DK 2.1 &34 1 . :• . . ' ' ' ' \ y ', v., ■ NtfwmBE ■ ■ H C3R llw ■uuyw HwfMHW wmntf »MWMMWHi IMnM^MIlWIlMMWTiWHTWlBlltflnMi IBM B»OMggWaiWMWBIIIllgMWiMiiiiwiMW>PW g W W. 'HlM «Vjrwus an«« ffl «MB ■K MBS* v* r A 9 \ \ X V- \ I ' "S -- A o ■ ■■'• \ > Tine Flag of Russia, A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA Edited By MARIAN M. GEORGE CHICAGO A. FLANAGAN COMPANY [library of congress] Two Copies Received WAY 11 1904 Copyright Entry I CLASS oc XXc. No. HO ^ COPY 6 Copyright 1904 By A. FLANAGAN COMPANY A Little Journey to Russia Russia is a country where the Ice King reigns half the year; where in winter the rivers freeze so deeply that railroads can be built on them and sledge roads are made the full length of their shining surface ; where the lakes are ploughed by huge steamers which in- stead of cutting the waves bore their way through the ice; where sleighs fly over the slippery streets for so many months of the year that when summer really comes the horses seem unable to slacken their speed, but tear along the road at the same mad pace, dragging the carriages after them. The thermometer shows so many degrees of cold in this country that one's nose may become frosted before he knows it and have to be rubbed with snow to save it from freezing. The rich bundle up in furs until the city streets look like an animal exhibit, while the poor do not take off their clothing even at bed- time, but lie down to sleep, on top of their immense brick stoves, with their sheepskin coats still on. For about eight months every year the Russians shiver in the darkness, for the sun rises very late in the morning — long after we Americans have gone to school — and it sets in mid-afternoon. Then summer A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA comes with scorching heat, and the sun takes to shin- ing all day and nearly all night. Snow and ice quickly disappear. A wealth of brilliant-hued flowers gives color to parks and moors, and tourists arriving at this season find it hard to believe all the tales they have heard of Arctic cold in the czar's land. Of course we all know that the czar is the Emperor of Rus- sia. He rules over a giant country. It oc- cupies one-sixth of the land sur- face of the en- tire globe, and is second in size to the British Empire only. It is even more impos- ing than King Edward's realm, for the British Empire is composed of many lands scattered here and there and widely separated by oceans and continents. Russia sweeps straight across Northern Europe and Asia. It is continuous. Beginning in the west with Finland, it goes on with European Russia, Poland, NICHOLAS II., CZAR OF RUSSIA A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 5 the Caucasus, a great slice of central Asia, Siberia, and stops only at the Pacific coast. Its area is 8,644,- 100 square miles. As an American traveler has said, "All the United States with Alaska would hardly make a patch for the healing of a rent on Russia's vast garment." And by the time you read this, the area may have increased several thousand square miles, for Russia adds new territory to her possessions with as much ease as she adds ships to her navy. Nicholas II., the czar, is the richest and most power- ful monarch of the world to-day, though only thirty- five years of age. He is what we call a despot — a sovereign whose will is law. He may deal with his subjects as he wishes; he rules absolutely over 113,- 000,000 people ! And yet he is a very modest young man. Nicholas II. is the nephew of the gracious Queen Alexandra of England, and his sweet-faced wife was Queen Victoria's favorite granddaughter. This royal couple have four daughters. The older ones speak English as fluently as Russian, and play with dolls and eat oatmeal for breakfast quite as naturally as though their papa were not a despot, the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, Czar of Poland, and Grand-Prince of Finland. CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY What shall we see in czarland? Not fine scenery certainly — just a vast flat farm, just plains and steppes, swamps and moors, desert wastes and bleak forests. There is little seaboard, and most of that little is on the ice-bound Arctic coast, or on the inland seas, the Black and the Caspian. The mountains are far away 6 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSS1 on the boundary line of European Russia. To those who have seen the Alps, or the Rockies, the Ural Mountains do not seem worth a visit, though they are rich in precious stones, in gold, silver, lead and iron. The Caucasus Moun- tains, between the Black and Caspian seas, are famed for their fine scenery, but they lie out of the track of our little journey. We shall be able to visit only a few places in European Russia. The czar has over a hundred different peoples and tribes in his empire. In order to be able to talk with them all in their native tongue he would have to learn about forty different languages and dialects. There are the Finns, the Poles, the Germans, the Jews, the Armenians, the Georgians, the Tartars, and all manner of strange Asiatic tribes. We shall not be able to visit all of these in their home-villages, but in our short journey we shall see the Russian people in every walk of I] "THE POLICE WATCH EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD" A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 7 princes, pilgrims, Siberian exiles, soldiers, beggars, pedlers, tramps — and the police! We may not even travel in Russia without the per- mission of the police. We must have passports tell- ing who we are, whence we are come, where we are going, and much else about our private affairs. The police take charge of our passports during our stay in each place. We must have their permission to go even from one village to another. They are always at hand, in every corner of the empire, to demand one's passport and ask one questions. The police watch every man, woman, and child in Russia just as closely as they watch foreigners. They know the whereabouts of every one, down to the poor servant lass who goes on a short visit. They can tell what route she takes, the shops she enters, and with whom she talks. What the regular police do not know, the secret police find out. Nothing is easier in Russia