be accurate and methodical, each wagon has four wheels, and each wheel is roughly put together of rough wood, and then roughly bound up in an iron band about four inches wide, and thick in prportion. Logs of wood, skillfully hewed with broad'axes, answer for the axle-tree; and as they don't weigh over half a ton each, they are sometimes braced in the middle to keep them from breaking. Upon the top of this is a big basket, about the shape of a bath-tub, ini which the load is carried. Sometimes the body is made of planks tied together with bullock's hide, 48 THE LAND OF THOR. or no body at all is used, as convenience may require. The wagon being thus completed, braced and thorQughbraced with old ropes, iron bands, and leather straps, we come to the horses, which stand generally in front. The middle horse is favored with a pair of shafts of enormous durability and strength. He stands between these shafts, anfd is fastened in them by means of ropes; but, to prevent him from jumping out overhead, a wooden arch is out over him, which is the chef-d'oeuvre of ornamentation. This is called the dugCa, and is the most prominent object to be seen about every wagon, drosky, and kibitka in Russia. I am not sure but a species of veneration is attached to it. Often it is highly decorated with gilding, painted figures, and every vagary of artistic genius, and must cost nearly as much as the entire wagon. Some of the cgctas even carry saintly images upon them, so that the devout driver may perform his devotions as he drives through life. To suppose that a horse could pull a wagon in Russia without this wooden arch, the utility of which no human eye but that of a Russian can see, is to suppose an impossibility. Now, the shafts being spread out so as to give the horse plenty of room at each side, it becomes necessary, since they are rather loosely hung on at the but-ends, to keep them from swaying. How do you think this is done? Nothing easier. By running a rope from the end of each shaft to the projecting end of the fore axle, outside of the wheels. For this purpose the axle is made to project a foot beyond the wheels, and the only trouble about it is that two wagons on a narrow road often find it difficult rto pass. It is very curious to see these primitive-looking objects lumbering about throughihe streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The horses are most commonly placed three abreast. In the ordinary kibitka or traveling wagon the outside horses are merely fastened by ropes, and strike out in any direction they please, the whip and a small rein serving to keep them within bounds. It is perfectly astonishing with what reckless and head THE LAND OF THOR. 49 long speed these animals dash over the rough pavements. Just imagine the luxury of a warm day's journey in such a vehicle, which has neither springs nor backed seatsthree fiery horses fastened to it, and each pulling, plunging, and pirouetting on his own account; a ferocious yamtschick cracking. his whip and shrieking "Shivar! shivar!"-faster! faster!-the wagon rattling all over, plunging into ruts, jumping over stones, ripping its way through bogs and mud-banks; your bones shaken nearly out of their sockets; your vertebrae partially dislocated; your mouth filled with dust; your tongue swollen and parched; your eyes blinded with grit; your yamtschick reeling drunk with vodka, and bound to draw to the destined station —or some worse place; your confidence in men and horses shaken with your bones; your views of the future circumscribed by every turn of the road-oh! it is charming; it is the very climax of human enjoyment. Wouldn't'you like to travel in Russia? In addition to the villages which are scattered at frequent intervals along the route, the gilded dome of a church is occasionally seen in the distance, indicating the existence of a town; but one seldom catches more than a glimpse of the green-covered roofs of the houses, over the interminable patches of scrubby pine. It is not a country that presents such attractive features as to induce the mere tourist to get out and spend a few days rambling through it. In these dreary solitudes of marshes and pines, the inhabitants speak. no. other language than their own, and that not very well; but well or ill, it is all Greek —or rather Russian-to the majority of people from other countries. But, as I said before, this habit of digression will be the death of me. Like a rocket, I start off splendidly, but explode and fall to pieces in every direction before I get half way on my journey. If the scintillations are varied and gayly colored, to be sure, the powder is. not utterly lost; but the trouble of it is, if one keeps going off like rockets all the time, he will never get any where, C 50 THE LAND OF THOR. and in the end will leave nothing but smoke and darkness to the gaping multitude. If my memory serves me, I was talking of the Emperor-Alexander's convoy of private railway carriagesthe most magnificent affair of the kind, perhaps, in existence. It was made purposely for his use, at a cost of more than a hundred thousand dollars, and presented to him by the American company, Winans and Company. Nothing so magnificent in decoration, and so admirably adapted tot the convenience, comfort, and enjoyment of a royal party has ever been seen in Europe. The -main carriage-for there are several in the suite-called,par excellence, the emperor's own, is eighty-five feet long, and something over the usual width. It rests upon two undivided sleepers of such elastic and well-grained wood that they would bear the entire weight of the carriage, without the necessity of a support in the middle, forming a single stretch or arch, from axle to axle, of about seventy feet. The springs, wheels, brakes, and various kinds of iron-work, are of the finest and most select material, and highly finished in every detail, combining strength and durability with artistic beauty. The interior of the main or imperial carriage is a masterpiece of sumptuous ornamentation. Here are the richest of carvings; the most gorgeous hangings of embroidered velvet;' mirrors and pictures in profusion; carpets and rugs that seem coaxing the feet to linger upon them; tables, cushioned sofas, and luxurious arm-chairs; divans and lounges of rare designs, covered with the richest damask; exquisite Pompeian vases and brilliant chandeliers -all, in short, that ingenuity qould devise and wealth procu're to charm the senses, and render this a traveling palace worthy the imperial presence. Connected with the main saloon is the royal bedchamber, with adjoining bathing and dressing rooms, equ'ally sumptuous in all their appointments. Besides which, there are smokingrooms, private offices, magnificent chambers for the camarilla, the secretaries, and body-guard of the emperor. THE LAND OF THOR. 51 The whole is admirably arranged for convenience and comfort; and it is said that'the motion, when the convoy is under way, is so soft and dreamy that it is scarcely possible to feel a vibration, the effect being as if the cars were floating through the air, or drawn over tracks of down. Fully equal to this, yet more' subdued and delicate in the drapery and coloring, are the apartments of the emnpress. Here it may truly be said is "the poetry of motion" realized-saloons fit for the angels that flit through them, of whom the chiefest ornament is the empress herself-the beautiful and beloved Maria Alexandrina, the charm of whose presence is felt like a pleasant glow of sunshine wherever she goes. Here are drawingrooms, boudoirs, apartments for the beautiful maidlof honor, reading-rooms, and even a dancing-saloon, from which it may well be inferred that the royal party enjoy themselves. If the emperor fails to make himself agreeable in this branch of his establishment, he deserves to be put out at the very first station. But he has the ladies at a disadvantage, which probably compels them to be very tolerant of his behavior; that is to say, he can detach their branch of the establishment from his own, and leave them on the road at any time he pleases by pulling a string; but I believe there is no instance yet on record of his having availed himself of this autocratic privilege. It is usually understood at the start whether the excursion is to be in partnership or alone. When the emperor goes out on a hunting expedition, he is accompanied by a select company of gentlemen, and of course is compelled to deprive himself of the pleasure' of the more attractive and intoxicating society of ladies, which would be calculated to unsteady his nerves, and render him unfit for those terrific encounters with the bears of the forest upon which his fame as a hunter is chiefly founded. 52 TI;E LAND OF THOR. CHAPTER IV. MOSCOW. WVHAT the great Napoleon thought when he gazed for the first time across the broad valley that lay at his feet, and caught the first dazzling light that flashed from the walls and golden cupolas of the Kremlin-whether some shadowy sense of the wondrous beauties of the scene did not enter his soul-is more than I can say with certaity; but this much I know, that neither he nor his legions could have enjoyed the view from Sparrow Hill more than I did the first glimpse of the grand old city of the Czars as I stepped from the railroad depot, with my knapsack on my back, and stood, a solitary and bewildered waif, uncertain if it could all be real; for never yet had I, in the experience of many years' travel, seen such a magnificent sight, so wildly Tartaric, so strange, glowing, and incomprehensible. This was Moscow at last-the Moscow I had read of when a child-the Moscow I had so often seen burnt-up in panoramas by an excited and patriotic populace —the Moscow ever flashing through memory in fitful gleams, half buried in smoke, and flames, and toppling ruins, now absolutely before me, a gorgeous reality in the bright noonday sun, with its countless churches, its domes and cupolas, and mighty Kremlin. Stand with me, reader, on the first eminence, and let us take a bird's-eye view of the city, always keeping in mind that the Kremlin is the great nucleus from which it all radiates. What a vast, wavy ocean of golden cupJlas and fancy-colored domes, green-roofed houses and tortuous streets dircle'around this magic pile! what a combination of wild, barbaric splendors! nothing within the sweep of vision that is not glowing and Oriental. THE LAND OF THOR. 53 Never was a city so fashioned for scenic effects. From the banks of the Moskwa the Kremlin rears its glittering crest, surrounded by green-capped towers and frowning embattlements, its umbrageous gardens and massive white walls conspicuous over the vast, sea of greenroofed houses, while high above all, grand and stern, like some grim old Czar of the North, rises the magnificent tower of Ivan Veliki. Within these walls stand the chief glories of Moscow-the palaces of the Emperor, the Cathedral of the Assumption, the House of the Holy Synod, the Treasury, the Arsenal, and the Czar Kolokol, the great king of bells. All these gorgeous edifices, and many more, crown the eminence which forms the sacred grounds, clustering in a magic maze of beauty around the tower- of Ivan the Terrible. Beyond the -walls are numerous open spaces occupied by booths and markets; then come the principal streets and buildings of the city, encircled by the inner boulevards; then the suburbs, around which wind the outer boulevards; then a vast tract of beautiful and undulating country, dotted with villas, lakes, convents, and public buildings, inclosed in the far distance by the great outer wall, which forms a circuit of twenty miles around the city. The Moskwa River enters near the Presnerski Lake, and, taking a circuitous route, washes the base of the Kremlin, and passes out near the convent of St. Daniel. If you undertake,. however, to trace out any plan of the city from the confused maze of streets that lie outspread before you, it will be infinitely worse than an attempt to solve the mysteries of a woman's heart; for there is no apparent-plan about it; the whole thing is an unintelligible web of accidents. There is no accounting for its irregularity, unless upon the principle that it became distorted in a perpetual struggle to keep within reach of the Kremlin. It is sometimes rather amusing to compare one's preconceived ideas of a place with the reality. A city like Mloscow is very difficult to recognize from any written 54 THE LAND OF THOR. description. From some cause wholly inexplicable, I had pictured to my mind a vast gathering of tall, massive houses, elaborately ornamented; long lines of na.rrow and gloomy streets; many great palaces, dingy with age; and a population composed chiefly of Russian nabobs and their retinues of serfs. The reality is almost exactly the reverse of all these preconceived ideas. The houses for the most part are low-not over one or two stories high —painted with gay and fanciful colors, chiefly yellow, red,- or blue; the roofs of tin or zinc, and nearly all of a bright green, giving them a very lively effect in the sun; nothing grand or imposing about them in detail, and but little pretension to architectural beauty. Very nearly such houses may be seen every day on any of the four continents. Still, every indication of life presents a very different aspect from any thing in our own country. The people have a slow, slouching, shabby appearance; and the traveler is forcibly reminded, by the strange costumes he meets at every turn-the thriftless and degenerate aspect of the laboring classes-the great lumbering wagons that roll over the stone-paved streets-the droskies rattling hither and thither with their grave, priest-like drivers and wild horses-the squads of filthy soldiers lounging idly at every corner-the markets and marketplaces, and all that gives interest to the scene, that he is in a foreign land-a wild land of fierce battles between the elements, and fiercer still between-men-where civilization is ever struggling between Oriental barbarism and European profligacy. The most interesting feature in the population of Moscow is their constant and extraordinary displays of religious enthusiasm. This seems to be confined to no class or sect, but is -the prevailing characteristic. No less than three hundred churches are embraced within the limits of the city. Some writers estimate the number as high as five hundred; nor does the discrepancy show so much a want of accuracy as the difficulty of de THE LAND OF THOR. 55 termining precisely what constitutes a distinct church. Many of these remarkable edifices are built in clusters, with a variety of domes and cupolas, with different names, and contain distinct places of worship-as in the Cathedral of St. Basil, for instance, which is distinguished by a vast number of variegated domes, and embraces within its limits at least five or six separate churches, each church being still farther subdivided into various chapels. Of the extraordinary architectural style of these edifices, their many-shaped and highly-colored domes, representing all the hues of the rainbow, the gilding so lavishly bestowed upon them, their wonderfully picturesque effect from every point of view, it would be impossible to convey any adequate idea without enter-.ing into a more elaborate description than I can at present attempt. But it is not only in the numberless churches scattered throughout the city that the devotional spirit of the inhabitants is manifested. Moscow is the Mecca of Russia, where all are devotees. The external forms of religion are every where apparent —in the palaces, the barracks, the institutions of learning, the traktirs, the bathhouses —even in the drinking cellars and gambling-hells. Scarcely a bridge or corner of a street is without its shrine, its pictured saint and burning taper, before which every by-passer of high or low degree bows down and worships. It may be said with truth that one is never out of sight of devotees baring their heads and prostrating themselves before these sacred images. All distinctions of rank seem lost in this universal passion for prayer. The nobleman, in his gilded carriage with liveried servants, stops and pays the tribute of an uncovered head to some saintly image by the bridge or the roadside; the peasant, in his shaggy sheepskin capote, doffs his greasy cap, and, while devoutly crossing himself, utters a prayer; the soldier, grim and warlike, marches up in his rattling armor, grounds his musket, and forgets for the time his mission of blood; the tradesman, with 56 THE LAND OF THOR. his leather apron and labor-worn hands, lays down his tools and does homage to the shrine;! the drosky-driver, noted for his petty villainies, checks his horse, and, standing up in his drosky, bows low and crosses himself before he crosses the street or the bridge; even my guide, the saturnine Dominico-and every body knows what guides are all over the world-halted at every corner, regardless of time, and uttered an elaborate form of adjurations for our mutual salvation. Pictures of a devotional character are offered for sale in almost every booth, alley, and passage-way, where the most extraordinary daubs may be seen pinned up to the walls. Saints and dragons, fiery-nosed monsters, and snakes, and horrid creeping things, gilded and decorated in the m:st gaudy style, attract idle crowds from morning till night. It is marvelous with what profound reverence the Russians will gaze at these extraordinary specimens of art. Often you see a hardened-looking ruffian- his face covered with beard and filth; his great, brawny form resembling that of a prize-fighter; his costume a ragged blouse, with loose trowsers thrust in his boots; such a wretch, in short, as you would select for an unmitigated ruffian if you were in want of a model for that character-take off his cap, and, with superstitious awe and an expression of profound humility, bow down before some picture of a dragon with seven heads or a chubby little baby of saintly parentage. That these poor people are sincere in their devotion there can be no doubt. Their sincerity, indeed, is attested by the strongest proofs of self-sacrifice. A Russian will not hesitate to lie, rob, murder, or suffer starvation for the preservation of his religion. Bigoted though he may be, he is true to his faith and devoted to his forms of worship, whatever may be his short-comings in other respects. It is a part of his nature; it permeates his entire being. Hence no city in the world, perhaps -Jerusalem not excepted-presents so strange a spec THE LAND OF THOR. 57 tacle of religious enthusiasm, genuine and universal, mingled with moral turpitude; monkish asceticism and utter abandonment to vice; self-sacrifice and loose indulgence. It may be said that this is not true religion — not even what these people profess. Perhaps not; but it is what they are accustomed to from infancy, and it certainly develops some of their best traits of character-charity to each other, earnestness, constancy, and self-sacrifice. On the morning after my arrival in Moscow I witnessed from the window of my hotel a very impressive and melancholy spectacle-the departure of a gang of prisoners for Siberia. The number amounted to some two or three hundred. Every year similar trains are dispatched, yet the parting scene always attracts a sympathizing crowd. These poor creatures were -chained in pairs, and guarded by a strong detachment of soldiers. Theii' appearance, as they stood in the street awaiting the order\ to march, was very sad. Most of them were miserably clad, and some scarcely clad at all. A degraded, forlorn set they were —filthy and ragged-their downcast features expressive of an utter absence of hope. Few of them seemed to have any friends or relatives in the crowd of by-standers; but in two. or three instances I noticed some very touching scenes of separationwhere wives came to bid good-by to their husbands, and children to their fathers. Nearly every body gave them something to help them on their way-a few kopecks, a loaf of bread, or some cast-off article of clothing. I saw a little child timidly approach the gang, and, dropping a small coin into the hand of one poor wretch, run back again into the crowd, weeping bitterly. These prisoners ar condemned to exile for three, foulr, or five years -often for life. It requires from twelve to eighteen months of weary. travel, all the way on foot, through barren wastes and inhospitable deserts, to enable them to reach their desolate place of exile. Many of them fall sick on the way from fatigue and privation-many C2 J,,Jq)I,/' i~ __-__... ~~~ I//HI~~~~~~~/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'./'. I ) -i IIII -— < ___ 1 __ 1_~~., _I —-_-/: —-_-_/ —- -:,, ~II 111111 Q ~,.,~~'i!l THE LAND OF THOR. 59 die. Few ever live to return. In some instances the whole term of exile is served out on the journey to and from Siberia. On their arrival they are compelled to labor in the government mines or on the public works. Occasionally the most skillful and industrious are rewarded by appointments to positions of honor and trust, and become in the course of time leading men. In contemplating the dreary journey of these: poor creatures a journey of some fifteen hundred or two thousand miles -I was insensibly reminded of that touching little story of filial affection, "Elizabeth of Siberia," a story drawn fromn nature, and known in all civilized languages. Not long after the departure of the Siberian prisoners, I witnessed, in passing along one of the principal streets, a grand funeral procession. The burial of the dead is a picturesque and interesting ceremony in Moscow. A body of priests, dressed in black robes and wearing long beards, take the lead in the funeral cortege,-bearing in their hands shrines and burning tapers. The hearse follows, drawn by four horses. Black plumes wave from the heads ofthe horses, and flowing black drapery covers their bodies and legs. Even their heads are draped in black, nothing being perceptible but their eyes. The coffin lies exposed on the top of the hearse, and is also similarly draped. This combination of sombre plumage and drapery has a singularly mournful appearance. Priests stand on steps attached to the hearse holding images of the Savior over the coffin; others follow in the rear, comforting the friends and relatives of the deceased. A wild, monotonous chant is sung from time to time by the chief mourners as the procession moves toward thef burial-ground. The people cease their: occupations in the streets through which the funeral passes, uncover their heads, and, bowing down before the images borne by the priests, utter prayers for the repose of the dead. The rich and the poor of both sexes stand upon the sidewalks and offer up their humble petitions. 60 THE LAND OF THOR. The deep-tongued bells of the Kremlin ring out solemn peals, and the wild and mournful chant of the priests mingles with the grand knell of death that sweeps through the air. All is profoundly impressive: the procession of priests, with their burning tapers; the drapery of black on the horses; the coffin with its dead; the weeping mourners; the sepulchral chant; the sudden- cessation of all the business of life, and the rapt attention of the multitude; the deep, grand, death-knell of the bells; the glitter of domes and cupolas on every side; the green-roofed sea of houses; the winding streets, and the costumes of the people-form a~ spectacle wonderfully wild, strange, and mournful. In every thing that comes within the sweep of the eye there is a mixed aspect of Tartaric barbarism and European civilization. Yet even the stranger from a far-distant clime, speaking another language, accustomed to other forms, must feel, in gazing upon such a scene, that death levels all distinctions of race-that our common mortality brings us nearer together. Every where we are pilgrims on the same journey. Wherever we sojourn among men, "The dead around us lie, And the death-bell tolls." CHAPTER V. TE A-DRINKI NG. THE traktirs, or tea-houses, are prominent among the remarkable institutions of Russia. In Moscow they abound in every street, lane, and by-alley. That situated near the Katai Gorod is said to be the best. Though inferior to the ordinary caf6s of Paris or Marseilles in extent and decoration, it is nevertheless pretty stylish in its way, and is interesting to strangers from. the fact that it represents a prominent feature in Russian life-the drinking of tchai.. THE LAND OF THOR. 61 Who has not heard of Russian tea? —the tea that comes all the way across the steppes of Tartary and over the Ural Mountains? the tea that never loses its flavor by admixture with the salt of the ocean, but is delivered over at the gr6at fair of Nijni Novgorod as pure and fragrant as when it started? He who has never heard.TEA-.,. -' ~ _.~ BORFOg7prAOFL7[Roj SELR.' TEA-SELLERS. of Russian tea has heard nothing, and he who has never enjoyed a glass of it may have been highly favored in other respects, but I contend that he has nevertheless led a very benighted existence. All epicures in the delicate leaf unite in pronouncing it far superidr to the nectar with which the gods of old were wont to quench their thirst. It is truly one of the luxuries of life-so soft; 62 THE LAND OF THOR. so richly yet delicately flavored; so bright, glowing, and transparent as it flashes through the crystal glasses; nothing acrid, gross, or- earthly about it -a heavenly compound that " cheers but not inebriates." " A balm for the sickness of care, A bliss for a bosom unbless'd." Come with me, fiiend, and let us take a seat in the traktir. Every body here is a tea-drinker. Coffee is never good in Russia. Besides, it is gross and villainous stuff compared with the tchai of Moscow. At all hours of the day we find the saloons crowded with Russians, French, Germans, and the representatives of various other nations- all worshipers before the burnished shrine of Tchai. A little saint in the corner presides especially over this department. The devout Russians take off their hats and make a profound salam. to this accommodating little patron, whose corpulent stomach and smiling'countenance betoken an appreciation of all the good things of life. Now observe how these wonderful Russians-the strangest and most incomprehensible of beings —cool themselves this sweltering hot day. Each stalwart son of the North calls for a portion of tchai, not a tea-cupful or a glassful, but a genuine Russian portion-a tea-potful. The tea-pot is small, but the tea is strong enough to bear an unlimited amount of dilution; and it is one of the glorious privileges of the tea-drinker in this country that he may have as much hot water as he pleases. Sugar is more sparingly supplied. The adept remedies this difficulty by placing a lump of sugar in his mouth and sipping his tea through it —a great improvement upon the custom said to exist in some parts of Holland, where a lump of sugar is hung by a string over the table and swung around from mouth to mouth, so that each guest may take a pull at it after swallowing his tea. A portion would be quite enough for a good-sized family in America. The Russian makes nothing of it. Filling and' swilling hour after hour, he seldom rises before he gets through ten or. fifteen tum THE LAND OF THOR. 63 blersful, and, if he happens to be thirsty, will double itenough, one would think, to founder a horse. But the Russian stomach is constructed upon some physiological - — _:'-:.://-=~: -I./"A" —-—'-n-di~i~s~B~~E~lil~i~U ~ —--- = MITJIKS AT TEA. principles unknown to the rest of mankind-perhaps lined with gutta-percha and riveted to a diaphragm of sheet-iron. Grease and scalding-hot tea; quass and cab 64 THE LAND OF THOR. bage soup; raw cucumbers; cold fish; lumps of ice; decayed cheese and black bread, seem to have no other effect upon it than to provoke an appetite. In warm weather it is absolutely marvelous to see the quantities of fiery-hot liquids these people pour down their throats. Just cast your eye upon that bearded giant in the corner, with his hissing urn of tea before him, his batvina and his shtshie! What a spectacle of physical enjoyment! His throat is bare; his face a glowing carbuncle; his body a monstrous caldron, seething and dripping with overflowing juices. Shade of Hebe! how he swills the tea —how glass after glass of the steaminghot liquid flows into his capacious maw, and diffuses itself over his entire person! It oozes from every pore of his skin; drops in globules from his fordhead; smokes through his shirt; makes a piebald chart of seas and islands over his back; streams down and simmers in his boots! He is saturated with tea, inside and out —a living sponge overflowing at every pone. You might wring him out, and there would still be a heavy balance left in him. These traktirs are the general places of meeting, where matters of business or pleasure are discussed; accounts settled and bargains made. Here the merchant, the broker, the banker, and the votary of pleasure meet in common. IHere all the pursuits of human life are represented, and the best qualities of men drawn out with the drawing of the tea. Enmities are forgotten and friendships cemented in tea. In short, the traktir is an institution, and its influence extends through all the ramifications of society. But it is in the gardens and various places of suburban resort that the universal passion for tea is displayed in its most pleasing and romantic phases. Surrounded by the beauties of nature, lovers make their avowals over the irrepressible tea-pot; the hearts of fair damsels are won in the intoxication of love and tea; quarrels between man and wife are made up, and children weaned THE LAND OF THOR. 65 — I had almost said baptized-in te# The traveler must see the families seated under the trees, with the burnished urn before them- the children-romping about over the grass; joy beaming upon every face; the whole neighborhood a repetition of family groups and steaming urns, bound together by the mystic tie of sympathy, before he can fully appreciate the important part that tea performs in the great drama of Russian life. CHAPTER VI. THE PETERSKOI GARDENS. THIS draws me insensibly toward the beautiful gardens of the Peterskoi-a favorite place of resort for the Moskovites, and famous for its chateau built by the Empress Elizabeth, in which Napoleon sought refuge during the burning of Moscow. It -is here the rank and fashion of the city may be seen to the greatest advantage of a fine summer afternoon. In these gardens all that is brilliant, beautiful, and poetical in Russian life finds a congenial atmosphere. I spent an evening at the Peterskoi which I shall long remember as one of the most interesting I ever spent at any place of popular amusement. The weather was charming-neither too warm nor too cold, but of that peculiarly soft and dreamy temperature which predisposes one for the enjoyment of music, flowers, the prattle of children, the fascinations of female loveliness, and the luxuries of idleness. In such an atmosphere no man of sentiment can rack his brain with troublesome problems. These witching hours, when the sun lingers dreamily on the horizon; when the long twilight weaves a web of purple and gold that covers the transition from night to morning; when nature, wearied of the dazzling glare of day, puts on her silver-spangled robes, and receives her worshipers with celestial smiles, are surely enough to soften the most stubborn heart. We must make love, 66 THE LAND OF. THOR. sweet ladies, or d', There is no help for it. Resistance is an-abstract impossibility. The best man in the world could not justly be censured for practicing a little with his eyes, when away from home, merely as I do, you know, to keep up the expression. The gardens of the Peterskoi are still a dream to me. For a distance of'three versts from the gate of St. Petersburg the road was thronged with carriages and droskies, and crowds of gayly-dressed citizens, all.wending their way toward the scene of entertainment. The pressure for tickets at the porter's lodge was so great that it required' considerable patience and good-humor to get through at all. Officers in dashing uniforms rode on spirited chargers up and down the long rows of vehicles, and with drawn swords made way for the foot-passengers. Guards in imperial livery, glittering from head to foot with embroidery, stood at the grand portals of the gate, and with many profound and elegant bows ushered in the company. Policeman with cocked hats and shiningepaulets were stationed at intervals alongthe leading thoroughfares to preserve order. The scene inside the gates was wonderfully imposing. Nothing could be more fanciful. In every aspect it presented some striking combination of natural and artificial beauties, admirably calculated to fascinate the imagination. I have a vague recollection of shady and undulating walks, winding over sweeping lawns dotted with masses of flowers and copses of shrubbery, and overhung by wide-spreading trees, sometimes gradually rising over gentle acclivities or points of rock overhung with moss and fern. Rustic cottages, half hidden by the luxuriant foliage, crowned each prominent eminence, and little byways branched off into cools umbrageous recesses, where caves, glittering with sea-shells and illuminated stalactitess invited the wayfarer to linger a while and rest. Far down in deep glens and grottoes were retired nooks, where lovers, hidden firom the busy throng, might mingle their vows to the harmony of fulling waters; where the THE LAND OF THOR. 67 very flowers seemed whispering love to each other, and the lights and shadows fell, by some intuitive sense of fitness, into the form of bridal wreaths. Marble statues representing the Graces, winged Mercuries and Cupids, are so cunningly displayed in relief against the green banks of foliage that they seem the natural inhabitants of the place. Snow-spirits, too, with outspread wings, hover in the air, as if to waft cooling zephyrs through the soft summer night. In the open spaces fountains dash their sparkling waters high into the moonlight, spreading a mystic spray over the sward. Through vistas of shrubbery gleam the bright waters of a lake, on the far side of which the embattled towers of a. castle rise in bold relief over the intervening groups of treeq. On an elevated plateau, near the centre of the garden, stands a series of Asiatic temples and pagodas, in which the chief entertainments are held. The applroaching avenues are illuminated with many-colored lights suspended from the branches of the trees, and wind under triumphal archways, festooned with flowers. The theatres present open fronts, and abound in all the tinsel of the stage, both inside and out. The grounds are crowded to their utmost capacity with the rank and fashion of the city, in all the glory ofjeweled head-dresses and decorations of order. Festbons of variegated lights swing from the trees over the audience, and painted figures of dragons and genii are dimly seen in the background. Attracted by sounds of applause at one of these theatres, I edged my way through the crowd, and succeeded, after many apologies, in securing a favorable position. Amid a motley gathering of Russians, Poles, Germans, and French —for here'all nations and classes are represented- my ears were stunned by the clapping of hands and vociferous cries of Bis! Bis! The curtain was down, but in answer to the call for a repetition of the last scene it soon rose again, and afforded me an opportunity of witnessing a characteristic performance. A wild Mujik has the impudence to make love to the maid-servant 68 THE LAND OF THOR. of his master, who appears to be rather a crusty old gentleman, not disposed to favor matrimonial alliances of that kind. Love gets the better of the lover's discretion, and he is surprised in the kitchen. The bull-dog is let loose upon him; master and mistress and subordinate ~ — 1 A7 =p- I RUSSIAN THEATRE. THE LAND OF THOR. 69 members of the family rush after him, armed with saucepans, tongs, shovels, and broomsticks. The affrighted Mujik runs all round the stage bellowing fearfully; the bull-dog seizes him by the nether extremities and hangs on with the tenacity of a vice. Round and round they run, Mujik roaring for help, bull-dog swinging out horizontally. The audience applauds; the master flings down his broomstick and seizes the dog by the tail; the old woman seizes master by the skirts of his coat; and all three are dragged around the stage at a terrific rate, while the younger members of the family shower down miscellaneous blows with their sticks and cudgels, which always happen to fall on-the, old people, to the great satisfaction of the audience. Shouts, and shrieks, and clapping of hands but faintly express the popular -appreciation of the joke. Finally the faithful maid, takng advantage of the confusion, flings a bunch of fire-crackers at her oppressors and blows them up, and the Mujik, ieii'eved of their weight, makes a brilliant dash through the door, carrying with him the tenacious bull-dog, which it is reasonable to suppose: he subsequently takes to market and sells for a good price. The curtain falls, the music strikes up, and the whole performance is greeted with the most enthusiastic applause. Such are the entertainments that delight these, humorous people-a little broad to be sure, but not deficient in grotesque spirit. From the theatre I wandered to the pavilion of Zingalee gipsies, where a band of these wild sons of Hagar were creating a perfect furor by the shrillness and discord of their voices. Never was such terrific music inflicted upon mortal ears. It went through and through you, quivering and vibrating like a rapier; but the common classes of Russians delight in it ab-ove all earthly sounds.' They deem it the very finest kind of music. It is only the,dilettante who have visited Paris who profess to hold it in contempt. Very soon surfeited with these piercing strains, I rambled away till I came upon a party of rope-dancers, and 70 THE LAND OF THOR. after seeing a dozen or so of stout fellows hang themselves by the chins, turn back somersaults in the air, and swing by one foot at a dizzy height fiom the ground, left them standing upon each other's heads to the depth of six or eight, and turned aside into a grotto to enjoy a few glasses of tea. Here were German girls singing and buffoons reciting humorous stories between the pauses, and thirsty Russians pouring down whole oceans of their favorite beverage. Again I wandered forth through the leafy mazes of the garden. The gorgeous profusion of lights and glittering ornaments, the endless variety of colors, the novel and Asiatic appearance of the temples, the tropical luxuriance of the foliage, the- gleaming white statuary, the gay company, the wild strains of music, all combined to form a scene of peculiar interest. High overhead, dimly visible through the tops of the trees, the sky wears an almost supernatural aspect during these long summer nights. A soft golden glow flushes upward from the horizon, and, lying outspread over the firmament, gives a spectral effect to the gentler and more delicate sheen of the moon; the stars seem to shrink back into the dim infinity, as if unable to contend with the grosser effulgence of the great orbs that rule the day and the night. Unconscious whether the day is waning into the night, or the night into the morning, the rapt spectator gazes and dreams till lost in the strange enchantment bf the scene. At a late hour a signal was given, and the company wandered down to the lake, along the shores of which rustic seats and'divans, overshadowed by shrubbery, afforded the weary an opportunity of resting. Here we were to witness the crowning entertainment of the evening-a grand display of fire-works. A miniature steamboat, gayly decorated with flags, swept to and fro, carrying passengers to the different landing-places. Gondolas, with peaked prows and variegated canopies, lay fldating upon the still water, that lovers might quench THE LAND. OF THOR. 71 their flames in the contemplation of its crystal depths, or draw friesh inspiration from the blaze of artificial fires. Soon a wild outburst of music was heard; then from the opposite shore the whole heavens were lighted up with a flood of rockets, and the ears were stunned by their explosions. Down through the depths of ether came showers of colored balls, illuminating the waters of the lake with inverted streams of light scarcely less bright and glowing. Anon all was dark; then from out the darkness flashed whirling and seething fires, gradually assuming the grotesque forms of monsters and genii, till with-a deafening explosion they were scattered to- the winds.:From.the blackened mass of ruins stood forth illuminated statues of the imperial family, in all the paraphernalia of royalty, their crowns glittering with jewels, their robes of light resplendent with precious gems and tracery of gold. A murmur of admiration ran through the crowd. The imperial figures vanished as if by magic, and suddenly a stream of fire flashed from a mass of dark undefined objects on the opposite shore, and lo! the waters were covered with fiery swans, sailing majestically among the gondolas, their necks moving slowly as if inspired by life. Hither and thither they swept, propelled by streams of fire, till, wearied with their sport, they gradually lay motionless, yet glowing with an augmented brilliancy. While the eyes of all were fixed in amazement -and admiration upon these beautiful swans, they exploded with a series of deafening reports, and were scattered in confused volumes of smoke. Out of the chaos swept innumerable hosts of whirling little monsters, whizzing and boring through the water like infernal spirits of the deep. These again burst with a rattle of explosions like an irregular fire of musketry, and shot high into the air in a perfect maze of scintillating stars of every imaginable color. When the shower of stars was over, and silence and darkness once more reigned, a magnificent barge, that might well have represented that of the Egyptian queen-its gay canopies resplendent with the ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. ~~..4 /.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~w,-j;'2:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(. ~~i THE LAND OE THOR. 73 glow of many-colored lamps-swept out into the middle of the lake, and "Like a burnished throne Burn'd on the water." And when the.:rowers had ceased, and the barge lay motionless, soft strains of music arose from its curtained recesses, swelling' up gradually- till the air was filled with tbhe floods of rich, wild harmony, and the senses were ravished with- their sweetness. *Was it a wild Oriental dreamtn? Could it all be real the glittering fires, the gayly-costumed crowds, the illuniinated barge, the voluptuous strains of music? Might.it not be some gorgeous freak of the emperor, such as..the.sultan in the Arabian -Nights enjoyed at the expense of the poor traveler? Surely there could be nothing real.like it. since the'days of the califs of Bagdad!. A-single night's entertainment such as thisnlmust cost.many thousand-rubles. When it is considered.that there are but' few months- in the year -when such things can be enjoyed, some idea miay be formed of the characteristic.passion of the Russians for lux-urious amusements. It is worthy of mention, too, that the'decorations, the. lamps, the -actors and operators, the material of nearly every description, are imported from various parts of the:world, and very little ismcontributed in any way by the native Russians, save the means by which these costly luxuries are obtained. CHAPTER VII. THE'" LITTLE WATER." ON the fundamental principles of association the intelligent reader will at once comprehend how it came to pass that, of all the traits I discovered in the Russian people, none impressed me so favorably as their love of vodka, or native brandy, signifying the " little water." I admired their long and filthy beards and matted he'ads D 74 THE LAND OF THOR. of hair, because there was much in them to remind me of my beloved Washoe; but in nothing did I experience a greater fellowship with them than in their constitutional thirst for intoxicating liquors. It was absolutely refreshing, after a year's travel over the Continent of Europe, to come across a genuine lover of the " tarantula"-to meet at every corner of the street a great bearded fellow staggering along blind drunk, or attempting to steady the town by hugging a post. Rarely had I enjoyed such a sight sincejny arrival in the Old World. In Germany I had seen a few cases of stupefaction arising from overdoses of beer; in France the red nose of the bon vivant is not uncommon; in England some muddled heads are to be found; and in Scotland there are temperance societies enough to give rise to the suspicion that there is a cause for them; but, generally speaking, the sight of an intoxicated man is somewhat rare in the principal cities of the Continent. It will, therefore, be conceded that there was something very congenial in the spectacle that greeted me on the very first day of my arrival in Moscow. A great giant of a Mujik, with a ferocious beard and the general aspectof a wild beast, came toward me with a heel and a lurch to port that was very expressive of his condition. As he staggered up and tried to balance himself, he blurted out some unmeaning twaddle in his native language which I took to be a species of greeting. His expression was absolutely inspiring-the great blear eyes rolling foolishly in his head; his tongue lolling helplessly from his mouth; his under jaw hanging down; his greasy cap hung on one side on a tuft of dirty hair-all so familiar, so characteristic of something I had seen before! Where could it have been? What potent -spell was there about this fellow to attract me? In what was it that I, an embassador from Washoe, a citizen of California, a resident of Oakland, could thus be drawn toward this hideous wretch? A word in your ear, reader. It was all all the effect of association! The unbidden tears flow THE LAND OF THOR. 75 fed to my eyes*as I caught a whiff of the fellow's breath. It was so like the free-lunch breaths' of San Francisco, and even suggested thoughts of the Legislative Assembly in Sacramento. Only think what a genuine Californian must suffer in being a whole year without a glass of whisky-nay, without as much as a smell of it! How delightful it is to see a brother human downright soggy'runk; drunk all over; drunk in the eyes, in the mouth, in the small of his back, in his _ _ _ _ I > VODKA. knees; in his boots, clear down to his toes! How one's heart is drawn toward him by this common bond of hunan infirmity! How it recalls the camp, the one-horse mining town, the social gathering of the "boys" at Dan's, or Jim's, or Jack's; and the clink of dimes and glasses at the bar; how distances are annihilated and time set back! Of a Verity, when I saw that man, with THE LAND OF THOR. reason dethroned and the garb of sdlf-respect- thrown aside, I was once again in my own beloved state! "What a beauty dwelt in each familiar face, What music hung on every voice!" Since reading is not a vely general accomplishment among the lower classes, a system of signs answers in some degree as a substitute. The irregularity of the streets would of itself present no very remarkable featire but for the wonderful variety of small shops and the oddity of the signs upon which their contents are pictured. What these symbols of trade lack in artistic style they make up in grotesque effects. Thus, the tobacco shops are ornamented outside with various highly-colored pictures, drawn by artists of the most florid genius, representing cigar-boxes, pipes, meerschaums, narghillas, bunches of cigars, snuff-boxes, plugs and twists of tobacco, and all that the most fastidious smoker, chewer, or snuffer can expect to find in any tobacco shop, besides a good many things that he never will find in any of these shops. Prominent among these symbolical displays is the counterfeit presentment of a jet-black Indian of African descent-his woolly head adorned wvith a crown of pearls and feathers; in his right hand an uplifted tomahiawk, with which he is about to kill some invisible enemy; in his left a meerschaum, supposed to be the pipe of peace; a tobacco plantation in the background, and a group of warriors smoking profusely around a camp-fire, located under one of the tobacco plants; the whole having a very fine allegorical effect, fully understood, no doubt, by the artist, but very difficult to explain upon any known principle of art. The butchers' shops are equally prolific in external adornments. On the signboards you see every animal fit to be eaten, and many of questionable aspect, denuded of their skins and reduced to every conceivable degree of butchery; so that if you want a veal cutlet of any particular pattern, all you have to do is to select your pattern, and the cutlet will be chopped accordingly. The bakeries excel in their THE LAND OF THOR. 77 artistic displays. Here you have painted bread from black-moon down to double-knotted twist; cakes, biscuit, rolls, and crackers, and as many other varieties as the genius of the artist may be capable of suggesting. The bakers of Moscow are mostly French or German; and it is a notable fact that the bread is quite equal to any made in France or Germany. The wine-stores, of which there are many, are decorated with pictures of bottles, and bas-reliefs of gilded grapes-a great improvement upon the ordinary grape produced by nature. CHAPTER VIII. THE MARKETS OF MOSCOW. IF there is nothing new under the sun, there are certainly a good many old things to interest a stranger in Moscow. A favorite resort of mine during my sojourn in that strange old city of the Czars was in the markets of the Katai Gorod. Those of the Riadi and Gostovini Dvor present the greatest attractions, perhaps, in the way of shops and merchandise; for there, by the aid of time, patience, and money, you can get any thing you want, from saints' armlets and devils down to candlesticks and cucumbers. Singing-birds, Kazan-work, and Siberian diamonds are its most attractive features. But if you have a passion for human oddities rather than curiosities of merchandise, you must visit the secondhand markets extending -along the walls of the Katai Gorod, where you will find not only every conceivable variety of old clothes, clocks, cooking utensils, and rubbish of all sorts, but the queerest imaginable conglomeration of human beings from the far East to the far West. It would be a fruitless task to attempt a description of the motley assemblage. Pick out all the strangest, most ragged, most uncouth figures you ever saw in old pictures, from childhood up to the present day; select 78 THE LAND OF THOR. OLD-CLOTHE' M:ARKET. from every theatrical representation within the range of your experience the most monstrous and absurd caricatures upon humanity; bring to your aid all the masquerades and burlesque fancy-balls you ever visited, tumble them together in the great bag of your imagination, and pour them out over a vague wilderness of open spaces, THE LAND OF THOR. 79 dirty streets, high walls, and rickety little booths, and you have no idea at all of the queer old markets of the Katai Gorod. You will be just as much puzzled to make any thing of the scene as when you started, if not more so. No mortal man can picture to another all these shaggy-faced Russians, booted up to the knees, their long, loose robes flaunting idly around their legs, their red sashes twisted around their waists; brawny fellows with a reckless, independent swagger about them, stalking like grim savages of the North through the crowd. Then there are the sallow and cadaverous Jew peddlers, covered all over with piles of ragged old clothes, and mountains of old hats and caps; and leathery-faced old women — witches of Endor-dealing out horrible mixtures' of quass (the national drink); and dirty, dingy-looking soldiers, belonging to the imperial service, peddling off old boots and cast-off shirts; and Zingalee gipsies, dark, lean, and wiry, offering strings of beads and armlets for sale with shrill cries; and so on without limit. Here you see the rich and the poor in all the extremes of affluence and poverty; the robust and the decrepit;.the- strong, the lame, and the blind; the noble, with his star and orders of office; the Mujik in his shaggy: sheep-skin capote or tattered blouse; the Mongolian, the:Per-sian, and the Caucasian; the Greek and the Turk; the Armenian and the Californian, all intent upon something, buying, selling, or looking on. Being the only representative from the Golden State, I was anxious to offer some Washoe stock for saletwenty or thirty feet in the Gone Case; but Dominico, my interpreter, informed me that these traders had never heard of Washoe, and were mostly involved in Russian securities-old breeches, boots, stockings, and the like. He did- not think my " Gone Case" would bring an old hat; and as for my 1" Sorrowful Countenance" and " Ragged End," he was persuaded I could not dispose of my entire interest in them for a pint of grease. I was very much taken with the soldiers who infested 80 THE LAND OF THOR. these old markets. It was something new in military economy to see the representatives of an imperial army supporting themselves in this way; dark, lazy fellows in uniform, lounging about with old boots and suspenders hanging all over them, crying out the merits of their wares in stentorian voices, thus, as it were, patriotically relieving the national treasury of a small fraction of its burden. They have much the appearance, in the crowd, of raisins in a plum-pudding. The peasant women, who flock in from the country with immense burdens of vegetables and other products of the farms, are a very striking, if not a vepiy pleasing feature in the markets. Owing to the hard labor imposed upon them, they are exceedingly rough and brawny, and have a hard, dreary, and unfeminine expression of countenance, rather inconsistent with one's notions of the-delicacy and tenderness of woman. Few of them are even passably well-looking. All the natural playfulness of the gentler sex seems to be crushed out of them; and while their manners are uncouth, their voices are the wildest and most unmusical that ever fell upon the ear from a feminine source. When dressed in their best attire they usually wear a profusion of red handkerchiefs about their heads and shoulders; and from an unpicturesque habit they have of making an upper waist immediately under their arms by a ligature of some sort, and tying their apron-strings about a foot below, they have the singular appearance of being double-waisted or three-'story women. They carry their children on their backs, much after the fashion of Digger Indians, and suckle them through an opening in the second or middle story. Doubtless this is a convenient arrangement, but it presents the curious anomaly of a poor peasant living in a one-story house with a three.storV wife. According to the prevailing style of architecture in well-wooded countries, these women ought to wear their hair shingled; but they generally tie it up in a knot behind, or cover it with a fancy-colored handkerchief, on the presumption, I TIlE LAND OF THOR, 81 suppose, that they look less barbarous in that way than they would with shingled heads. You may suspectme of story-telling, but upon my word I-think three-story women are extravagant enough without adding another to them. I only hope their garrets contaiin a better quality of furniture than that which afflicts the male members of the Mujik community. No wonder those.poor women have families of children like steps of stairs! It is said that their husbands are often very cruel to them, and think nothing of knocking them down and beating them; but even that does not surprise me. How can a man be expected to get along with a three-story wife unless he floors her' occasionally? Ragged little boys, prematurely arrested in their growth, you see too, in myriads-shovel-nosed and bare-legged urchins of hideously eccentric manners, carrying around big bottles of sbiteen (a kind of mead), which they are continually pouring out into glasses, to appease the chronic thirst with which the public seem to be afflicted; and groups of the natives gathered around a cucumber stand, devouring great piles of unwholesomelooking cucumbers, which skinny old women are dipping up out of wooden buckets. The voracity with which all classes stow away these vicious edibles in their stomachs is amazing, and suggests a melancholy train of reflections on the subject'of cholera morbus. It was a continual matter of wonder to me how the lower classes of Russians survived the horrid messes with'which they tortured their digestive apparatus. Only think of thousands of men dining every day on black ibread, heavy enough for bullets, a pound or two of grease, and half a peck of raw cucumbers per man, and then expecting to live until next morning! _And yet they do live, and grow fat, and generally die at a good old age, in case they are not killed in battle, or frozen up in the wilds of Siberia. Outside the walls of the Katai Gorod, in an open square, ol plaza, are rows of wooden booths, in which innumerable varieties of living stock are offered for saleD2 82 THE LAND OF THOR. geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, and birds of various sorts. I sometimes went down here and bargained for an hour or so over a fat'goose or a Muscovy duck, not with any ultimate idea of purchasing it, but merely because it was offered to me at a reduced price. It was amusing, also, to study the manners and customs of the dealers, and enjoy their amazement when, after causing them so much loss of time, I would hand over five kopeks and walk off. Some of them, I verily believe, will long entertain serious doubts as to the sanity of the Californian public; for Dominico, my guide, always took particular pride in announcing that I was from that great country, and was the richest man in it, being, to the best of his knowledge, the only one who had money enough to spare to travel all the way to Moscow, merely for the fun of the thing. I may as well mention, parenthetically, that Dominico was rather an original in his way. His father was an Italian and his mother a Russian. I believe he was born in Moscow. How he came to adopt the profession of guide I don't know, unless it was on account of some natural proclivity for an easy life. A grave, lean, saturnine man was Dominico-something of a cross between Machiavelli and Paganini. If he knew any thing about the wonders and curiosities of Moscow he kept it a profound secret. It was only by the most rigid inquiry and an adroit system of cross-examination that I could get any thing out of him, and then-his information was vague and laconic, sometimes a little sarcastic, but never beyond what I knew myself. Yet he was polite, dignified, and gentlemanly-never refused to drink a glass of beer with me, and always knew the way to a traktir. To the public functionaries with whom we came in contact during the course of our rambles his air was grand and imposing; and on the subject of money he was sublimely nonchalant, caring no more for rubles than I did for kopeks. Once or twice he hinted to me that he was of noble blood, but laid no particular stress upon that, since it THE LAND OF THOR. 83 was his' misfortune at present to be in rather reduced circumstances. Some time or other he would go to Italy and resume his proper position there. In justice to Dominico, I must add that he never neglected an opportunity of praying for me before any of the public shrines; and at the close of our acquaintance he let me off pretty easily, all things considered. Upon my explaining to him that a draft fbr five hundred thousand rubles, which ought to be on the way, had failed to reach me, owing, doubtless, to some irregularity in the mail service, or some sudden depression in my Washoe stocks, he merely shrugged his shoulders, took a pinch of snuff, and accepted with profound indifference a fee amounting to three times the value of his services. I was particularly interested in the dog-market. The display of living dog-flesh here must be very tempting to one who has a taste for poodle soup or fricasseed pup. Dominico repudiated the idea that the Russians are addicted to this article of diet; but the very expression of his eye as he took'up a fat little innocent, smoothed down its skin, squeezed its ribs, pinched its loins, and smelled it, satisfied me that a litter of pups would stand but a poor chance of ever arriving at maturity if they depended upon forbearance upon his part as a national virtue. The Chinese quarter of San Francisco affords some curious examples of the art of compounding sustenance for man out of odd materials-rats, snails, dried firogs, star-fish, polypi, and the like; but any person who wishes to indulge a morbid appetite for the most disgusting dishes ever -devised by human ingenuity must visit Moscow. I adhere to it that the dog-market supplies a large portion of the population with fancy meats. No other use could possibly be made of the numberless squads of fat, hairless dogs tied together and hawked about by the traders in this article of traffic. I saw one man-he had the teeth of an ogre and a fearfully carnivorous expression of eye-carry around a bunch of pups on each arm, and cry aloud something in his native 84 THE LAND OF THOR. tongue, which I am confident had reference -to the tendernessand juiciness of their flesh. Dominico declared the man was only talking about the breed-that they: were fine rat-dogs; but I know that was a miserable subterfuge. Such dogs never caught a rat in this world; and if they did, it must have been with a view to the manufacture of sausages. I~ie` CABINET-MAKERS. A Russian peasant is not particular about the quality of his food, as may well be supposed from this general summary. Quantity is the main object. Grease of all kinds is his special luxury. The upper classes, who have THE LAND OF THOR. 85 plenty of money to spare, may buy fish fiom the Volga at its weight in gold, and mutton fiom Astrakan at fabulous prices; but give the Mujik his batvina (salt grease and -honey boiled together), a loaf of black bread, and a peck of raw cucumbers, and he is happy. Judging by external appearances, very little grease seems to be wasted in the. manufacture of soap. Indeed, I would not trust one of these Mujiks to carry a pound of soap any where for me, any more than I would a gallon of oil or a pound of candles, Once I saw a fellow grease his boots with-a lump of dirty fat which he had picked up out of the: gutter, but he took good care first to extract from it the lrichest part:of its essence by sucking it, and then greasing his beard. The boots came last.- In all probability he had just dined, or he would have pocketed his treasure for another occasion, instead of throwing the remnant, as he did, to the nearest cat. In respect to the language, one might as well be dropped down in Timbuctoo as in a village or country town of Russia, for -all the good the gift of speech would do him. It is not' harsh, as might be supposed, yet wonderfully like an East India jungle when you attempt to penetrate it. I could make better headway through a boulder- of solid quartz, or:the title to my own house and lot in'Oakland. Now I profess to be able to see as far into a: mill-stone as most people, but I can't see in what respect the Russians behaved any worse than other people of the Tower of Babel, that they should be afflicted with a language which' nobody can hope to understand before his beard becomes grizzled, and the top of his head entirely bald. Many of the better classes, to be sure, speak French and German; but even in the streets of Moscow I could seldom find any body who could discover a ray of meaning in my French or German, which is almost as plain as English. Some people know what you want by instinct, whether they understand your language or not. Not so the Russians. Ask for a horse, and they will probably offer 86 THE LAND OF THOR. you a fat goose; inquire the way to your lodgings, and they are just as likely as not to show you the Foundling Hospital or a livery-stable; go into an old variety shop, and express a desire to purchase an Astrakan breast-pin for your sweet-heart, and the worthy trader.hands you a pair of bellows or an old blunderbuss; cast your eye upon any old market-woman, and she divines at once that you are in search -of a bunch of chickens or a bucket of raw cucumbers, and offersthem, to you.at the lowest market-price; hint to a picture-dealer that you- would like to have an authentic portrait of his imperial majesty, and he hands you a picture of the Iberian Mother, or St. George slaying the dragon, or the devil and all his imps; in. short, you can get any thing that you don't want, and nothing that you do. If.these people are utterly deficient in any one quality,.it is a sense of fitness in things. They take the most inappropriate times for offering you the most inapprdpriate- articles of human use that the imagination can possibly conceive. I was more than once solicited by the dealers in the markets of Moscow to carry with me a bunch of live dogs, or a couple of freshly-scalded pigs, and on one occasion was pressed very hard to-take a brass skillet and a pair of tongs. What could these good people have supposed I wanted with.articles of this kind on my travels? Is there any thing in my dress or the expression of my countenance -I leave it to all who know me-any thing in the mildness of my speech or the gravity of my manner, to indicate that I am suffering particularly for bunches.of dogs or scalded pigs, brass skillets or pairs of tongs? Do I look like a man who labors under a chronic destitution of dogs, pigs, skillets, and tongs? It is quite natural that the traveler who finds himself for the first time within the limits of a purely despotic government should look around him with some vague idea that he must see the effects strongly marked upon the external life of the people;' that the restraints imposed upon popular liberty must be every where appar TITHE LAND OF THOR. 87 7i-~~i~~~~~~' PIGS, PUPS, AND PANS. ent. So far as any thing of this kind may exist in Moscow or St. Petersburg, it is a notable fact that there are few cities in the world where it is less visible, or where the people seem more unrestrained in the exercise of their popular freedom. Indeed, it struck me rather forcibly, after my experience in Vienna and Berlin, that the Russians enjoy quite as large a share'of practical inde 88 THE LAND OF THOR. pendence as most of their neighbors. I was particularly impressed by the bold and independent air of the middle classes, the politeness with which even the lower orders address each other, and the absence of those petty and vexatious restraints which -prevail in some of the German states. The constant dread of infringing upon the police regulations; the extraordinary deference with which men in uniform are regarded; thfe circumspect behavior at public places; the nice and well-regulated mirthfulness, never overstepping the strict bounds of prudence, which I had so often noticed in the northern parts of Germany, and which may in part be attributed to the naturally orderly and conservative character of the people, are by no means prominent features in the principal cities of Russia. Soldiers, indeed, there are in abundance every where throughout the dominions of the Czar, and the constant rattle of musketry and clang of arms show that the liberty of the people is not altogether without limit. CHAPTER IX. THE NOSE REGIMENT. I SAW ndthing in the line of military service that interested me more than the Imperial Guard. Without vouching for the truth of the whole story connected with the history of this famous regiment, I give it. as related to me by Dominico, merely stating as a fact within my own observation that there is no question whatever about the peculiarity of their features. It seems that the Emperor Nicholas, shortly before the Crimean War, discovered by some means that the best fighting men in his dominions belonged to a certain wild tribe from the north, distinguished for the extreme ugliness of their faces. The most remarkable feature was the nose, which stood straight out from the base of the forehead in the form of a triangle, presenting in front the appearance of THE LAND- OF THOR. 89 a double-barreled pistol. A stiff grizzly mustache underneath gave -them a peculiarly ferocious expression, so that brave men quailed, and women and children fled from them in terror. The emperor gave orders that all men in the ranks possessed of these frightful noses should be brought before him. Finding, when they were mustered together, that there was not over one company, he caused a general average of the noses to be taken, from which he had a diagram carefully prepared and disseminated throughout the empire, calling upon the military cornmanders of the provinces to send him recruits corresponding with the prescribed formula. In due time he was enabled to muster a thousand of these ferocious barbarians, whom he caused to be carefully drilled and disciplined. He kept them in St. Petersburg under his own immediate supervision till some time after the attack upon Sebastopol, when, finding the fortunes of war likely to go against him, he sent them down to the Crimea, with special instructions to the commander-in-chief to rely upon them in any emergency. In compliance with the imperial order, they were at once placed in the front ranks, and in a very few days had occasion to display their fighting qualities. At the very first onslaught of the enemy they stood their ground manfully till the French troops had approached within ten feet, when, with one accord, they took to their heels, and never stopped running till they were entirely out of sight. It was a disastrous day for the Russians. The commander-in-chief was overwhelmed with shame and mortification. A detachment of cavalry was dispatched in pursuit of the fugitives, who were finally arrested in their flight and brought back. "Cowards!" thundered the enraged commander, as they stood drawn tip before him; "'miserable poltroons! dastards! is this the way you do honor to your imperial master? Am I to report to his most potent majesty that, without striking one blow in his defense, you ran like sheep? Wretches, what have you to say for yourselves?" 90 THE LAND OF THOR. / III' ]'iil _, /K. =. IMPERIAL NOSEGAY. "May it please your excellency," responded the men, firmly and with unblenched faces, "we ran away, it is true; but we are not cowards. On the contrary, sire, we are brave men, and fear neither man nor beast. But your excellency is aware that nature has gifted us with noses peculiarly open to unusual impressions. We have THE LAND OF THOR. 91 smelled all the smells known from the far North to the far South, from the stewed rats of Moscow to the carrion that lies mouldering upon the plains of the Crimea; but, if it please your highness, we never smelled Frenchmen before. There vws an unearthly odor about them that filled our': nostrils, aid struck a mysterious terror into our souls." "Fools!" roared the commander-inbchief, bursting with rage, "what you smelled was nothing more than garlic, to which-these Frenchmen are addicted." "Call it as you will," firmly responded the men with the noses, "it was too horrible to be endured. We are willing to die by the natural casualties of war, but not by unseen blasts of garlic, against which no human power can contend." "Then," cried- the commander, in tones of thunder, "I'll see that,you die to-morrow by the natural castalties of war. You shall be put in the very front rank, and care shall be taken to have every man of you shot down the moment you undertake to run." On the.following day this rigorous order was carried into effect. The nose regiment was placed in front, and.the battle opened with great spirit. The French troops swept down upon them like an avalanche. For an instant they looked behind, but, finding no hope of escape in that direction, each man of them suddenly grasped up a handful of mud, and, dashing it over his nostrils, shouted "Death to the garlic-eaters!" and rushed against the enemy with indescribable ferocity. Never before were such prodigies of valor perormed on the field of battle. The French went down like stricken reeds before the ferocious onslaught of the Imperial Guard. Their dead bodies lay piled in heaps on the bloody field. The fortunes of the day were saved, and, panting and bleeding, the men of Noses stood triumphantly in the presence of their chief. In an ecstasy of pride and delight he complimented them upon their valor, and pronounced them the brightest nosegay in his imperial majesty's service, which name they have borne ever since. 92 THE LAND OF THOR. CHAPTER X. THE EMPEROR'S BEAR-HUNT. THE present emperor, Alexander III., is more distinguished for his liberal views respecting the rlghts of his subjects than for his military proclivities. In private life he is much beloved, and is said to be a man of very genial social qualities. His predominating passion in this relation is a love of hunting. I have been told that he is especially great on bears. With all your experience of this manly pastime in America, I doubt if you can form any conception of the bear-hunts in which the Autocrat of all the Russias has distinguished himself. Any body with nerve enough can kill a grizzly, but it requires both nerve and money to kill bears of any kind in the genuine autocratic style. By an imperial ukase it has been ordered that when any of the peasants or serfs discover a bear within twenty versts of the Moscow and St. Petersburg Railway, they must make known the fact to the proprietor of the estate, whose duty it is to communicate official information of the discovery to. the correspondinig secretary of the Czar. With becoming humility the secretary announces the tidings to his royal master, who directs him to advise the distant party that his majesty is much pleased, and will avail himself of his earliest leisure to proceed to the scene of action. In the mean time the entire available force of the estate is set to work to watch the bear, and from three to five hundred men, armed with cudgels, tin pans, old kettles, drums, etc., are stationed in a circle around him. Dogs also are employed upon this important service.'The advance trains, under the direction of the master hunter, having deposited their stokes of wines, cordials, and provisions, and telegraphic communications being: transmitted to head-quarters from time to time, it is at length privately THE LAND OF THOR. 93 announced that his imperial majesty has condescended to honor the place with his presence, and, should the saints not prove averse, will be there with his royal party at the hour and on the day specified in the imperial dispatch. The grand convoy is then put upon the track; dispatches are transmitted to all the stations; officers, soldiers, and guards are required to be in attendance to do honor to their sovereign master- privately, of course, as this is simply an unofficial affair which nobody is supposed to know' any thing about. The'emperor, having selected his chosen few-that is to say, half a dozen princes, a dozen dukes, a score or two or' counts and bai'ons-all fine fellows and genuine bloods —proceeds unostentatiously to the d6pot in his hunting-carriage (a simple little affair, manufactured at a cost of only forty thousand rubles or so), where he is astonished to see a large concourse of admiring subjects, gayly interspersed with soldiers, all accidentally gathered there to see him off. Now hats are removed, bows are made, suppressed murmurs of delight run through'the crowd; the locomotive whizzes and fizzes with impatience; bells are rung, arms are'grounded; the princes, dukes, and barons — jolly fellows as they are-laugh and joke just like commonpeople; bells ring again and whistles blow; a signal is made, and the Autocrat of all the Russias is off on his bear-hunt! In an hour, or two or three hours, as the case may be, the royal hunters arrive at the destined station. Should the public business be pressing, it is not improbable the emperor, availing himself of the conveniences provided. for him by Winans and Co., in whose magnificent present of a railway carriage he travels, has, in the mean time dispatched a, fleet of vessels toFinland, ten or a dozen extra regiments of Cossacks to Warsaw, closed upon terms for a loan. of fifty millions, banished various objectionable parties to the deserts of Siberia, and partaken of a game or two of whist with his camarilla. But now the important affair of the day is at hand 94 THE LAND OF THOR. the bear-the terrible black bear, which every body is fully armed and equipped to kill, but which every body knows by instinct is going to be killed by the emperor, because of his majesty's superior skill and courage on trying occasions of this sort. What a blessing it is to possess such steadiness of nerve! I would not hesitate one moment to attack the most ferocious grizzly in existence if I felt half as much confidence in my ability to kill it. But the carriages are waiting; the horses are prancing; the hunters are blowing their bugles; the royal party are mounting on horseback or in their carriages, as best may suit their taste, and the signal is given! A salute is fired by the Guard, huzzas ring through the air, and the Czar of all the Russias is fairly off on his hunt. Trees fly by; desert patches of ground whirl from under; versts are as nothing to these spirited steeds and their spirited masters, and in an hour or so the grand scene of action is reached. Here couriers stand ready to conduct the imperial hunters into the very jaws of death. The noble proprietor himself, bare-'headed, greets the royal pageant; the serfs bow down in Oriental fashion; the dashing young Czar touches his hunting-cap in military style and waves his hand gallantly to the ladies of the household, who are peeping at him fiom their carriages in the distance. Once more the bugle is sounded, and away they dash -knights, nobles, and all-the handsome and gallant Czar leading the way by several lengths. Soon the terrific cry is heard-~ " Halt! the bear! the bear! - Halt!" Shut your eyes, reader, for you never can stand such a sight as that-a full-grown black bear, not two hundred yards off, in the middle of an open space, surrounded by five hundred men hidden behind trees and driving him back fiom every point where he attempts to escape. You don't see the men, but you hear them shouting and banging upon their pots, pans, and kettles. Now just open one eye and see the emperor dismount from his famous charger, and deliver the rein to a dozen domestics, deliberately THE LAND OF THOR. 95 cock his rifle, and fearlessly get behind the nearest tree within the range of the bear. By this time you perceive that Bruin is dancing a pas seul on his hind legs, utterly confounded with the noises -around him. Shut your eyes again, for the emperor is taking his royal aim, and will presently crack away with his royal rifle. Hist! triggers are clicking around you in every direction, but you needn't be the least afraid, for, although the bear is covered by a reserve of forty rifles, not one of the hunters has nerve enough to shoot unless officially authorized or personally desirous of visiting the silver-mines of Siberia. Crack! thug! The smoke clears away. By Jove! his imperial majesty has done it cleverly; hit the brute plumb on the os frontis, or through the heart, it makes no difference which. Down drops Bruin, kicking and tearing up the earth-at a dreadful rate; cheers rend the welkin; pots, pans, and kettles are banged. High above all irises the stern voice of the autocrat, calling for another rifle, which is immediately handed to him. Humanity requires that he should at once put an end to the poor animal's sufferings, and he does it with his accustomed skill. Now the bear having kicked his last, an intrepid hunter charges up to the spot on horseback, whirls around it two or three times, carefully examines the body with an opera-glass, returns, and, approaching the royal presence with uncovered head, delivers himself according to this formula: "May it please your most gallant and imperial majesty, THE BEAR IS DEAD!" The emperor sometimes responds, "Is he?" but usually contents himself by waving his hand in an indifferent manner, puffing his cigar, and calling for his horse. Sixteen grooms immediately rush forward with his majesty's horse; and, being still young and vigorous, he mounts without difficulty, unaided except by Master of Stirrups. Next he draws an ivory-handled revolver — a present from Colt, of New York-and, dashing fearlessly upon the bear, fires six shots into the dead body; upon which he coolly dis 96 THE LAND OF THOR.mounts, and pulling forth from the breast of his huntingcoat an Arkansas bowie-knife-a present from tthe poet Albert Pike, of Little Rock-plunges that' dangerous weapon into the. bowels of the dead bear; then rising to his full height, with a dark and stern countenance, he holds the blood-dripping blade high in the air, so that all may see it, and utters one wild stentorian and terrific shout, ".Harasho! harasho!" signifying in English," Good! very well!" The cry is caught up by the princes'and nobles, who, with uncovered heads, now crowd around their gallant emperor, and waving their' hats, likewise shout " Harasho! harasho!" —" Good! very well!" Then the five hundred peasants rush in with their. tin pans, kettles, and drums, and amid the most amazing din catch up the inspiring strain, and deafen every ear with their wild shouts of "Harasho! harasho!" —" Good! very well!" Upon which the emperor, rapidly mount-ing, places a finger in each ear, and, still puffing his cigal, rides triumphantly away. The bear is hastily gutted.and dressed with flowers. When all is ready the royal party return to the railroad d6pot in a long procession, headed by his majesty, and brought up in the rear by the dead body of Bruin borne on poles by six-and-twenty powerful serfs. Refieshments in the mean time have been administered to every body of high and low degree, and by the time they reach the dep6t there are but two sober individuals in the entire procession-his royal majesty and the bear. Farther refreshments are administered all round during the journey back to St. Petersburg, and, notwithstanding he is rigidly prohibited by his physician from the use of stimulating beverages, it is supposed that a reaction has now taken place, which renders necessary a modification of the medical ukase. At all events, I am told the bear is sometimes the only really steady member of the party by the time the imperial pageant reaches the palace. When the usual ceremonies of congratulation a.e over, a merry dance winds up the evening. After this the THE LAND OF THOR. 97 company disperses to prayer and slumber, and thus ends the great bear-hunt of his majesty the Autocrat of all the Russias. CHAPTER XI. RUS SIAN H UMOR. THE Russians have little or no humor, though they are not deficient in a certain grotesque savagery bordering on the humorous. There is something fearfully vicious in the royal freaks of fancy of which Russian history furnishes us so many examples. We read with a shudder of the facetious compliment paid to the Italian architect by Ivan the Terrible, who caused the poor man's eyes to be put out that he might never see to build another church so beautiful as that of St. Basil. We can not but smile at the grim humor of Peter the Great, who, upon seeing a crowd of men with wigs and gowns at Westminster Hall, and being informed that they were lawyers, observed that he had but two in his whole empire, and he believed he would hang one of them as soon as he got home. A still more striking though less ghastly freak of fancy was that perpetrated by the Empress Anne of Courland, who, on the occasion of the marriage of her favorite buffoon, Galitzin, caused a palace of ice to be built, with a bed of the same material, in which she compelled the happy pair to pass their wedding night. The Empress Catharine II., a Pomeranian by birth, but thoroughly Russian in her morals, possessed adore ardent temperament. What time she did not spid in gratifying her ambition by slaughtering men, she spent in loving them:' For, though she would widow all Nations, she liked man as an individual." She never dismissed an old admirer until she had secured several new ones, and generally consoled those who had served her by apresent of twenty or thirty 98 THE LAND OF THOR. thousand serfs. On the death of Lanskoi, it is recorded of her that "she gave herself up to the most poignant grief, and remained three months without going out of her palace of Czarsko Selo," thus perpetrating a very curious practical satire upon the holiest of human affections. Her grenadier lover Potemkin, according to the character given of him by the Count Segur, was little better than a gigantic and savage buffoon-licentious and superstitious, bold and timid by turns —sometimes desiring to be King of Poland, at others a bishop or a monk. Of him we read that "he put out an eye to free it from a blemish which diminished his beauty. Banished by his rival, he ran to meet death in battle, and returned with glory." Another pleasant little jest was that perpetrated by Suwarrow, who, after the bloody battle of Tourtourskaya, announced the result to his mistress in an epigram of two doggerel lines. This was the terrible warrior who used to sleep almost naked in a room of suffocating heat, and rush out to review his troops in a linen jacket, with the thermometer of Reaumur ten degrees below freezing point. Of the Emperor Paul, the son of Catharine, we read that he issued a ukase against the use of shoe-strings and round hats; caused all the watch-boxes, gates, and bridges throughout the empire to be painted in the most glaring and fantastic colors, and passed a considerable portion of his time riding on a wooden rocking-horse-a degenerate practice for a scion of the bold Catharine, who used to dress herself in men's clothes, and ride a-straddle on the back of a live horse to review her troops. Alexander I., in his ukase of September, 182'7,:petrated a very'fine piece of Russian humor. The perind of military service for serfs is fixed at twenty years in the Imperial Guard, and twenty-two in other branches of the service. It is stated in express terms that the moment a serf becomes enrolled in the ranks of the army he is free! But he must not -desert, for if he does he becomes a slave again. This idea of freedom is realy refreshing. Only twenty THE LAND OF THOR. 99 or twenty-two years of the gentle restraints of Russian military discipline to be enjoyed after becoming a free agent! Then he may go off (at the age of fifty or sixty, say), unless disease or gunpowder has carried him off long before, tar enjoy the sweets of hard labor in some agreeable desert, or the position of a watchman on the frontiers of Siberia,.where the climate is probably considered salubrious. These may be considered royal or princely vagaries, in which great people are privileged to indulge; but I think it will be found that the same capricious savagery of humor-if I may so call it-prevails to some extent among all classes of Russians. In some instances it can scarcely be associated with any.idea of mirthfulness, yet in the love of strange, startling, and incongruous ideas there is something bordering on the humorous. On Recollection Monday, for example, the mass of the people go out into the grave-yards, and, spreading table-cloths on the mounds that cover the dead bodies of their relatives, drink quass and vodka to the health of the deceased, saying,' "Since the deid ale unable to drink, the living must drink for them!" Rather a grave excuse, one must think, for intoxication. In the museum of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg stands the stuffed skin of his favorite servant-4 gigantic Holsteiner-one of the most ghastly of all the grotesque and ghastly relics in that remarkable institution. It is not a very agreeable subject for the pencil of an artist, yet there is something so original in the idea of stuffing a human being and putting him up-for exhibition before the public that I am constrained to introduce the following sketch of this strange spectacle. In one of the arsenals is an eagle made of gun-flints, with swords for wings, daggers for feathers, and the mouths of cannons for eyes.. A painting of the Strelitzes, in another, represents heaven as containing the Russian priests and all the faithful; while the other place —a region of fire and brimstone-contains Jews, Tartars, Germans, and negroes! 100 THE LAND OF TEIOR. -SKINNED AND STUFFED MAN. The winter markets of Moscow and St. Petersburg present some of the most cadaverous specimens of the startling humor in which the Russians delight. Here you find frozen oxen, calves, sheep,.rabbits, geese, ducks, and all manner of animals and birds, once animate with life, now stiff and stark in death. The oxen stand staring at you with their fixed eyes and gory carcasses; the calves are jumping or frisking in skinless innocence; the i, ~ ~, FROZEN wNIMALs!N THE TAROT. -1V rl i i~~~FOZN NIAL I TE ARET 102 THE LAND OF THOR. sheep ba-a at you with open mouths, or cast sheep 6- y es at the by-passers; the rabbits, having traveled hundreds of miles, are jumping, or running, or turning somersaults in frozen tableaux to keep themselves warm, and so on with every variety of flesh, fowl, and even fish. The butchers cut short these expressive practical witticisms by means of saws, as one might saw a block of wood; and the saw-dust, which is really frozen flesh and blood in a powdered state, is gathered up in baskets and carried away by the children and ragamuffins to be made into soup. I can conceive of nothing humorous in these people which is not associated in some way with the cruel and the grotesque. They have many noble and' generous traits, but lack delicacy of feeling. Where the range of the thermometer is from a hundred to a hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit, their character must partake in some sort of the qualities of the climate-fierce, rigorous, and pitiless in its wintry aspect, and without the compensating and genial tenderness of spring; fitful and passionate as the scorching heats of summer, and dark, stormy, and dreary as the desolation of autumn. I could not but marvel, as I sat in some of the common traktirs, at the extraordinary affection manifested by the Russians for cats. It appeared to me that the proprietors must keep a feline corps expressly for the amusement of their customers. At one of these places I saw at least forty cats, of various breeds, from the con-'fines of Tartary to the city of Paris. They were up on the tables, on the benches, on the floor, under the benches, on the backs of the tea-drinkers, in their laps, in their arms-every where. I strongly suspected that they answered the purpose of waiters, and that the owner relied upon them to keep the plates clean.- Possibly, too, they were made available as musicians. I have a notion the Russians entertain the same superstitious devotion to cats that the Banyans of India do to cows, and the French and Germans to nasty little poo THE LAND OF THOR. 103 MUJIK AND) CATS. dles. To see a great shaggy boor, his face dripping with grease, his eyes swimming in vodka, sit all doubled up, fondling and caressing these feline pets; holding them in his hands; pressing their velvety fur to his eyes, cheeks, even his lips; listening with delight to their screams and squalls, is indeed a curious spectacle. Now I have no unchristian feeling toward any of the eys ches vnhslp; lstnig it dlihtt thi sras n qulsi nde crou pctce 104 THE LAND OF THOR. brute creation, but I don't affect cats.- Nor can I say that I greatly enjoy their music. I heard the very best bands of tom-cats every night during.my sojourn in Moscow, and consider them utterly deficient in style and execution. It belongs, I think, to the Music of Futurity, so much discussed by the critics of Europe during the past few years-a peculiar school of anti-melody that requires people yet to be born to appreciate it thoroughly. The discords may be very fine, and the passion very striking and tempestuous, but it is worse than thrown away on an uncultivated ear like mine. CHAPTER XII. A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE. THE police of Moscow are not an attractive class of men, considering them in the light of guardians of the law. With a good deal of pomposity,and laziness, they mingle much filth and rascality. The emperor may have great confidence in them, based upon some knowledge of their talents and virtues not shared by casual tourists; but if he would trust one of them with ten kopeks, or agree to place the life of any intimate personal friend in their keeping, in any of the dark alleys of Moscow, his faith in their integrity and humanity must be greater than mine. Indeed, upon casting around me in search of a parallel, I am not quite sure that I ever saw such a scurvy set of vagabonds employed to preserve the public peace in any other country, except, perhaps, in Spain. The guardians of the law in Cadiz and Seville are dark and forbidding enough in all conscience, and unscrupulous enough to turn a penny in any way not requiring the exercise of personal energy; and the police of Barcelona are not inferior in all that constitutes moral turpitude, but they can not surpass the Moscovites in filthiness of person or any of the essential attributes of villainy. I have it upon good authority that they are the very THE LAND OF THOR. 105 Worst set of thieves -in the place, and that they will iot hesitate to unite with any midnight prowler for the purpose of robbing a stranger. True, they did not rob me, but the reason of that is obvious. I gave them to understand at the start that I was connected with the press. You seldom hear of a writer for newspapers being robbed; and if such a thing' ever does happen, the amount taken is never large. As a consequence of this proclivity for ill-gotten gains on the part of the guardians of the law, it is unsafe for a stranger to go through the less frequented streets of Moscow at night. Should he chance to be stopped by two or three footpads and call for help, he will doubtless wake up some drowsy guardian of the law, but the help will be all against him. Instances have been related to me of robberies in which the police were the most active assailants, the robbers merely standing by for their share of the plunder. Should the unfortunate victim knock down a footpad or two in self-defense, it is good ground for an arrest; and both robbers and policemen become witnesses against him. A man had better get involved in a question of title to his property before the courts of California than be arrested for assault and battery, and carried before any of the civil tribunals in Russia. There is no end of the law's delays in these institutions, and his only chance ofjustice is to get his case before the emperor, who is practically the Supreme Court of the empire. Otherwise the really aggrieved party must pay a fine for defending himself, and support the assaulted man, whose nose he may have battered, during an unlimited period at the hospital, together with physician's fees for all the real or imaginary injuries inflicted. I met with a young American who was followed by a stalwaiWuffian one night in returning from one of the public gardens. The man dogged his footsteps for some time. At length, there being nobody near to render aid, the robber mustered courage enough to seize hold and attempt to intimida'te his supposed victim by brandishing a knife. E2 106 THE LAND OF THOR. He came from a country where they were not uncommon, and, besides, was an adept on the shoulder. With a sudden jerk he freed himself, and, hauling off a little, gave his assailant a note of hand that knocked him down. I am not versed in the classics of the ring, or I would make something out of this fight. The pad dropped like a stricken ox, his knife flying picturesquely through the silvery rays of the moon. Next moment he was on his feet again, the claret shining beautifully on his cheeks and beard. Throwing out his claws like a huge grizzly, he rushed in, gnashing his teeth and swearing horribly. This time our friend was fairly aroused, and the wretch promptly measured his length on the ground. Thinking he had scattered it on rather heavy, the American stooped down to see how matters stood, when the fellow grasped him by the coat and commenced shouting with all his might for the police -"Help! help! murder! murder!" There was no remedy but to silence him, which our friend dexterously accomplished by a blow on the os frontis. Hearing the approaching footsteps of the police, he then concluded it was best to make his escape, and accordingly took to his heels. Chase was given, but he was as good at running as he was at the noble art of self-defense, and soon distanced his pursuers. Fortunately, he reached his quarters without being recognized. This was all that saved him from arrest and imprisonment, or the payment of a fine for the assault. A common practice, as I was informed, is to arrest a stranger for some alleged breach of the law, such as smoking a cigar in the streets, or using disrespectful language toward the constituted authorities. Not being accustomed to the intricacies of a Russian judiciary, it is difficultdhen once the matter comes before a tribunal of justice, for a foreigner to rebut the testimony brought against him; and if he be in a hurry to get away, his only course is to bribe the parties interested in his detention. It would be unjust to say that this system prevails universally throughout Russia. There is a small THE LAND OF THOR. 107 circle around the imperial presence said to be exempt from corruption; and there may possibly be a few dignitaries of the government, in remote parts of the empire, who will not tell an untruth unless in their official- correspondence, or steal except to make up what they consider due to them for public services; but the circle of immaculate ones is very small, and commences very near the Czar, and -the other exceptions referred to are exceedingly rare. Thieving may be said to begin within gunshot of the capital, and to attain its culminating excellences on the confines of Tartary. The difference is only in degree between the higher and the lower grades of officers. Hence, although it is quite possible to obtain full reparation for an injury before the Czar, through the intervention of a consul or a minister, it is a vexatious and expensive mode of proceeding, and would only result at last in the transportation of some miserable wretch to the mines of Siberia. Of course no man with a spark of feeling would like to see a poor fellow-creature go there. For my part, I would rather suffer any amount of injustice than be the cause of sending a fellow-mortal on so long and dreary a journey. The whole bearing of which you will presently discover. I am going'to tell you a very singular adventure that befell me in Moscow. Do not be impatient; it will all come in due time. A few dashes of preliminary description will be necessary, by way of introduction, otherwise it would be impossible to comprehend the full scope and purpose of my narrative. If you be of the rougher mould, cherished reader, just cast yourself back, somewhere at your ease, take this most excellently printed book deftly between your fingers, with a good cigar between your teeth; throw your legs over your desk, a gunny-bag, a fence-rail, or the mantel-piece of the barroom, as the case may be; give me the benefit of your friendship and confidence, and read away at your leisure. But if you be one of those gentle beings placed upon earth to diffuse joy and happiness over the desert of 108 THE LAND OF THOR. life, I pray you consider me a serf at your imperial. footstool; bend on. me those tender eyes; and with the mingled respect and admiration due by all men to female loveliness, I shall prqceed at once to tell you (confidentially of course) A MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE. It so happened in Moscow that I fell in with a very pleasant and sociable party of Americans, several of whom were in the railway service, and' therefore might reasonably be regarded as fast young gentlemen, though far be it from me to imply any thing injurious to their reputation. Beyond an excessive passion for tea, acquired by long residence in Moscow, I do not know that a single one of them was at all dissipated. When I first called at the rooms of these lively countrymen, they immediately got out their tea-urns, and assured me that it would be impossible to comprehend any thing of Russian life till I had partaken freely of Russian tea, therefore I was obliged to drink five or six glasses by way of a beginning. Having freely discussed the affairs of the American nation at one room, we adjourned to another, where we had a fresh supply of tea; and then, after settling the rebellion to our common satisfaction, adjourned to another, and so on throughout the best part of the day. Sometimes we stopped in at a traktir and had a portion or two, dashed with a little Cognac, which my friends:assured me would prevent it from having any injurious effect upon the nervous system. In this way, within a period of twelve hours, owing to the kindness and hospitality of these agreeable Americans, who insisted upon treating me to tea, in public and in private, at every turn of our rambles, I must have swallowed a gallon or two of this delicious beverage. The weather was exceedingly warm, but these experienced gentlemen insisted upon it that Russian tea was a sovereign antidote for warm weather, especially when dashed with Cognac, as it drove all the caloric out of THE LAND OF THOR. 109 the body through the pores of the skin. "Don't be afraid!" said they, encouragingly; "drink just as much as you please-it will cool you! See how the Russians drink it. Nothing else enables them to stand these fiery hot summers after their polar winters!" Well, I didn't feel exactly cool, with thirty or forty tumblers of boiling hot tea, dashed with Cognac, in my veins, but what was the use of remonstrating? They lived in.Moscow -they knew better than I did what was good for strangers-so I kept on swallowing a little more, just to oblige them, till I verily believe, had any body stuck a pin in me, or -had I undertaken to make a speech, I would have spouted Russian tea. Why is it that the moment any body wants to render you a service, or manifest some token of friendship, he commences by striking at the very root of your digestive functions? Is it not exacting a little too much of human nature tcoequire a man to consider himself a large sponge, in order that hospitality may be poured into him by the gallon? When a person of pliant and amiable disposition visits a set of good fellows, aind they take some trouble to entertain him; when they think they are delighting him internally and externally-not to say infernally-with such tea as he never drank before, it is hard to refuse. The moral courage necessary for the peremptory rejection of such advances would make a hero. Thus it has ever been with me- I am the victim of misplaced hospitality. It has been the besetting trouble of my life. I remember once eating a Nantucket pudding to oblige a lady. It was made of corn-meal and molasses, with some diabolical compound in the way of sauce-possibly whale-oil and tar. I had just eaten a hearty dinner; but the lady insisted upon it that the pudding was a great dish in Nantucket, and I must try it. Well, I stuffed and gagged at it, out of pure politeness, till every morsel on theplate was gone, declaring all the time that it was perfectly delicious. The lady was charmed, and, in the face of every denial, 110 THE LAND OF THOR. instantly filled the plate again. What could I do but eat it? And after eating till I verily believe one half of me was composed of Nantucket pudding, and the other half of whale-oil and tar, what could I do but praise it again? The third attempt upon my life was made by this most excellent and hospitable lady; but I gave way, and had to beg off. Human nature could stand it no longer. The consequence was, I wounded her feelings. She regretted very much that I disliked Nantucket pudding, and I don't think ever quite forgave me for my prejudice against that article of diet, though her kindness laid me up sick for two weeks. Nor is this an isolated case. I might relate a thousand others in illustration of the melancholy fact that hospitality has been the bane of my life. When I think of all the sufferings I have endured out of mere politeness-though by no means accounted a polite person-tears of grief and indignation spring to my eyes Old John Rogers at the stake never suffered-such martyrdom. But there is an end of it! The tchai of Moscow finished all this sort of thing -so far, at least, as the male sex is concerned. I would still eat a coyote or a weasel to oblige a lady, but as to drinking two gallons of strong tea per day, dashed with Cognac to reduce its temperature, to oblige any man that ever wore a beard, I solemnly declare I'll die first. The thing is an imposition —an outrage. Every man has a right to my time, my purse, my real estate in Oakland, my coat, my boots, or my razor -nay, in a case of emergency, my tooth-brush-but no man has a right to deluge my diaphragm with slops, or make a ditch of Mundus of my stomach. At the Peterskoi Gardens we had a little more tea, dashed with vodka, to keep out the night air. As soon as the fire-works were over we adjourned to the pa~vilion, and refreshed ourselves with a little more tea slightly impregnated with some more vodka. Now I don't know exactly what this vodka is made of, but I believe it is an extract of corn. In the Russian lan THE LAND OF THOR. 111 guage voda is water, and vodka means "little water." There certainly was very little in what we got, or the tea must have been stronger,than usual, for, notwithstanding these agreeable young gentlemen protested a 7_. *EFFECTS OF: "LITTLE WATER". gallon of such stuff would not produce the slightest effeet, it seemed to me -though there might have been some delusion in the, idea, arising from ignorance of Russian custonjs — that my head went round like a 112 THE LAND OF THOR. whirligig; and by the time I took my leave of these experienced young friends and retired to my room at the Hotel de Venise, it did likewise occur to me-though that too may have been a mere notion-that there was a hive of bees in each ear. Upon due consideration of all the facts, I thought it best to turn in, and resume any inquiries that might be necessary for the elucidation of these phenomena in the morning. [Here, you perceive, I am gradually verging toward the adventure. The heroine of the romance has not yet made her appearance, but depend upon it she is getting ready.'You should never hurr;y the female characters; besides, it is not proper, even if this were all fiction instead of sober truth, that the heroine should be brought upon the stage just as the hero is tumbling into bed.] But to proceed. Sleep was effectually banished from my eyes, and no wonder. Who in the name of sense'could sleep with forty tumblers of Russian tea-to say nothing of the dashes that were put in it-simmering through every nook and cranny of his body, and boiling over in his head? There I lay, twisting and tumbling, the pillow continually descending into the depths of infinity, but never getting any where-the bed rolling like a dismantled hulk upon a stormy sea-the room filled with steaming and hissing urns-a fearful thirst parching my throat, while myriads of horrid bearded Russians were torturing me, with tumblers of boiling-hot tea dashed with vodkc —thus I lay a perfect victim of tea. I could even see Chinamen with long queues picking tealeaves off endless varieties of shrubs that grew upon the papered walls; and Kalmuck Tartars, with their long caravans, traversing the dreary steppes of Tartary laden with inexhaustible burdens of the precious leaf; and the great fairi of Nijni Novorgod, with its booths, and tents, and countless boxes of tea, -and busy throngs of traders and tea-merchants, all passing like a panorama before me, and all growing naturally out of an indefinite background of tea. THE LAND OF THOR. 113 I can not distinctly remember how long I tossed about in this way, beset by all sorts of vagaries. Sometimes I fancied sleep had come, and that the whole matter was a ridiculous freak of fancy, including my visit to Moscow -that Russian tea was all a fiction, and vodka a mere nightmare; but with a nervous start I would find myself awake, the palpable reality of my extraordinary condition staring me in the face. Unable to endure such- an anomalous frame of mind and body any longer, I at length resolved to go down and take an airing in the streets, believing, if any thing would have a beneficial effect, it would be the fresh air. Acting upon this idea, I hastily dressed myself and descended to the front door. The Hfotel de Venise is situated in a central part of the city, at no great distance from the Kremlin. It stands back in a large open yard, with a very pretty garden to the right as you enter from the main street. The proprietor is a Russian, but the hotel is conducted in the French style, and, a-though not more conspicuous for cleanliness than other establishments of the same class in Moscow, it is nevertheless tolerably free from vermin. The fleas in it were certainly neither so lively nor so entertaining as I have found them at many of the Spanish ranches in California, and the bugs, I am sure, are nothing like so corpulent as some I have seen in Washington City. I throw this in gratis, as a sort of puff, in consideration of an understanding with the landlord, that if he would refrain from cheating me I would recommend his hotel to American travelers. It is very good of its kind, al no person fond of veal; as a standard dish, can suffer from hunger at this establishment so long as calves continne to be born any where in the neighborhood of Moscow. The porter, a drowsy old fellow in livery, whose only business, so far as I could discover, was to bow to the guests as they passed in and out during the day, at the expense of a kopek to each one of them for every bow, was napping on a lounge close by the front door. Hear 114 THE LAND OF THOR. ing my footsteps, he awoke, rubbed his eyes, bowed habitually, and then stared at me with a vacant and somewhat startled expression. It was not a common thing evidently for lodgers to go out of the hotel at that time of night, or rather morning-it must have been nearly two o'clock-for, after gazing a while at what he doubtless took to be an apparition or an absconding boarder whose bill had not been settled, he grumbled out something like a dissent, and stood between me and the door. A small fee of ten kopeks, which I placed in his hand, aided him in grasping at the mysteries of the case, and he unlocked the door and let me out, merely shaking his head gravely, as if he divined my purpose, but did not altogether approve of it in one of my age and sedate appearance. In that, however, he was mistaken: I had no disposition to form any tender alliances in Moscow. The streets were almost deserted. An occasional drosky, carrying home some belated pLeasure-seeker, was all that disturbed the silence. I walked some distance in the direction of the Kremlin. The air was deliciously cool and refreshing, and the sky wore a still richer glow than I had noticed a few hours before at the gardens of the Peterskoi. The moon had not yet gone down, but the first glowing blushes of the early morning were stealing over the heavens, mingled with its silvery light. I took off my hat to enjoy the fresh air, and wandered along quite enchanted with the richness and variety of the scene. Every turn of the silent streets brought me in view of some gilded pile of cupolas, standing in glving relief against the sky. Churches of strange Asiatic form, the domes richly and fancifully colored; golden stars glittering upon a groundwork of blue, green, or yellow; shrines with burning tapers over the massive doors and gateways, were scattered in every direction in the most beautiful profusion. Sometimes I saw a solitary beggar kneeling devoutly before some gilded saint, and mourning over the weariness of life. Once I was THE LAND OF THOR. 115 RUSSIAN BEGGARS. startled by the apparition of a poor wretch lying asleep — I thought he was dead-a crippled wreck upon the stone steps —his eyes closed in brief oblivion of the world and its sorrows, his furrowed and pallid features a ghastly commentary upon the glittering temples and idols that surround him. For above all these things that are "' decked with silver and with gold, and fastened with nails and with hammers that they move not," there is One who hath "made the earth by His power and established the world by His wisdom;" man is but brutish in his knowledge; "every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them." Such extremes every where abound in Moscow-magnificence and filth; wealth and poverty; a superstitious belief in the power of images in the midst of abject proofs of their impotence. And yet, is it not better that men 116 THE LAND OF THOR. should believe in something rather than in nothing? The glittering idol can not touch the crippled beggar and put health and strength in his limbs, but if the poor sufferer can sleep better upon the cold stones in the presence of his patron saint than elsewhere, in charity's name let him, "O'erlabored with his being's strife, Shrink to that sweet forgetfulness of life." I wandered on. Soon the cupolas of the mighty Kremlin were in sight, all aglow with the bright sheen of the morn. Passing along its embattled walls, which now seemed of snowy whiteness, I reached the grand plaza of the Krasnoi Ploschod. Standing out in the open space, I gazed at the wondrous pile of gold-covered domis till my eyes rested on, the highest point —the majestic tower of Ivan Veliki. And then I could but think of the terrible Czar-the fourth of the fierce race of Ivans, who ruled the destinies of Russia; he who killed his own son in a fit of rage, yet never shook hands with a foreign embassador without washing his own immediately after; the patron of monasteries, and the conqueror- of Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia. This was the most cruel yet most enlightened of his name. I am not sure whether the tower was built to commemorate his fame or that of his grandfather, Ivan the Third, also called " the Terrible," of whom Karasmin says that, " when excited with anger, his glance would make a timid woman swoon; that petitioners dreaded to approach his throne, and that even at his table the boyars, his grandees, trembled before him." A terrible fellow, no doubt, and thoroughly Russian by the testimony of this Russian historian, for where else will you find men so terrible as to make timid women swoon by a single glance of their eye? Not in California, surely! If I were a Czar this soft summer night (such was the idea that naturally occurred to me),-I would gaze upon the fair flowers of creation with an entirely different expression of countenance. - They should -neither wilt nor swoon unless THE LAND OF THOR. 117 overcome by the delicacy and tenderness of my admiration. From the green towers of the Holy Gate, where neither- Czar nor serf can enter without; uncovering his head, I turned toward the Vassoli Blagennoi-the wondrous maze of churches that gathers around the Cathedral of St. Basil. Not in all Moscow is there a sight so strange and gorgeous as this. The globular domes, all striped with the varied colors of the rainbow; the glittering gold-gilt cupolas; the rare and fanciful minarets; the shrines, and crosses, and stars; the massive steps; the iron railing, with shining gold-capped points-surely, in the corhbination of striking and picturesque forms and -colors, lights and shades, must ever remain unequaled. The comparison may seem frivolous, yet it resembled more, to my eye, some gigantic cactus of the tropics, with its needles and rich colors, its round, prickly domes and fantastic cupolas, than any thing I had ever seen before in the shape of a church or group of churches. While I gazed in wonder at the strange fabric, I could not but think again of Ivan the Terrible; by whose order it was built; and how, when the architect (an Italian) was brought before him, trembling with awe, the mighty Ivan expressed his approval of the performance, and demanded if he, the architect, could build another equally strange and beautiful; to which the poor Italian, elated with joy, answered that he could build another even stranger and more beautiful than this; and then how the ferocious and unprincipled Czar had the poor fellow's eyes put out to prevent him from building another. But this is not the adventure. I have nothing to do at present with the Church of St. Basil or Ivan the Terrible except in so far as they affected my imagination. The business on hand is to tell you how the dire catastrophe happened. Bewildered at length with gazing at all these wonderful sights, I turned to retrace my steps to the hotel. A 118 THE LAND OF THOR. few droskies were still plying on the principal thoroughfares, and now and then I met gay parties trudging homeward after their night's dissipation; but I soon struck into the less frequented streets, where a dreary silence reigned. There was something very sad and solitary in the reverberation of my footsteps. For the first time it occurred to me that there was not much security here for life, in case of a covert attack from some of those footpads said to infest the city. I began to reflect upon the experience of my young American friend, and regret that it had not occurred to me before I left the hotel. You may think this very weak and foolish, good friends, surrounded as you are by all the safeguards of law and order, and living in a country where men are never knocked on the head of nights-with occasional exceptions; but I can assure you it is a very natural feeling in a strange, half-barbarous city like Moscow, where one doesn't understand the language. Had I been well versed in Russian, the probability is I should not have felt the least alarmed; but a man experiences a terrible sensation of loneliness when he expects every moment to be knocked on the head without being able to say a word in his own defense. Had my guide, Dominico, been with me, I should not have felt quite so helpless-though I never had much confidence in his courage-for he could at least have demanded an explanation, or, if the worst came to the worst, helped me to run away. The fact is-and there is no use attempting to disguise it —I began to feel a nervous apprehension that something was going to happen. I was startled at my own shadow, and was even afraid to whistle with any view of keeping up my spirits, lest something unusually florid in my style of whistling might lead to the supposition that I was from California, and therefore a good subject for robbery. Which, by the way, puts me in mind of a -remarkable fact, well worth mentioning. The State of California owes me, at the least calculation, two hundred dollars, THE LAND OF THOR. 119 paid in sums varying from six kreutzers up to a pound sterling to hotel-keepers, porters, lackeys, and professional gentlemen throughout Europe, exclusively on the ground of my' citizenship in that state. In Paris-in Spain —in Africa-in Germany (with the exceptions of the beer-houses and country inns), I had to pay a heavy percentage upon the capital invested in my gold mines solely on the presumption that no man could come from so rich a country without carrying off a good deal of treasure on his person, like the carcass that carried the diamonds out of the rich valley -for Sinbad the Sailor. Yet I never could forego the pleasure of announcing myself as an embassador to foreign parts from that noble state, commissioned by the sovereigns generally to furnish them with the latest improvements in morals, fashions, and manners for the public benefit-an extremely onerous and responsible duty, which I have executed, and shall continue to execute, with the most rigid fidelity. After walking quite far enough to have reached the hotel, I became confused at the winding of the streets. The neighborhood was strange. I could not discover any familiar sign or object. The houses were low, mean, and dark looking; the street was narrow and roughly paved. I walked a little farther, then turned into another street still more obscure, and, following that for some distance, brought up amid a pile of ruined walls. There could no longer be a doubt that I had missed the way, and was not likely to find it in this direction. It was a very suspicious quarter into which I had strayed. Every thing about it betokened poverty and crime. I began to feel rather uneasy, but it would not do to stand here among the ruins as a mark for any midnight prowler who might be lurking around. Turning off in a new direction, I took a by-street, which appeared to lead to an open space. As I picked my way over the masses of rubbish, a dark figure crossed in front, and disappeared in the shadow of a wall. I was entirely unarmed. What was to be done? Perhaps the man 120 THE LAND OF THOR. might be able to tell me the way to my lodgings; but I could not speak a word of Russian, as before stated, and, besides, was rather averse to making acquaintance with strangers. After a moment's reflection, I walked on, cautiously and distrustfully enouglh, for the notion was uppermost in my mind that this fellow was not there for any good purpose. As I passed the spot where he had disappeared, I looked suspiciously ar6und, but he did not make his appearance. With a few hasty strides I reached the open space —a vacant lot, it seemed, caused by a recent fire. The houses were burnt down, and nothing but a blackened mass of beams, rafters, and ashes covered thbe ground. The only exit was through a narrow alley. Before entering this, I looked back and saw the same figure stealthily following me. On I went as rapidly as I could walk. Closer and closer came the figure. He was a man of gigantic stature, and was probably armed. Soon I heard the heavy tramp of his feet within a few paces. It was evident I must either run or stand my ground. Perhaps, if I had known what direction to take, or could have placed more reliance upon my knees, which were greatly weakened by tea, I might have chosen the former alternative, inglorious as it may seem; but, under the circumstances, I resolved to stand. Facing around suddenly, with my back to the wall, I called to the ruffian to stand off, as he valued his life. He halted within a few feet, evidently a little disconcerted at my sudden determination to make battle. His face was the most brutal I had ever seen; a filthy mass of beard nearly covered it; two piercing white eyes glistened beneath the leaf of his greasy cap; a coarse blouse, gathered around the waist by a leather belt, and boots that reached nearly to his hips, were the most striking articles of his costume. For a moment he gazed at me, as if uncertain what to do; then brushed slowly past, with the design, no doubt, of ascertaining if I was armed. I could not see whether he carried any deadly weapons himself; but a man of his gigantic stat THE LAND OF THOR. 121 ure needed none to be a very unequal opponent in a struggle with one whose most sanguinary conflicts had hitherto been on paper, and who had never wielded a heavier weapon than a pen. Proceeding on his way, however, the ruffian, after going about a hundred yards, disappeared in some dark recess in among the houses pn one side. I continued on, taking care to keep in the middle of the alley. As I approached the spot where the man had disappeared, I heard several voices, afid then the terrible truth flashed upon me that there must be a gang of them. I now saw no alternative but to turn back and run for my life. It was an inglorious thing to do, no doubt, but which of you, my friends, would not have done the same thing? Scarcely had I started under full headway when three or four men rushed out in pursuit. I will not attempt to disguise the fact that the ground passed under my feet pretty rapidly; and the probability is, the hostile party would have been distanced in less than ten minutes but for an unfortunate accident. It was necessary to cross the ruins already described. Here, in the recklessness of my flight, I stumbled over a beam, and fell prostrate in a pile of ashes. Before I could regain my feet the ruffians were upon me. While two of them held my arms, the third clapped his dirty hand over my mouth, and in this way they dragged me back into the alley. As soon as they had reached the dark archway from which they had originally started, they knocked at a door on one side. This was quickly opened, and I was thrust into a large room, dimly lighted with rude lamps of grease-hung upon the walls. When they first got hold of me, I confess the sensation was not pleasant. What would the Emperor Alexander say when he heard that a- citizen of California had been murdered in this cold-blooded manner? My next thought was, in what terms would this sad affair be noticed in the columns of the Sacramento Union? Would it not be regarded by the editor as an unprovoked disaster inflicted upon sociF TIP" -— "-T TT.Tr-l THE LAND OF THOR. 123 ety? My fears, however, were somewhat dispelled upon looking around the saloon into which I had been so strangely introduced. Several tables were ranged along the walls, at each of which sat a group of the most horrible-looking savages that pr6bably ever were seen out of jail-the. very dregs and offscourings of Moscow. Their faces were mostly covered with coarse, greasy beards, reaching half way down their bodies; some wore dirty blue or gray blouses, tied around the waist with ropes; or fastened with leather belts; others, long blue coats, reaching nearly to their feet; and all, or nearly all, had caps on their heads, and great heavy boots reaching up to their knees, in which their pantaloons were thrust, giving them a rakish and ruffianly appearance. A few-sat in their shirt-sleeves; and, judging by the color of their shirts, as well as their skins, did not reckon soap among the luxuries of life. Several (if these savage-looking Mujiks were smoking some abominable weed, intended, perhaps, for tobacco, but very much unlike that delightful narcotic in the foul and tainted odor which it diffuse'd over the.room. They were all filthy and brutish in the extreme, and talked in some wretched jargon,' which, even to my inexperienced ear, had but little of the gentle flow-of the Russian in it. The tables were dotted with'dice, cards, fragments of black bread, plates' -of grease, and cabbage soup, and glasses of vodka and tea; and the business of gambling, eating, and drinking was carried on with such earnestness that my entrance attracted no farther attention than a rude stare from the nearest group. No wonder they were a little puzzled, for I was covered with ashes, and must have presented rather a singular appearance. The three ruffians who had brought me in closed.the door, and motioned me to a seat at a vacant table. They then called for tea, vodka, and quass, together with a great dish of r'aw cucumbers, which they set to work devouring with amazing voracity. During a pause in the feast they held a low conversation with the man who served them, who went 124 THE LAND OF THOR. out and presently returned with a small tea-pot full of tea and a glass, which he set before me. They motioned to me, in rather a friendly way, to drink. I was parched with thirst, and was not sorry to get a draught of any thing —even the villainous compound the traktir had set before me; so I drank off a tumblerfull at once. Soon I began to experience a whirling sensation in the head. A cold tremor ran through my limbs. Dim and confused visions of the company rose before me, and a strange and spectral light seemed shed over the room. The murmur of voices sounded like rushing waters in my ears. I gradually lost all power of volition, while my consciousness remained unimpaired, or, if any thing, became more acute than ever. The guests, if such they were, broke up their carousal about this time, and began to drop off one by one, each bowing profoundly to the landlord, and crossing himself devoutly, and bowing three times again before the shrine of the patron saint as he passed out. It was really marvelous to see some of these ruffians, so besotted with strong drink that they were scarcely able to see the way to the door, stagger up before the burnished shrine, and, steadying themselves the best they could, gravely and solemnly go through their devotions. But I see you are beginning to yawn, and, notwithstanding the most exciting part of the adventure is about to commence, it would be extremely injudicious in me to force it upon you under circumstances so disadvantageous to both parties. You will therefore oblige me by finishing your nap, and, with your permission, we will proceed with our narrative as soon as it -may be mutually agreeable, In the mean time, I beg you will regard what I have already told you as strictly confidential. My reputation, both for veracity and general good Character, is involved in this very extraordinary affair, and it would be unfair that either the one or the other should be prejudiced by a partial exposition of the facts. THE LAND OF THOR. 125 CHAPTER XIII. THE DENOUEMENT. I NOTICED that the traktir, in settling accounts with his customers, made use of a peculiar. instrument commonly seen in the shops and market-places throughout the city. Behind a sort of bar or counter at the head of the room he kept what is called a schot, upon which he made his calculations. This is a frame about a foot square, across which run numerous wires. On each wire is a string of colored pieces of wood somewhat resembling billiard-counters, only smaller. The merchant, trader, traktir, or craftsman engaged in pecuniary transactions uses this instrument with wonderful dexterity in making his calculations. He believes it to be the only thing in the world that will not lie or steal. If you have purchased to the amount of thirty kopeks, you would naturally conclude that out of a ruble (one hundred kopeks) your change would amount to seventy. Not so the sagacious and wary Russian. He takes nothing for granted in the way of trade. Your calculations may be erroneous-figures obtained through the medium of mental arithmetic may lie, but the schot never. The experience of a lifetime goes for nothing. He must have proof positive. Taking his schot between his knees, he counts off thirty balls out of a hundred. Of course there is no mistake about that. Neither you nor he can dispute it. Then he counts the remainder, and finds that it amounts to seventy-therefore your change is seventy kopeks! Do you dispute it? Then you can count for yourself. You might cover pages with written calculations, or demonstrate the problem by the four cardinal rules of arithmetic; you might express the numbers by sticks, stones, beans, or grains of coffee, but it would be 126 THE LAND OF THOR. all the same to this astute and cautious calculator-facts can only reach his understanding through the colored balls of his beloved schot. I don't think he would rely with certainty upon the loose verbal statement that two and two make four without resorting to the schot for a verification. But to proceed: A few of the guests, too far gone with " little water" to get up and perform their devotions, rolled over on the floor and went to sleep. The lights grew dim. A gloomy silence began to settle' over the room, interrupted only by the occasional grunting or snoring of the sleepers. The ruffians who sat at the table with me had been nodding for some time; but, roused by the cessation of noises, they called to the man of the house, and in a low voice gave him some orders. He got a light and opened a small door in a recess at one side of the room. I was then lifted up by the others and carried into an adjoining passage, and thence up a narrow stairway. In a large dingy room overhead I could see by the flickering rays of the lamp a bed in one corner. It was not very clean —none of the Russian beds are-but they laid me in it, nevertheless, for I could offer no remonstrance. What they had hitherto done was bad enough, but this capped the climax of outrages. Were the cowardly villains afraid to murder me, and was this their plan of getting it done, and at the same time getting rid of the body? Great heavens! was I to be devoured piecemeal by a rapacious horde of the wild beasts that are said to infest the Russian beds! And utterly helpless, too, without the power to grapple with as much as a single flea-the least formidable, perhaps, of the entire gang! It was absolutely fearful to contemplate such an act of premeditated barbarity; yet what could I do, unable to speak a word or move a limb. I am reminded by this that the Russians derive the most striking features of their civilization from the French and Germans. Their fashions, their tailors, their confectioners, their perfumeries, their barbers, are nearly THE LAND OF THOR. 127 all French or Germans; but their baths are a national institution, derived originally, perhaps, from the Orientals. We hear a good deal of Russian baths, especially from enthusiastic travelers, and are apt to suppose that where such a thorough system of scrubbing and boiling prevails, the human cuticle must present a very extraordinary aspect of cleanliness. Perhaps this is so in certain cases, but it is not a national characteristic. A Russian bath, in the genuine style, is rather a costly luxury. There are, to be sure, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, public bath-houses for the rabble, where the filthiest beggar can be boiled out and scrubbed for-a few kopelk- but people who wear a coating of dirt habitually must become attached to it in the course of time, and hate very much to dispose of it at any price. At least there seemed to be a prejudice of this kind in Moscow,,where the affection with which this sort of overlining is preserved is quite equal to that with which the Germans adhere fo their old household furniture. It may be, perhaps, that the few summer months which they enjoy are insufficient for the removal of all the strange things that accumulate upon the body during the long winters. The poorer classes seldom remove their furs or change their clothing till warm weather and the natural wear and teal of all perishable things cause them to drop off of their own accord. I have seen on a scorching hot day men wrapped in long woolen coats, doubled over the breast and securely fastened around the waist, and great boots, capacious enough and thick enough for fire-buckets, in which they were half buried, strolling lazily along in the sun, as if they absolutely enjoyed its warmth; and yet these very articles of clothing, with but little addition, must have borne the piercing winds of midwinter. A suspicion crossed my mind that they were trying in this way to bag a little heat for winter use, as the old burghers of Schilda bagged the light to put in their town hall because they had no windows. These strange habits must have something to do with the number of fero 128 THE LAND OF THOR. cious little animals-I will not degrade their breed and variety by calling them vermin —which infest the rooms and beds. But the Russian skin is like Russian leather -the best and toughest in the world. Something in the climate is good for the production of thick and lasting cuticles. It is doubtless a wise provision of nature, based upon the extremes of heat and cold to which these people are exposed. There is no good reason why animals with four feet should be more favored in this respect than bipeds. I doubt if an ordinary Russian would suffer the slightest inconvenience if a needle were run into the small of his back. All those physical torments which disturb thin-skinned people from other countries are no torments at all to him; and I incline to the opinion that it is the constant experience he enjoys in a small way that enables him to endure the wounds received in battle with such wonderful stoicism. A man can carry a bull if he only commences when the animal is young. Why not, on the same principle, accustom himself to being stabbed every night till he can quietly endure to be run through with a bayonet? The Russian soldiers possess wonderful powers of passive endurance. Being stabbed or cut to pieces is second nature to them-they have been accustomed to it, in a degree, from early infancy. Who does not remember how they were hewed and hacked down in the Crimean War, and yet came to life again by thousands after they were given up for dead? Perhaps no other soldiers in the world possess such stoicism under the inflictions of pain. They stand an enormous amount of killing; more so, I think, than any other people, unless it may be the Irish, who, at the battle of Vinegar Hill, in the rebellion of'98, were nearly all cut to pieces and left for dead on the field, but got up in a day or two after and went at it again as lively as ever. This, however, was not owing to the same early experience, but to the healthy blood made of potatoes, with a slight sprinkling of Irish whisky. In fine, I don't think a genuine Muscovite could sleep without a bountiful' THE LAND OF THOR. 129 supply of vermin to titillate his skin any more than a miller bereft of the customary noise of his hoppers. Which brings me back again to the adventure. On that filthy bed the ruffians laid me down to be devoured by the wild beasts by which it was infested. Then they turned about to a shrine that stood in a corner of the room, and each one bowed down before it three times and crossed himself, after which they all left the room and quietly closed the door behind them. I was penetrated with horror at the thought of the terrible death before me, but not so much as to avoid noticing that the chief furniture of the room consisted of a stove in one corner, of cylindrical form, made of terra-cotta or burnt clay, and glazed outside. It was colored in rather a fanciful way, like queensware, and made a conspicuous appearance, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. This was the genuine Russian stove, with which these people no doubt kept-themselves warm during the winter. The windows are composed of double glasses, and between the sashes the space is filled with sand to keep out the air, so that to be hermetically sealed up is one of the necessities of existence in this rigorous climate. While I was pondering over the marvelous fact that people can live by breathing so many thousand gallons of air over and over so many thousand times, a whole legion of fleas, chinches, and other animals of a still more forbidding aspect commenced their horrid work, and would probably soon have made an end of me but for a new turn in this most extraordinary affair. The door gently opened. A figure glided in on tiptoe. It was that of a female, I knew by the grace and elegance of her motions, even before I could see her face or trace the undulating outline of her form in the dim light that pervaded the room. My senses were acutely alive to every movement, yet I was utterly unable to move, owing to the infernal drug with which they had dosed me. The woman, or rather girl —for she could not have been over eighteen or -nineteen — cautiously approached the bed, F 2 130 THE LAND OF THOR. with her finger to her lips, as if warning me not to speak. She was very beautiful-I was not insensible to that fact. Her features were wonderfully aristocratic for one in her position, and there was something in the expression of her dark, gleaming eyes peculiarly earnest and pathetic. Her hair was tossed wildly and carelessly back over her shoulders —she had evidently just risen from bed, for her costume consisted of nothing more than a loose nightwrapper, which fell in graceful folds around her limbs, revealing to great advantage the exquisite symmetry of her folm. I was certain she did not belong to the house. Approaching timidly, yet with a certain air of determination, she bent down and razed a moment in my face, and then hurriedly whispered in French, "Now is the time-let us escape! They lie sleeping by the door. A servant whom I bribed has disclosed the fact of your capture to me; I also am a prisoner in this horrid den. Will you save me? Oh, will you fly with me?" Of course, being unable to move a muscle, except those of my eyes, I could not open my mouth to utter a word in reply. The unhappy young woman looked profoundly distressed that I should thus gaze at her in silence. "' Oh, what am I to do? Who will save me?" she cried, wringing her hands in the deepest anguish: "I have not a friend upon earth!" Then, clasping me by the hand, she looked in my face appealingly, and said, " Monsieur, I know you are a Frenchman. I see it in the chivalrous lines of your countenance. Ah! have pity on a friendless young girl, and do not gaze at her with such chilling indifference. I also am French. These wretches have waylaid and imprisoned me, and they hope to obtain a ransom by my detention. My friends are ignorant of my miserable fate. What can I do, monsieur, unless you assist me?" Utterly helpless-drugged-yet perfectly conscious of all the lovely creature was saying, I was truly in a most deplorable situation. Again and again she begged me, if there was a spark of French chivallry left in my nature,, THE LAND OF THOR. 131 not to respond to her appeals by such a look of unutterable disdain. She was thrillingly beautiful; and beauty in tears is enough to melt the hardest heart that ever was put in the breast of man. I could feel her balmy breath upon my face, and the warmth of her delicate hand in mine, as she struggled to arouse me; and I declare itbis my honest conviction that, had I been simply a corpse, life would have come back to my assistance; but this diabolical drug possessed some extraordinary power against which not even the fascinations of beauty could successfully contend. Under other circumstances, indeed, there is no telling-but why talk of other circumstances? There I lay like a log, completely paralyzed firom head to foot.. At length, unable to elicit an answer, a flush of mingled indignation and scorn illuminated her beautiful features, and, drawing herself back with a haughty air, she said, "If this be the boasted chivally of my countrymen, then the sooner it meets with a merited reward the better. Allow me to say, monsieur, that while I admire your prudence, I scorn the spirit that prompts it!" and, with a glance of fierce disdain, she swept with queenly strides out of the room. A moment after I heard some voices in the passage, and scarcely five min — utes had elapsed before the door was opened again. To my horror I saw the ruffian who had first followed me enter stealthily with a darkened lantern, and approach toward my bed. He carried in his right hand a heavy bar of iron. Stopping a moment opposite a shrine on one side of the room, he laid down his lamp and bar, and, bowing down three times, crossed himself devoutly, andthen proceeded to accomplish his fiendish work. No conception can be formed of the agony with which I now regarded my fate. Crouching low as he approached, the wretch soon reached my bedside, peered a moment into my face with his hideous white eyes, laid down the lamp, then grasped the bar of iron firmly in both hands, and raised himself up to his full height. I made a desperate effort to cry out for help. My voice was utterly gone. 132 THE LAND OF THOR. I could not even move my lips. But why prolong the dreadful scene? One more glance with the fierce white eyes, a deep grating malediction, and the ruffian braced himnself for his deadly job. He tightened his grip upon the bar, swung it high, over his head, and with one fell blow-DAsSHED MY BRAINS OUT!! Don't believe it, eh? Well, sir, you would insist upon my telling you the adventure, and now I stand by it! If it be your deliberate opinion that my statement is not to be relied upon, nothing remains between us but to arrange the preliminaries. I have no disposition to deprive my publishers of a valuable contributor, or society of an ornament; but, sir, the great principles of truth must be maintained. As it will not be convenient for me to attend to this matter in person, you will be pleased to select any friend of mine in California who may desire to stand up for my honor; place him before you at the usual distance of ten paces; then name any friend of yours at present in Europe as a similar substitute for yourself-the principals only to use pistols-notify me by the Icelandic telegraph when you are ready, and then, upon return of signal, pop away at my friend. But, since it is not my wish to proceed to such an extremity unnecessarily, if you will admit that I may possibly have been deceived-that there may have been some hallucination about the adventure-that strong tea and nervous excitement may have had something to do with it, then, sir, I am willing to leave the; matter open to future negotiation. It is true I found myself in my room at the Hotel deq Venise when I recovered from the stunning effects of the blow; also, that the door was locked on the inside; but I am by no means prepared to give iup the point on such flimsy evidence as that. Should the physiological fact be developed in the course of these sketches that there is still any portion of the brain left, and that it performs its legitimate functions, of course I shall be forced to THE LAND OF THOR. 133 admit that the case is at least doubtful; yet even then it can not be regarded in the light of a pure fabrication. Has not Dickens given us, in his 1" Dreams of Venice," the most vivid and truthful description of the City of the Sea ever written; and what have I done, at the worst, but try in my humble way to give you a general idea of M6c-Qow in the pleasing form of a midnight adventure, ending l;an assassination? You have seen the Kremlin and the Church of St. Basil, and the by-streets and alleys, and the interior of a low traktir, and the cats, and the Russian beds, and many other interesting features of this wonderful city, in a striking and peculiar point of view, and I hold that you have no right to complain, because, like Louis Philippe, I sacrificed my crown for the benefit of my subject. Besides, has not my friend Bayard Taylor given to the world his wonderful experiences of the Hasheesh of Damascus; his varied and extraordinary hallucinations of intellect during the progress of its operations? And why should not I my humble experiences of the tchai of Moscow? Reader. Slightly sprinkled with vodka, or "the little water." Oh, that was just thrown in to give additional effect to the tea! Reader. It won't do, sir-it won't do! The deception was too transparent throughout. Well, then, since you saw through it from the beginning, there is no harm done, and you can readily afford to make an apology for impugning my veracity. -Lady Reader. But who was the heroine? What became of her? Ah! my dear madam, there you have me! I suspect she was a French countess, or more likely an actress engaged in the line of tragedy.- Her style, at all events, was tragical. Lady Reader (elevating her lovely eyebrows superciliously). She was rather demonstrative, it must be admitted. You brought her in' apparently to fulfill your prom 1'34'1 THE LAND OF THOR. ise, but sent her off the stage very suddenly. You should, at least, have restored her to her friends, and not left her in that den of robbers. That, dear madam, was my natural inclination; but the fact is, d'ye see, I was druggedLady Reader (sarcastically). It won't do, Mr. Butterfield —your heroine was a failure! In future you had better confine yourself to facts-or fresh water. Madam, I'd confine myself to the Rock of Gibraltar or an iceberg to oblige you; therefore, with your permission, I shall proceed to give you, in my next, a reliable description of the Kremlin. CHAPTER XIV. THE KREMLIN. NOT the least of the evils resulting from this harumscarum way of traveling and writing is the fact that one's impressions become sadly tumbled together and very soon lose their most salient features. To be whirled about the world by land and sea, as I have been for the last year, is enough to turn one's brain into a curiosity shop. When I undertake to pick out of the pile of rubbish some picture that must have been originally worth a great deal of money, I find it so disfigured by the sheer force of friction'that it looks no better than-an old daub. The pity of it is, too, that the very best of my gatherings are apt to get lost or ruined; and sometimes it happens that when I varnish up what appears to be valuable, it turns out not a groat. Want of method would ruin a Zingalee gipsy or a Bedouin Arab. No doubt you have already discovered to your sorrow that when we start on a visit to the Kremlin, it is no sure indication that we will not spend the day in the Rtiadi or the old-clothes market. If either you or I ever reach our destination, it will be by the sheerest accident. And yet one might as well undertake to see Rome without THE LAND OF THOR. 135 the Capitoline Hill, or Athens without the Acropolis, as Moscow without the Kremlin. We have had several glimpses of it, to be sure, in the course of our rambles, but you must admit that they were very vague and indefinite-especially the last, when, if you remember, we were laboring under some strange mental hallucination. The Kremlin has been fully described by many learned and accomplished travelers. Coxe, Atkinson, Kohl, and various others, have given elaborate accounts of it'; yet why despair of presenting, in a homely way, some general idea of it, such as one might gather in the course of an afternoon's ramble? After reading all we find about it in books of travel, our conceptions are still vague and unsatisfactory. Probably the reason is, that minute detrails of history and architecture afford one but a very faint and inadequate idea of the appearance of any place. Like the pictures of old Dennen, they may give you every wrinkle with the accuracy of a daguerreotype, but they fail in the general effect, or resemble the corpse of the subject rather than the living reality.- I must confess that all I had read on Russia previous to my visit afforded me' a much less vivid idea of the actual appearance of the country, the people, or the principal cities, than the rough crayon sketches of Timm and Mitreuter, which I:had seen in the shop windows of Paris. This may not be the fault of the writers, who, of course, are not bound to furnish their own eyes or their own understanding'to other people, but it seems to me that elaborate detail is inimical to strong general impressions. I would not give two hours' personal observation of any place or city in the world for a hundred volumes of the best books of travel ever written upon it; and next to that comes the conversation of a friend who possesses, even in an ordinary degree, the faculty of conveying to another his own impressions. A word, a hint, a gesture, or some grotesque comparison, may give you a more vivid picture of the reality than you can obtain by a year's study. Now, if you will just consider me that 136 THE LAND OF THOR. friend, and resign yourself in a genial and confiding spirit to the trouble of listening; if you will fancy that I mean a great deal more than I say, and could be very learned and eloquent if I chose; if you will take it for granted that what you don't see is there nevertheless, the Kremlin will sooner or later loom out of the fogs of romance and mystery that surround it, and stand before you, with its embattled walls and towers, as it stood before me in the blaze of the noonday sun, when Dominico, the melancholy guide, led the way to the Holy Gate. You will then discover that the reality is quite wonderful enough in its natural aspect, without the colored spectacles of fancy or the rigid asperities of photographic detail to give it effect. Like many of the old cities of Europe, Moscow probably had its origin in the nucleus of a citadel built upon the highest point, and commanding an extensive sweep of the neighborhood. Around this houses gathered by degrees for protection against the invasions of the hostile tribes that roamed through Russia at an early period of its history. The first object of the Kremlin was doubtless to form a military strong-hold. It was originally constructed of wood, with ramparts thrown up around it for purposes of defense, but, in common with the rest of Moscow, was destroyed by the Tartars in the fourteenth century. Under the reign of Dimitri it was rebuilt of stone, and strongly fortified with walls and ditches, since which period it has sustained, without any great injury, the assaults of war, the ravages of fire, and the wear and tear of time. Kief and Vladimir, prior to that reign, had each served in turn as the capital of the empire. After the removal of the capital to Moscow, that city was besieged and ravaged by Tamerlane, and suffered from time to time during every succeeding century all the horrors of war, fire, pestilence, and famine, till 1812, when it was laid in ashes by the Russians themselves, who by this great national sacrifice secured the destruction of the French army under Napoleon. THE LAND OF THOR. 1317 During the almost perpetual wars by which Moscow was assailed for a period of four centuries, the Kremlin seemns to have borne almost a charmed existence. With the exception of the Grand Palace, the Bolshoi Drovetz, built by the Emperor Alexander I., and the Maloi Drovetz, or Little Palace, built by the Emperor Nicholas, and the Arsenal, it has undergone but little change since the time of the early Czars. In 1812, when the French, after despoiling it of whatever they could lay their hands upon, attempted, in the rage of disappointment, to blow up the walls, the powder, as the Russians confidently assert, was possessed by the devil of water, and refused to explode; and when they planted' a heavily-loaded cannon before the Holy Gate, and built a fire on top of the touch-hole to make it go off, it went of at the breech, and blew a number of Frenchmen into the infernal regions, after which the remainder of them thought it best to let it alone, The Kremlin, as it now stands, is a large collection of palaces, public buildings, and churches, situated on the crown of a'high bank or eminence on the left side of the Moskwa River, nearly in the centre of the city. It is surrounded by a high embattled wall, forming something of a triangle, about a mile in circumference, through which are several massive gateways. This wall is very strongly constructed of stone, and is about twenty-five or thirty feet in height. It forms many irregular subangles, and is diversified in effect by numerous towers, with green pyramidal roofs; abutments and buttresses; and a series of guard-houses at intervals along the top. The general color is white, making rather a striking contrast with the green-roofed towers, and the gilded domes and many-colored cupolas of the interior churches. Outside of this wall, on the upper side of the main angle, are some very pleasant gardens, handsomely laid out, with fine shady walks, in which many of the citizens spend their summer evenings, strolling about, enjoying the fresh air. Other parts of the exterior-spaces are devot 138 THE LAND OF THOR. ed to drosky stands, markets, and large vacant spaces for public gatherings on festa days and great occasions of military display. From every point streets diverge irregularly, winding outward till they intersect the inner and outer boulevards. These boulevards are large circular thoroughfares, crossing the Moskwa River above and below. They are well planted with trees, and have spacious side-walks on each side; but, unlike the boulevards of Paris, are only dotted at irregular intervals with houses. To the eastward lies the Kitai Gorod, or Chinese City, and to the westward the Beloi Gorod, or White City. Isolated in a great measure from the various quarters of the city, Russian and Tartaric, by the gardens, the large open spaces, the markets, and the river, the Kremlin looms up high over all in solitary grandeur-a mass of churches, palaces, and fortifications, surmounted by the tower of Ivan Veliki, which stands out in bold octagonal'relief against the one with its numerous bells swung in the openings of the different stages, thundering forth the hours of the day, or tolling a grand chorus to the chanting of innumerable priests in the churches below. Approaching the Spass Vorota, or Gate of the Redeemer, through which none can enter save with uncovered heads —such is the veneration in which this Holy Gate is held by all classes -we witness a strange and impressive spectacle. Over this wonderful gate, in-' cased in a frame covered with glass, stands the holiest of all the pictured relics of this sacred place, a painted, figure of the Savior, emblazoned with gilding, and with a lamp swung in front, which burns night and day, as it has burnt since the days of Ivan the Terrible. Before this sacred image all true believers bow down and worship. While the great bells of the tower are booming out their grand and solemn strains, it is a profoufidly impressive spectacle to witness the crowds that gather before this holy shrine, and bend themselves to the earth -the rich and the poor, the decorated noble and the THE LAND OF THOR. 139 ragged beggar-all alike glowing with an all-pervading zeal; no pretense about it, but an intense, eager, almost firantic devotion. Many a poor cripple casts his crutches aside, and prostrates himself on the paved stoneway, in the abandonment of his pious enthusiasm. Men and women, old and young, kneel on the open highway, and implore the intercession of the Redeemer. From the highest officer of state to the lowest criminal, it is all the same. The whole crowd are.bowing down in abject humiliation,'all muttering in earnest tones some prayer or appeal for their future salvation. And now, as we enter the gate, the stranger, whatever may be his persuasion or condition, whether a true believer or a heretic of high or low degree, must join in the general torrent of veneration so far as to uncover his head as he walks beneath that sacred portal; for, as I said before, none can pass,through the Spass Vorota without this token of respect for its sacred character. The greatest of the Czars have done it through a series of centuries. The conqueror of Kazan, Astrakan, and Siberia has here bared his imperial headl Romanoff, Peter the Great, even the voluptuous Catharine, have here done reverence to this holy portal; and all the later sovereigns of Russia, Alexander I., Nicholas, and Alexander II., ere they received their kingly crowns, have passed bareheaded through the Spass Vorota. Need we hesitate, then, profane scoffers as we may be, when such precedents lie before us? Apart from the fact that I always found it convenient to do in Rome as the Romans do, and in Moscow to conform as far as practicable to the customs of the Moscovites, I really- have no prejudice on any subject connected with the religious observances of other people. In pleasant weather I would walk a mile bareheaded to oblige any man who conscientiously thought it would do him the least good; more especially in a case like this, where, if one fails to doff his shlapa, a soldier stands ready to remind his "brother" or " little friend," or possibly "little father," that he (the brother, little friiend, or little father) has forgotten his "beaver." 140 THE LAND OF THOR. We have now, thanks to Dominico, who; has touched us up on all these points, gotten safely and becomingly through the Holy Gate without committing the sin of irreverence toward any of the saints, living or dead. We have passed through a high archway, about twenty paces in length, roughly paved with stones, and now put on our hat again as we ascend the sloping way that leads to the grand esplanade in front of the palaces and churches. This is a broad paved space, walled on the outer edge, forming a grand promenade overlooking the Moskwa River, and from which a magnificent view is had of the lower city, that sweeps over the valley of the south. Standing here, we have a grand coup d'oeil of the river above and below, its bridges covered with moving crowds, its barges and wood-boats, and manycolored bath-houses, glittering in the sun; farther off, a dazzling wilderness of the innumerable churches of the lower city, -with their green, yellow, red, and gilded cupo-. las and domes; still beyond, the trees and shrubberies of the outer boulevards; to the left, the great Foundling Asylum, fronting on the river, with its vast gardens in the rear; to the right, the Military Hospital, the Barracks, and, far in the distance, over the gleaming waters of the river, the Sparrow Hills, from which Napoleon caught the first glimpse of Moscow; and-then the grand Convent of the Douskoi, within the outer wall, near thee Kalonga Road; from which; sweeping over toward the right, once more we catch a glimpse of the wooded. shade of the Race-course, the Hospital of St. Paul, and the Convent of St. Daniel; and to the left, beyond the outer wall, of various grand convents and fortifications, till the eye is no longer able to encompass all the wondrous and varied features of the scene. Turning now toward the north, after we have feasted upon this brilliant and glittering series of views, each one of which we might linger over for hours with increased delight, we stand facing the principal palaces and churches of the Kremlin —the Terema, containing the audience THE LAND OF THOR. 141 chambers, and the Granovitaya Palata, the coronation halls of the Czars; the new palaces; the Cathedral of the Assumption; the tower of Ivan Veliki; the Treasury and Arsenal; with innumerable glimpses of other and scarcely less prominent buildings, which unite in forming this wonderful maze of sacred and royal edifices. It would be very difficult, if at all practicable, to convey by mere verbal description a correct and comprehensive idea of the strange mingling of architectural styles here prevailing. The churches present, no doubt, the most picturesque effects, but this is not owing to any grandeur in:their proportions. None of them are either very large or very high; but they are singularly varied in form, as if thrown together in bunches, without regard to order; some with Gothic gables, some round, some acutely angular, and all: very rudely and roughly constructed, even the perpendicular lines being irregular. The walls are whitewashed, and in many places stained with age. The roofs are for the most part of earthen tiles, imblurnt with strong prismatic colors, and shining like the inner surfaces of abalone shells. The domes are white, green, red, and yellow, and each church has a number of gilded or striped cupolas, rising irregularly from the roofs, shaped like bunches of globular cactus, stlch as one sees on the hill-sides of San Diego. If the comparison were not a little disparaging to their picturesque beauty, I should say that some of the cupolas-estecially those of a golden cast-reminded me of mammoth pumpkins perched on the top of a Mexican Mission-house, for even the buildings themselves have something of a rude Mexican aspect about them. The new palace of the Bolshoi Dvoretz, built by the Emperor Alexander over a portion of the site of the old Tartar palace, is a large, square, uninteresting building, with nothing beyond its vast extent and grand fagade to recommend it. The Terema and the Granovitaya Palataboth remains of the old Tartar palace-are highly ornamented with trellised work, and are interesting as well 142 THE LAND OF THOR. from their style of architecture as their contents. It was from the terraced roof of the Terema that Napoleon took his first- grand view of the city of Moscow, after entering.the gates of the Kremlin. The one contains a fine collection of curiosities, including various portraits of the Czars; the other the royal chamber, magnificently decorated with embroidered velvet hangings, candelabras, frescoes, gildings, and carved eagles bearing thunderbolts, and the great chair of state, in which the emperors sit enthroned to receive the. homage of.their vassals after the imposing ceremony of the coronation. But it would be an endless task to undertake an account of even a day's ramble through the interior of these vast palaces and public buildings. I paid five rubles for tickets and fees to porters, and, with the aid of Dominico's enlightened conversation, came out after my grand tour of exploration perfectly bewildered with jeweled' crowns, imperial thrones, gilded bedsteads, slippery floors, livers ied servants, stuffed horses, old guns, swords, and pistols, glassware and brassware, emeralds and other precious stones, and altogether disgusted with the childish gimcrackery of royalty. Great Alexander, I thought to myself, who would be a Czar of Russia, and have to make his living at the expense of all this soift of tom-foolery? Who would abide even for a day in a bazar of curiosity;shops, bothered out of his wits by servants and soldiers;, and the flare and glitter of jewelry? It certainly alii looked very shallow and troublesome to a plain man,. destitute by nature of kingly aspirations. To confess the truth, I was utterly unable to appreciate any thing but the absurdity of these things. I can not discover much difference, save in degree, between barbaric show on the part of savages and on that of civilized people. For what, after all, do these coronation halls and gewgaws amount to? Who is truly king upon earth, when there is " an everlasting King at whose breath the earth shall tremble?" Strange, indeed, and not calculated to exalt one's im THE LAND OF THOR. 143 pression of royalty, is the fact that, after purchasing a ticket to see all these relies of the great Czars of Russia, a horde of officers, servants, and lackeys, in imperial livery, must be feed at every turn. It is a perfect system of plunder from beginning to end. At the door of the new palace I was stopped by some functionary in white stockings, polished slippers, plush breeches and plush coat, actually blazing with golden embroidery; his head brushed and oiled to the intensest limits of foppery, and his hands adorned with white kid gloves, who refused to permit me to enter until he had arranged some infernal compact of pay with my guide, Dominico. After showing me through the grand chambers, pointing out the beds, bgd-quilts, writing-desks, chairs, and wash-basins of the Czars, he finished up his half hiour's labor by making a profound bow and holding out his hand, beggar fashion, for his fee. I gave him half a ruble (about 87~ cents), at which his countenance assumed an expression of extreme pity and contempt. Dominico had informed him that I was a stranger Trom California, which had the effect of eliciting from him various passages of exceeding politeness up to thatmroment. But he now came out in his true colors, and demanded haughtily, "' Was this pitiful sum what the gentleman intended as a recompense for his services?" Dominico shrugged his shoulders. The liveried gentleman became excited and insolent-assuring me, through the guide, that no stranger of any pretensions to gentility ever offered him less than a ruble. I must confess I was a little nettled at the fellow's manner, and directed Dominico to tell him that, having no pretensions to gentility, I must close my acquaintance with him, and therefore bid him good-morning. There never was an instance in which I disappointed any beggar with so much good will. I have no doubt, if he has read any thing of California, he labors under the impression that I am an escaped convict from San Quentin. 0 most potent Alexander, Czar of all the Russias, is 144 THE LAND OF THOR. this the only way you have of paying'your servants? Do you thus make a raree-show of the palace of your forefathers, and require every man who enters it for the purpose of enlightening his benighted understanding to pay your imperial lackeys the sum of three bits? Is it not enough that your soldiers and retainers should hawk old clothes through the markets of the Riadi for a decent living, without making a small speculation out of the beds and wash-stands in which your noble fathers slept and (possibly) washed their faces? One of the most remarkable objects of interest within the walls ofthe Kremlin is the Tzar Kolokol, or King of Bells, cast in 1730 by order of the Empress Anne, and said to be not only the largest bell, but the largest metal casting in existence. This wonderful bell is formed chiefly of contributions of precious metals, bestowed as religious offerings by the people from all parts of the Russian empire. Spoons, plates, coins, and trinkets were thrown by the devout inhabitants into the melting mass, and thus, each having a share in it, the monarch bell is regarded with feelings of peculiar affection and veneration throughout Russia. Writers differ as to its original use and location, some contending that it was first hung in a tower, which was destroyed by fire in 1737, and that the large fragment. was broken out of it in the fall, which is now exhibited by the side of the bell; others that it never was hung at all, but that this fragment resulted from a failure in the casting. Be that as it may, it was all dug out of the ground in 1837, and placed in its present position on a pedestal of granite, close by the tower of Ivan Veliki. Standing in an open space, where the eye necessarily takes in many'larger objects, including the great tower, but a very inadequate idea can be formed of the extraordinary dimensions of this bell. Cast in the usual form, its appearance at the distance of fifty or a hundred yards is not at all striking; but when you draw near and comipare the height of the groups of figures usually gathered THE LAND OF THOR. 145 around it with that of the bell, it is easy to form some conception of its gigantic proportions. The fragment placed upright against the granite pedestal looks at a little distance scarcely three feet high, but as you approach you perceive that it is at least six. The bell itself is twenty-one feet three inches high, by twenty-two feet five inches in:diameter, and varies fiom three feet to three inches in thickness. Underneath this immense metallic canopy is a chapel, in which is a shrine at which many thousands of the Russians every year offer up their devotions. The entrance to this is through an iron gateway, and the visitor descends several stone steps before he stands upon the paved floor of the chapel. Looking upward and around him, he then for the first tirme- realizes the vast magnitude of this wonderful casting. It is almost impossible to conceive that such a prodigious body of metal was ever at one time a molten mass, seething over vast furnaces. Imagine a circular room more than twenty feet in diameter, and of proportionate height, and you have some faint idea of the interior of the Tzar Kolokol.. It is said that it required ten strong men to draw the clapper from the centre to the inner rim, by means of ropes, so as to produce the ordinary sounds of which the bell was capable. This I can very well credit; for the great bell of the Ivan Tower, not a third of the size of this, has an iron tongue which requires the strength of three men to strike against the rim. The tremendous depth and volume of the tones sent forth for many leagues around by the monarch bell must have been sublime beyond conception, judging by this single fact, that while in Moscow, the largest bell I heard sounded was far inferior in size and weight to that of the Ivan Tower, which is rung only' on state occasions, yet the sounds were so deep and powerful that they produced a reverberation in the air resembling the distant roar of thunder, mingled with the wailing of the winds in a storm. When all the bells of the tower, save the largest, were tolled together, the 146 THE LAND OF THOR. effect was absolutely sublime, surpassing in the grandeur and majesty of their harmony any thing I had ever heard produced through human agency. Judge, then, what must have been the effect when the Tzar Kolokol rolled forth a jubilee or a death-knell from his iron tongue! I do not wonder that the Russians regard this bell with such peculiar feelings of reverence. There is something to arouse the most profound and reverential emotions of our nature in the simple, grand, and mysterious melody of all great bells-soinething of the infinite that exalts our thoughts and aspirations from the earth. In my recollections of travel I have few purer or more endearing pleasures than the impressions produced by sounds like these. Often the grand old strains of the bells of Lima, Mexico, and. Spain seem still to linger onl my ear, and I never dream the wild and varied dream of my travels over without feeling that these mysterious voices from many lands have not spoken without a meaning, that " Life, with all its dreams, shall be but as the passing bell." From, the Tzar Kolokol I took my way, under the guidance of Dominico, to the tower of Ivan Veliki, which we ascended by the winding' stairway of stone. The view from the top of this tower is incomparably the finest to be had from any point within the limits of Moscow. Here,' outspread before us in one vast circle, lay the whole wondrous city of the Tzars -aperfect sea of green roofs, dotted- over with innumerable spires andcupolas. The predominant features are Asiatic, though in the quarter to the west, called the Beloi Gorod, ol. White City, are the evidences of a more advanced civilization. Apart from the churches, which give the city its chief interest and most picturesque effect, the public buildings, such as the theatres, hospitals, military barracks, colleges, and riding-school possess no great attractions in point of architectural display,. and add but little to the scenic beauties of the view. In gazing over this bewildering maze of habitations and temples of worship, THE LAND OF THOR. 147 I was again strongly impressed with some two or three leading characteristics, which, being directly opposed to the idea I had formed of Moscow before seeing it, may be worthy of repetition. The general colors of the buildings, roofs, and churches are light, gay, and sparkling, so that the whole, taken in one sweep of the eye, presents an exceedingly brilliant appearance, more like some well-contrived and highly-wrought optical illusions in a theatre-such, for example, as the fairy scenery of the "'Prophete"-than any thing I can now remember. The vast extent of the city, compared with its population (the circuit of its outer wall being twenty miles, while the population is but little over 300,000), is another characteristic feature; but this is in some measure accounted for by the great average of small houses, the amount of ground occupied by the Kremlin, the inner and outer boulevards, and the suburbs within the outer wall, the number of gardens and vacant lots, and the large spaces occupied by the plosvchads or public squares. Looking beyond. the city and its immediate suburbs, a series of undulating plains lies outstretched toward the eastward and southward, while toward the. northward and westward the horizon is bounded by low pinecovered hills and occasional forests of birch.. No high mountains or abrupt outlines are any where visible-all is broad and sweeping, conveying some premonition of the vastness of the steppes that divide this region from the Ural Mountains. Waving fields of grain, pastures of almost boundless extent, and solitary farm-houses lie dim in the distance, while in the immediate vicinity of the city cultivation has been carried to considerable perfection, and the villas and estates of the nobility present something more. of the.:appearance of civilization than perhaps any thing of a similar kind to be seen in Russia. Contrasted with the country around St. Petersburg, and the desert of scrubby. pines and marshes lying for a distance of nearly five hundred miles along the line of the railway between the two great cities, the neighborhood 148 THE LAND OF THOR. of Moscow is wonderfully rich in rural and pastoral beauties. Viewing it in connection with the city from the tower of Ivan Veliki, I certainly derived the most exquisite sensations of pleasure from the novelty, extent, and variety of the whole scene. Yet, calmly and peacefully as it now slumbers in the genial sunshine of a summer's afternoon, what visions it conjures up of bloodshed and rapine, plague, pestilence, and famine, and of all the calamities wrought by human hands, and all the appalling visitations of a divine power by which this illfated spot has been afflicted. Looking back through the wide waste of years, the mighty hosts of Tamerlane uprise before us, pouring through the passes of the Ural, and sweeping over'the plains with their glittering and bloodstained crests like demons of destruction carrying death and desolation before them. Then the giant Czars, half saints, half devils, loom through the flames of the ill-fated city, with their myriads of fierce and defiant warriors stemming the torrent of invasion with the bodies of the dying and the dead. Then are the streets choked with blackened ruins and putrid masses, and the days of sorrow and wailing come, when the living are unable to bury the dead. Again, a great famine has come upon the city after the days of its early tribulations have passed away, and strong men, driven to desperation by the pangs of hunger, slay their wives a1nd children, and feed upon the dead bodies, and mothers devour the sucking babes in their arms; an'd horror grows upon horror, till, amid the slaughter, ruin, and. madness wrought by this unparalleled calamity, a hundred thousand corpses lie rotting in the streets in a single day, and the city is decimated of its inhabitants! The scene changes again. Centuries roll on; a dreary day has come, when the foreign invader once more holds possession of the citadel. With the prize in his hands, fires burst from every roof in,every quarter. Three hundred thousand of the inhabitants have fled; a wind arises and fans the devouring flame; churches and THE LAND OF THOR. 149 houses, temples and palaces, are wrapped in its relentless embraces; the convicts and the rabble run like demons through the streetsdrunk with wine and reveling in excesses; soldiers, slaves, and prostitutes pillage the burning ruins, all wild and inad with the unholy lust of gain. Soon nothing is left but blackened and smoking masses, the ruins of palaces, temples, and hospitals, and the seared and mutilated corpses of the dead who have been crushed by the falling walls or burnt in the flames. Then the invading hosts, stricken with dismay, fly fromn this fated and ill-starred city to darken the snows of Lithuania with their bodies; and of five hundred thousand men —the flower of French chivalry-but forty thousand cross the Beresina to tell the tale! Surely Moscow, like Jerusalem, hath " wept sore in the night." While lounging about through the gilded and glittering mazes of the Uspenski Saber, almost wearied by the perpetual glare of burnished shrines, my attention was attracted by a curious yet characteristic ceremony with-;in these sacred precincts. In a gold-cased frame, placed in a horizontal position in one of the alcoves or small chapels, was a picture of a saint whose cheeks and robes were resplendent with gaudy colors. This must have been St. Nicholas or some other popular personage belonging*o the holy phalanx. His mouth was very nearly obliterated by the labial caresses of the worshipers who came there to bestow upon him their devotions. A stone step, raised about a foot from the flagged paveunent, was nearly worn through by the knees of the penitents, who were forever dropping down to snatch a kiss fiom his sacred lips-or at least what was left of them, for his mouth was now little more than a dirty blotch, without the semblance of its original outline. While pondering over the marvelous ways in which men strive to cast off the burden of their sins, I observed a very graceful and elegantly-dressed female approach, and with an air of profound humility kneel in the accustomed place. As she drew back her veil she displayed a remarkably 150 THE LAND OF THOR. pretty face, and there was something quite enchanting in the coquetry with which she ignored the presence of a stranger. Of course she could have had no idea that any person of the opposite sex would dare to think of female loveliness in such a place, and the charming unconsciousness of her manner, as she adjusted the folds of her dress, and revealed the exquisitely rounded contour of her form, was the very best proof of that fact. A perfect withdrawal of self from the world and all its vanities was- her ruling expression. Thrice did this lovely cl;eature gracefully incline her head and kiss the blotched countenance of that inanimate saint. Ah me! what a luxury it must be to be a saint! What a lucky fellow is St. Nicholas, to be kissed by such honeyed and pouting lips as these! Chaste and pious kisses they may be, but, notwithstanding that, it must be very hard to keep cool, under the circumstances. Who would not suffer a life of martyrdom, and be turned into a picture or an image.on such terms? Surely this bewitching damsel must have committed some dreadful sin to be thus soliciting the saintly intercession of a little picture with a dirty mouth! Perhaps she had recently suffered her own delectable lips to be pressed by the bearded mouth-piece of some tender and persuasive lover, and now ought to make atonement by kissing St. Nicholas! I all the powers of beauty, I'll forswear sack, Dominico, and try -ha! here comes a devotee of another sort. Let us wait a while. For, as I live, it is a great puncheon of a woman, weighing over three hundred pounds-puffing and steaming as she waddles toward the shrine-a perfect Falstaff in petticoats. Shade of Venus! what a face and figure! Carbuncled with wine, and bloated with quass and cabbage soup, I'll bet my head, Dominico, she's a countess! How the juices of high living roll from her brow as she stoops down, and gives the unfortunate St. Nicholas a greasy dish-cloth of her fat lips! Faugh! I'll consider about my course of life, Dominico. There are some inconveniences in being a saint. Next comes THE LAND OF THOR. 151 an:old and toothless crone,all draggled with dirt, limping on crutches —a most pitiful object to look upon. She hobbles slowly and painfully up to the place just vacated puts her crutches aside, kneels down, and, bowing low her palsied head, presses a dry, shriveled, and leathery kiss upon the grease-spot left by the fat woman. Thrice she performed this ceremony, mumbling over in her guttural way the prescribed formula; and then rising, regained her crutches, and begged for alms. Well, of couise I gave the alms; but the other part of the performance suggested some painful thoughts. It was surely enough to moderate the ardor of one's aspirations toward a saintly life. Yet, after all, Dominico, every sweet must have its bitter.- Let us not despair yet. Next comes a:great bearded Mujic, all tattered and torn-a regular grizzly bear on his hind legs, and drunk at that. This horrid monster has evidently not known the use of either soap or water for many a long day. His accustomed beverage must be vodka, and grease the only application ever used to purify his skin. He, too, kneels down and gives the image three cordial' smacks -a pretty heavy penalty to endure on the part of any saint. Upon my word, Dominico, I don't think it would be possible for me to stand that! But hold-here comes a fellow who caps the climax. A bilious, yellowskinned, black-eyed fop, dressed in the height of fashion, with frizzled black hair, divided behind, and smelling strong of pomatum, a well-oiled mustache, and a simpering, supercilious expression-one of those nasty creatures that old Kit North says never can be washed clean. He looks conceited and silly enough to be an attache to the court of his imperial highness the emperor. When this fellow knelt before the picture and slavered it with his ugly mouth, a dizzy sensation of disgust came over me. Upon a general review of all the circumstances, Dominico, I have concluded that it might not be so pleasant, after all, to be a saint-in Russia. It must not be supposed from this little sketch of a 152 THE LAND OF TIIOR. characteristic scene that I wish to ridicule any form of religion. I saw precisely what I state, and am in no way responsible for it. If people imagine this sort of thing does them any good, they are quite welcome to enjoy it; but they must not expect every body else to be impressed with the profound sensations of solemnity which they feel themselves. The Russians may kiss the heads off every saint in Moscow without the slightest concern or opposition on my part. The Romans have kissed a pound of brass off the big toe of St. Peter, in the grand Cathedral at Rome, and I see no reason why other races should not enjoy similar privileges, only it does not produce the same effect upon every body. Yet, in some sense, such scenes are not without an aspect of sadness. It is melancholy to look upon such a mingling of glitter and barbarism, wealth and poverty, sincerity, debasement, and crime. No human being is truly ridiculous, however grotesque may be the expression of his feelings, when they are the genuine outpour-. ing of a contrite heart. These nobles, common citizens, and beggars, thus meeting upon common ground, in a. country where the distinctions of rank are so rigidly observed, and for the time being disregarding all differences of condition; forgetting their ambitions, their jealousies, and animosities, and giving themselves up with such unselfish zeal to all the demands made upon them by their forms of religion, is, in itself, a touching and impressive sight. I confess that when the first shock of grotesqueness, so strikingly connected with all I saw, passed away, the feeling left was one of unutterable sadness. These people were all fellow-beings, and, right or wrong, they were profoundly in earnest; yet, while thinking thus, I could not but fancy the same divine strain of warning that was wafted to the house of Israel still lingered in the air: "Every man is brutish in his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them; they are vanity and the work of THE LAND OF THOR. 153 errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish." In reference to the interiors of the churches of the!Kremlin, I can only find space to say, after having visited them all, that they present a confusion of gilded and glittering aisles, pillars, alcoves, chapels, and painted domes, which baffles any thing like accurate description. The Cathedral of the Assumption is literally lined with gilding, daubs of paintings representing scriptural scenes, figures and pictures of saints, dragons and devils of every conceivable color and oddity of design and costume, and burnished shrines and candelabras. Through the dazzling mazes of this sacred edifice crowds of devotees, priests, and penitents are continually wandering; here, casting themselves upon their knees, and bowing down before some gold-covered shrine; there' standing in mute and rapt adoration before some pictured symbol of eternity-grandees, beggars, andall; the priests bearing tapers and chanting; the air filled with incense; the whole (scene an indescribable combination of moving appeals to the senses. All the churches of the Kremlin partake, more or less, of this character. In some of them, the old bones and other relics held peculiarly sacred are inclosed within iron gratings or railings, and are only accessible to the visitor through the services of a priestly guide. Every visitor must, of course, pay for the gratification of his curiosity; so that the bones of the most venerated. eCharacters in the history of the Russian Church are turnld into a considerable source of profit. It may well be said that every saint pays his own way, so long as there is a fragment of him left in this world. If one could be assured of the truth of all he learns during a tour of inspection through these receptacles of sacred relics, it would indeed confound all his previous impressions that the days of miracles had passed. There is a picture in the Uspenski Saber, the bare contemplation of which, combined with a fervent appeal, it is confidently asserted, recently effected a sudden and wonderful cure in the G2 154 THE LAND OF THOR. case of a crippled man, who was carried there from his bed, but after his devotions before this picture walked out of the door as well as ever; and every where about these sacred precincts pictures and carved images are abundant which at stated intervals shed tears and manifest other tokens of vitality. Outside, on the steps of these churches, the stranger encounters innumerable gangs of beggars, who watch his incoming and his outgoing with the most intense eagerness —rushing toward him with outstretched hands, calling upon all the saints to bless him and his issue forever and ever, and sometimes bowing down to' the earth before him, in their accustomed way, as if he himself partook of some sacred attributes. Apart from the wretched aspect of these poor creatures, among which were the lame, the halt, and the blind from all the purliens of Moscow, there was something very revolting in the debasement.of their attitudes. To assist them all was impossible; and I often had to struggle through the crowds with feelings akin to remorse in being comnpelled to leave'them thus vainly appealing to my charity. When alone, hours after, the weary and pathetic strain of their supplications would haunt me, bearing in its sorrowful intonations a weird warlning that we are all bound together in the great fellowship of sin. And now, while. we are taking our last lingering look at the Kremlin, the mighty bells of the tower toll forth a funeral knell. A priest lies' dead in one of the churclhes, his coffin draped in the habiliments of woe. The chanting rises ever and anon above the death'-knell that sweeps through the air. Standing aloof, we listen to the solemn sounds of mourning. The funeral cort6ge comes forth from the church. The hearse, with its plumed horses all draped in black, receives the coffin; priests and mourners, bearing lighted tapers, lead the way, chanting a requiem for the departed; and thus they pass before us-the living and the dead-till they reach the Holy Gate. Then the priests and the crowd THE LAND OF THOR. 155 bow down and pray; and when they have passed out from under the sacred arch,'they turn before the iniage of the Savior and pray again; then rising, they cross themselves devoutly and pass on to the last earthly resting-place of their friend and brother. Surely death draws us nearer together in life. I thought no more of forms. What matters it if we are all true to our Creator and to our convictions of duty! Life is too short to spend in earthly contentions. "In the morning it fiourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth." CHAPTER XV. RUSSIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. RUDE and savage as the lower orders are in their external appearance, they certainly can not be considered deficient in politeness, if the habit of bowing be taken as an indication. In that branch of civilization they are well entitled to take rank with the Germans and French, from whom, doubtless, they have acquired many of theil forms of etiquette. Something, however, of Asiatic gravity:and courtliness mingles with whatever they may have adopted from the more sprightly and demonstrative races of the South; and a certain degree of dignity, accompanied though it may be with rags and filth, is always observable in their manners. The alacrity, good nature, and enthusiasm so characteristic of the Germans, and the dexterous play of muscles and vivacious suavity of the French, are wholly deficient in the Russianssuch of them, at least, as have retained their nationality. The higher classes, of course, who frequently spend their summers.at the watering-places of Germany and their winters in Paris, come home, like all traveled gentlemen, with a variety of elegant accomplishments, the chief of which is a disgust for their own language and customs. This, indeed, seems to be a characteristic of several other 156 THE LAND OF THOR. nations-an inordinate desire to become denationalized by imitating whatever is meretricious and absurd in other people; and you need not be surprised should you fail to recognize even your unpretending friend and correspondent on his return to California; for although I still pretend to write a little English, I no longer speak it~ except in broken accents. Having also worn out three good hats practicing the art of bowing on the boulevards of Paris and the glacis of Frankfort, I never pretend now to recognize any body without striking the top of my tile against the cap of my knee. This, you see, is all in the way of excuse for the Russians, and arises rather from an excess of good nature than an excess of egotism. Constant practice in the solemlnities of street-worship-uncovering their heads and bowing low before their numerous saints and shrinesmay have some influence upon the stateliness of Russian politeness. It is, however, a very prominent and characteristic trait, and in some of its phases rather as. tounding to a stranger. A common thing in the streets of Moscow is to see a couple of sturdy beggars, uncouth as grizzly bears, meet and stop before each other with the utmost and most punctilious gravity. Beggar number one takes his greasy cap from his head slowly and deliberately, gives it a graceful sweep through the air, and, with a most courtly obeisance, exhibits the matted tuft, or the bald spot on the top of his head, to his ragged friend. Beggar number two responds in a similar courteous style, neither uttering a word. Each then gravely replaces his cap, touches the brim of it once or twice by way of representing a few extra bows, and passes on his way with an expression of profound dignity, utterly unconscious of the grotesque effect of all this ceremony to a stranger. I have seen the most vagabond-looking istrovoschik, or drosky-drivers, jump out of their drosky and perform similar courtesies toward each other; and where men of this craft are given to politeness, one may rest assured that it must be a na r~ -- -- -- -- A PASSAGEOFPOLITENESS... r! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~.... I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ii~~~~~~~~~,-'" 158 THE LAND OF THOR. tional characteristic. All seem to be the slaves of ceremony, from the Czar down to the Mujik. Porters, wagoners, water-carriers, butchers, bakers, and chimneysweeps are equally skilled in the noble art of bowing. At first, judging by the uncouth faces and the grimy costumes of these interesting people, such passages of politeness have very much the effect of burlesque. It seems impossible that men of such rude a'spect can be in earnest. One soon gets used to it, however, and regards it as a matter of course. I could not but think how strange it would look to see a couple of Sacramento or San Francisco hack-drivers meet in some populous part of the town, and each one take off his hat to the other, and, with a graceful flourish, make a courtly salaam; or a pair of draymen stop their drays, get down leisurely, approach each other in an attitude of impressive dignity, take off their hats, and double themselves up before an admiring audience. They would certainly be suspected in our rude country of poking fun at each other. -I can very well understand why butchers and chimney-sweeps should be polite, since they are accustomed to scraping>; and the custom looks appropriate enough with many other classes, including barbers, who are generally men of oily manners, and tailors and printers, who are naturally given to forms; but with men whose business is intimately associated with horse-flesh, I must say it has something of a satirical aspect. Never in this woild can I force myself to believe that a hack-driver is 1in earnest in any thing short of his fare. Do not under. stand me as casting any injurious reflection upon this valuable class of men; but it is a melancholy feature in humanity —of which sad experience enables me to speak feelingly-that integrity and horse-flesh are antagonistical, and can never go together. For the hack-driver personally I have great respect. He is a man of the world-knows a thing or two about every body and every thing; is constitutionally addicted to cheating, and elevates that noble propensity into one of the fine THE LAND OF THOR. 159 arts; maintains:his independent character, and pockets his extraordinary profits in the face of all municipal restrictions; scoffs at the reign of the law, and drinks his regular bitters. I consider him a persecuted and an injured man; but of such elastic stuff is he made. that he rises above all persecutions and all injuries, and still is, and ever will be, master of that portion of the human race which travels and abounds in cities. He is given to humor, too, is the hackman. Nobody betteir understands how to give a joke, or to resent one. An adept in ridicule, he always enjoys it when not applied to himself. If he is deficient in any one quality, perhaps it is piety.. Hack-drivers, as a class, are not pious men; they may be very good men in their way, but, strictly speaking, they are not pious. Neither are they much given to mutual courtesies, especially at steam-boat landings. Therefore I say that to see hack-drivers bow down before shrines andstop on public thoroughfares, and with the utmost gravity uncover their heads and interchange courtly salaams-nay, even kiss hands in certain casesis a novel and peculiar spectacle, suggestive of improvements which might be beneficially imported into oui country. There was an impassive, abstracted air about.Dominico very difficult to describe, but' very impressive to a stranger. All these peculiarities were developed the first or second day of our acquaintance. About the third he seemed to grow impatient, hummed over a few gems from unknown operas, and was less disposed than usual to unbend himself. There was evidently a coolness growing up between us. I suspected it originated in my hat, which was really very shabby; and fancied I detected a supercilious expression in his eye as it ranged over my coat and down to my boots. At length he said, "Monsieur, you appear to travel with very little baggage!" 1Myself. Yes, only a knapsack. Dominico (after a pause). Pray what business may Monsieur be engaged in? 160 THE LAND OF THOR. X;. None at all-just ranging about miscellaneously. PDom. May I be so bold as to ask what part of England does Monsieur come from? 1. Oh, I didn't come from England at all! Dom. (puzzled). Pray where does Monsieur come from? M. Oh, just come from over the way there —California! PDom. (elevating his eyebrows and stopping suddenly). California? The great gold country? Where they dig gold out of the ground? M. Yes-that's my country. PDom. (admiringly). Oh, then, Monsieur is a gentleman of fortune, just traveling for pleasure? M. Precisely; for pleasure and information combined. My estates are situated in the city of Oakland. Dom. Is that a large city? M. Well, it covers a good deal of ground-as much,;I think, as Moscow. )omn. If Monsieur pleases, we will take a drosky andl visit some of the gardens? il. Agreed. And so ended the conversation. It was marvelous, the change it produced in Dominico; how his dignity evaporated; how vivacious he became; how frank and unreserved he was in his descriptions of the wonders of Moscow; how he scorned to take trifles of change, and how magnificently he disregarded expenses. Wherever we went, however grand the domestics, soldiers, or po-, lice, Dominico was always high above them, and I could hear him descanting constantly on the wonderful richness of California. Doubtless the strain of his conversation ran about thus: " Behold, gentlemen, I have brought before you a living Californian! Notwithstanding the shabbiness of his hat, and the strange and uncivilized aspect of his clothes, he is the richest man in that land of gold! Yes, gentlemen, his income can scarcely fall short of ten millions of rubles per annum. Make way, if you please!" THE LAND OF THOR. 161 All things considered, Dominico let me off pretty well at the close of our acquaintance, upon my explaining to him that a draft for five hundred thousand rubles which ought to be on the way had failed to reach me, owing doubtless to some irregularity in the mail service, or some sudden depression in my Washoe stocks. In the way of food the hotels are well supplied, and the fare is not bad in the principal cities. Fish and game: are abundant, but veal is the standard dish. I called for a beef-steak at the hotel in St. Petersburg, and was furnished with veal. The soup was made of veal. After salad we had veal cutlets. Then came a veal stew; next in order was a veal pie; and before the courses were finished I think we had calf's head baked and stuffed. At a station-house on the way to Moscow I hurriedly purchased a sandwich. It was made of veal. I asked for mutton-chops at the hotel in Moscow, and got veal. In fact, I was surfeited with veal in every possible shape wherever I went. Now I am not particular in matters of diet. In a case of emergency I can relish buzzard, but if there is any one kind of food upon earth that I think never was designed to be eaten, it is veal. No very young meat is good, to my notion-not even young pig, so temptingly described by the gentle Elia; nor young dog, so much esteemed by Chinese and Russian epicures. It has neither the consistency nor the flavor of the mature animal, and somehow suggests unpleasant images of flabby innocence. There is something horribly repugnant to one's sense of'humanity in killing and devouring a helpless little calf. Who but a cannibal can look the innocent creature in the face, with its soft confiding eyes, its gentle and babylike manners, and calculate upon devouring its brains, or satisfying the cravings of hunger upon its tender ribs? Who can see the butcher, with his'murderous knife in such a connection, without a sting of remorse at the idea of the mother's grief-her great eyes swimming in tears, her lowing cries haunting him for days? I never see a 162 THE LAND OF THOR. gang of these helpless little creatures driven to the shambles without thinking of that touching picture, the Murder of the Innocents. In vain I tried to escape this veal passion in Russia. Nay, even' in Finland and Sweden it pursued me. I actually: began to feel flabby, and felt ashamed to look the poor cows in the face. It was a marvel how the cattle, of which there seemed to be no lack, ever arrived at maturity. If the people kill all the calves, as appeared to be the case, in the name of wonder, where do the cows come from? This question puzzled me exceedingly-for some time, and was only solved when I asked a Russian to explain it. "Oh," said he, smiling at my simplicity, " they only kill the male calves. They allow the cow calves to grow up!" Still, when I came to reflect upon the reason given, it occurred to me that they must be a very singular race of cows. Perhaps they were Amazonian cows. This leads me by- an easy and not ungraceful transition to the Foundling Asylum of Moscow, one of the largest and most remarkable institutions of the kind in the world. In other public places throughout Europen, especially in picture-galleries and museums, the visitor is required to deliver up his walking-stick at the door, in return for which he receives a ticket corresponding with one fastened upon the article itself-as in baggage-cars upon the railway, so that he may redeem it when he thinks proper. But I had little thought, in my experience of foreign travel, that a similar system should pr$vail in regaid to the deposit of living beings, as in thefoundling establishment of Moscow. Here, any body with a surplus baby can carry it and have it labeled around the neck, receive a ticket in return corresponding in number with the deposit, and call for it at any future time, certain that it will be delivered up-if alive. The building is of immense extent, and is situated on the banks of the Moskwa River, near the lower part of the town. The grounds around it are tastefully laid out, THE LAND OF THOR. 163 and must occupy twenty or thirty acres, the whole being surrounded by a high wall, and comprising numerous and substantial outhouses, workshops, etc., for the use of the establishment. Many thousand children are annually taken in and nursed at this institution, no restriction being imposed upon the parents, who may be either married or single, to suit their own taste or condition. The regular force of wet-nurses employed is about six hundred, besides which there are numerous dry-nurses and teachers for the older children. It is estimated that the entire expense of conducting the establishment is not less than five or six hundred thousand rubles per annum, most of which is defrayed by voluntary contributions and interest received on loans. I spent a forenoon rambling through the various wards, and can safely say I never before saw such an extraordinary collection of human squabs within one inclosure. It was certainly one of the strangest and saddest spectacles I had ever witnessed-so many infant specimens of humanity, bundled up like little packages of merchandise, labeled, numbered, and nursed with a mathematical regularity fearfully inconsistent with one's notions of the softness and tenderness of babyhood. To be sure, they are well treated-kindly and gently treated, perhaps; but it is pitiful to see these helpless little creatures bereft of the gentle motherly touch; washed, physicked, - nursed, and too often buried by hired and unsympathizi'ng hands; and no more thought of them, save in the way of duty, than so many little animals destitute.of souls. The very idea of attachments formed by nurses is of itself a painful subject of contemplation-; for of what avail is it that a child should be loved by its nurse, or find in her a new mother, when by the rules of the establishment there must be constant separations. It is said that over twenty-five thousand children derive, either directly or indirectly, support from this establishment. About six thousand are taken in. annually, of which perhaps one fourth die. Many of them are not 164 THE LAND OF THOR. far from dead when admitted; and it is only surprising, considering the deprivations they must endure in being so suddenly withdrawn from the mother's care, that so large a proportion should survive. If it be a wise child that knows its own father, it would be a very remarkable father who could recognize. his own child among such a variegated collection as I saw here. Never upon earth was there a more astonishing mixture of baby flesh-big babies and little babies, pug-nosed, black-eyed, blue-eyed, fat and lean, red, yellow, and white babies-all sorts ever invented or brought to light in this curious world of ours. Yet the utmost order was observed, and the beds, nurses, cribs, and feeding apparatus looked wonderfully clean for a Russian institution, where cleanliness is not generally the prevailing characteristic. But, great guns! what music they must make when they all get started in one grand simultaneous chorus! five or six hundred babies, of both sexes, from one to two or three years old, in one department; as many girls from three to five in another; boys of the same age in another; older boys and older girls innumerable in another! What a luxury it must be to: hear them all together! In general, however, they do not make as much noise as might be supposed. I only heard about forty or' fifty small choruses while there; but, trifling as that was, it enabled me to form an idea of the style of music that might be made when five or six thousand gave their whole mind to it. I am persorially acquainted with one small baby not over a couple of years old, who, when excited of nights, can very nearly raise the roof off the house, and am certain that five hundred of the same kind would burst the whole city of Moscow sky-high if ever they got at it together. These Russian foundlings, however, are generally heavy-faced, lymphatic babies, and fall naturally into the machine existence which becomes their fate; otherwise it would seem a hard life for the poor nurses, who are not always gifted with the patient endurance of mothers. I was THE LAND OF THOR. 165 told that the children only cried periodically, say at intervals of every four hours, but hardly credit that statement. Being for the most part soggy little animals, they spend a goodly portion of their time in sleep, and doubtless, when not sleeping, are much-given to eating and drinking. During the summer months several thousand of these children are sent out in the country to nurse, after which they are returned in due order. As soon as they become old enough, they are taught reading and writing, and the most intelligent are selected to become teachers. The boys usually receive a military education, and a certain proportion of them furnish recruits for the imperial army. CHAPTER XVI. DESPOTISM versus SERFDOM. THE reader has probably discovered by this time that I have no great affection for the political institutions of Europe, and am pretty strong in my prejudices against despotic governments of all sorts. The fact is, I believe our own, with all its faults, is the best system of government ever devised by man. The Emperor Alexander II. is admitted on all hands to' be a most estimable and enlightened sovereign. He possesses, in a greater degree, perhaps, than any of his p:redecessors, the confidence -and affection of his people. All his labors since he ascended the throne in February, 1855, have been directed to the emancipation of the serfs and the general welfare of his country. No fault can be found with him by the most ardent advocate of human liberty. His sympathies are-as far as it is practicable for those of an autocrat, clothed with absolute powers, to be-in favor of freedom. Toward the people and the government of the ULnited States he entertains the most kindly feeling, and would doubtless sincerely regret the 166 THE LAND OF THOR. overthrow of our republican system. He has, moreover, devoted himself with unceasing zeal to the abolition of many onerous and unnecessary restrictions upon the liberty of'the press and the civil rights of his subjects; encouraged institutions of learning; prohibited to a considerable extent cruelty and oppression in the subordinate branches of the public service; and in all respects has proved himself equal to the great duty imposed upon him, and worthy the esteem and commendation of the civilized world. Yet I can not see what there is in a despotic form of government, under the very best circumstances, to enlist our admiration or win our sympathies-. We may respect and appreciate a good ruler, but every autocrat is not good of his kind; nor is every country in a happy condition because it may be exempt from the horrors of commotion. But no sovereign power can ever attain a rank among the civilized nations of the earth-beyond the respect to which its brute force may entitle it so long as the very germ of its existence is founded in the suppression of civil and political liberty among its subjects. What, after all, does the emancipation of the serfs, amount to? They are only to be nominally free. The same power that accords them the poor privilege of tilling the earth for their own subsistence may at any time withdraw it. They are not to be owned by individual proprietors, and bought and sold like cattle; but they possess none of the privileges of freemen; have no voice in the laws that govern them; must pay any taxes iniposed upon them; may be ordered, at any time, to abandon their homes and sacrifice their lives in foolish and unnecessary wars in which' they have no interest; in short, are just as much slaves as they were before, with the exception that during the pleasure of the emperor they can not be sold. But will every emperor be equally humane? There is nothing to prevent the successor of Alexander the Second from restoring the system of serfage, with all its concomitant horrors. It will not be THE LAND OF THOR. 167 difficult to -find a predominating influence among the nobles to accomplish that object; for this has been a long and severe struggle against their influence, and owes its success entirely to the unremitting labors of the sovereign. The next autocrat may labor with equal earnestness to undo this good work; but it matters little, save in name. Despotism and freedom are antipodes, and can not be brought together. It may be said that it would be difficult to enslave a people who had once even partially tasted the sweets of liberty, but the history of Russia does not furnish testimony to that effect. Since the publication of the ukase abolishing serfdom, there has been a great deal of trouble in the more remote districts-between the serfs and their masters, arising chiefly from ignorance on the one side, and discontent and disaffection on the other. Every possible obstacle has been thrown in the way of a fair understanding of its terms. Some idea may be formed of the extreme ignorance and debased condition of the serfs when I-mention that in many parts of the country, where the influence of the court is not so immediately felt by the proprietors, they have assumed such despotic powers over their dependents, and exercise to this day such an inexorable command over their lives, liberties, and persons, that the poor creatures have almost learned to regard them as demigods. When a nobleman of high position, owning large tracts of land and many serfs, visits his estates, it is not an uncommon thing to see the enslaved peasantry, who are taught to believe that they exist by his sufferance, cast themselves prostrate before him and kiss the ground, in the Oriental fashion, as he passes. It is a species of idolatry highly soothing to men in official position, who are themselves subjected to almost similar debasement before their imperial master. In some instances, especially at a distance from the capital, the acts of cruelty perpetrated by these cringing and venal nobles, as an offset to the arbitrary rule under 168 THE LAND OF THOR. SERFS. which they themselves exist, are enough to make the blood curdle. The knout, a terrible instrument made of thick, heavy leather, and sometimes loaded with leaden balls, is freely used to punish the most trifling offense. Men and women, indiscriminately, are whipped at tlhe pleasure of their masters, the only real restrictions being that if they die within twenty-four hours the owners are subjected to trial for murder; but even that is nearly always evaded. The present emperor has done much to meliorate these abuses; but his orders have to go a great way and through a great many unreliable hands, and it is very difficult to carry them into effect unless they accord with the views of a venal and corrupt bureaucracy and an unprincipled corps of subordinates. In some of the districts where the serfs were purposely kept in ignorance of the true meaning and intention THE LAND OF THOR. 169 of the emperor's ukase, a vague idea took possession: of their minds that they were free, and that the proprietors had no right to compel them to labor, or in any way curtail their liberty. MIany of them left the estates to which they were attached, and sought occupation elsewhere on their own account; others refused to obey the orders given them by their seigneurs, and a great deal of trouble and bloodshed ensued. In some instances it became necessary to caU in the military forces of the district to subdue the mutinous serfs and preserve order. Protests and remonstrances innumerable were addressed to the emperor, pointing out the absolute impracticability of carrying his beneficent scheme into effect, based chiefly on the ground that the serfs themselves were opposed to emancipation. This, of course, -occasioned a great.deal of anxiety and trouble at head-quarters. It was rather. a hald state of things that the very peasants whom he was striving with all his power to serve should, by their insubordination-arising sometimes, it was true, from ignorance, but too often from willful misconduct-. do even more than their masters to frustrate his. beneficent designs. These troubles went on firom time to time, till eventually a deputation of three hundred serfs made their way to St. Petersburg and solicited an audience of the emperor. His majesty, probably in no very amiable mood, called the deputation before him, and demanded what they desired. They answered that they wished an explanation in regard to his order of emancipation, which many of their people did not understand. Some thought they were to be free in two years, but many thought they were free from the date of the order, with the simple condition that they were to pay sixty rubles to their masters the first year, and thirty the second; others, again, that they were free without any condition whatever. All they