than to be arrested "on suspicion" by the secret police and exiled to Siberia. If the suspected person is not a subject of the czar, he is escorted out of the country and forbidden to return. In Russia it is not safe to talk carelessly about the czar, his officials, the form of government, the Greek Church, or the police. For there is no telling to what the most innocent remark mav lead. One mav not even read such books and papers as he chooses. The Censor is a powerful official who decides what may or may not be printed and read in the empire, and a strict judge he is. A journey to Russia may prove exciting indeed. We mean to avoid suspicious con- duct, but if we should be arrested and thrown into a es A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA dungeon for a week or two, it would certainly be an experience worth describing in our letters home. With the feeling that we do not know what a day may bring forth, we plan our trip to this strange land. We shall visit, first, St. Petersburg, the capital of the empire, the story of whose building by Peter the Great reads like a tale of the days of giants. We must go to Moscow, once the only capital of Russia, and now the Holy City to all devout Russians. We shall make our way northward almost to reindeer land, to the Holy Isles in the White Sea, and steam down the Volga River to the southern limits of the empire. We must have a glimpse of Warsaw, the ancient capital of Poland, and cross the Gulf of Finland to the land of the Finns. And so let us be off! ST. PETERSBURG An ocean steamer carries us across the Baltic Sea and eastward through the Gulf of Finland. Kronstadt, a strong fortress on an island, here guards the entrance to the czar's country. While we are gazing from the steamer's deck upon the wharves, dockyards, and batteries of Kronstadt, some uniformed officials come on board. One of them prepares to examine our pass- ports. To our surprise, he signs ours without objection. Not all the passengers have such luck. One party of English people have to land at Kronstadt and wait, under the care of the police, until their passports are made right. Nobody knows what is wrong with the papers — nobody but the official, who looks as impor- tant as though the czar's life were intrusted to his sole care. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 9 And now our boat steams up the broad River Neva toward the city of Peter the Great, the cap- ital of the Rus- sian Empire. The Neva flows from Lake La- doga, the largest lake in Europe, into the Gulf of Finland. On the banks of the stream and on the numerous islands formed by the different river mouths, stands St. Petersburg. We see its cluster of roofs, domes, spires, and pinnacles ahead of us. One immense golden dome shines like a ball of fire. That is the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral. And there, rising against the sky, is a high, glittering spire as fine as a needle to our sight — the spire of the fortress church beneath which lie buried Peter the Great and all the czars since his time. More bearded officials in uniform meet us as we land at the city docks. Here is the customhouse, where we pay the examiner a silver ruble (worth about fifty- eight cents), to keep him from turning the contents RUSSIAN CAB DRIVER 10 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA of our trunks upside down. And here are the droshky or cab drivers disputing with one another for the privilege of taking us to a hotel. The Neva, glistening, and broad as a lake, its water of the clearest blue, is covered with sea-going craft, pleasure boats, river barges, and fishing smacks. The river banks are faced with massive red granite quays; buildings of solid masonry overlook the water. Islands far out in the river are covered with buildings. People all about us are speaking in the strange Rus- sian tongue. More than half the men seem to be in uniform. Their badges often show a silver double- headed eagle. This double-headed eagle is a symbol of the united Eastern and Western empires. Racing through the broad, broad streets in a drosh- ky, we get a general idea of St. Petersburg. It is just a fine modern city with wide streets, huge palaces, excellent shops, some green squares, parks, and pleasure grounds, a monument here and there, and a busy populace. It might be a German city, or a French one, or even an American one, except for the appear- ance of the people. We see a priest of the Greek Church. He has long hair and flowing robes, and even wears a beard. He looks like no priest we have ever seen before. And there go some peasants in red cotton blouses, queer caps, and baggy trousers tucked inside huge boots. A Russian peasant is called a mujik. Xow we pass a street shrine where a Russian peasant woman in short skirts and richly embroidered apron is kneeling before the picture of a saint. Xow we see a church with a cluster of big domes painted blue and dotted A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 1 1 with gold stars. Another church has green domes. Many of the houses are covered with stucco and painted terra eotta, pale pink, or yellow. The roofs are of sheet iron colored red or green. Our droshky is a humble little vehicle, very uncom- fortable, in which there is barely room for two passen- gers. It is drawn by a single horse wearing so little harness that we wonder what holds him to the carriage. Over his head is a high arched yoke gaily painted. The droshky driver sits on a high seat in front. He is a great big fellow, with a baggy coat belted in at the waist, high boots, and a cloth cap which he lifts politely in answering our questions. He speaks broken English, learned during a year's stay in the United States. Many of this driver's friends have emigrated to America, he says. While his old mother lives he must stay in Russia. But when she is gone, back he will go to the land where passports and secret police, and censors, and low wages cease from troubling an honest workman. Our cabman drives furiously, making us rejoice that , the droshky is swung close to the ground so that an upset would not injure us greatly. Though the sturdy little horse goes at a frightful pace, he never runs into anything, being easily controlled. Cab-drivers here are arrested if they injure a pedestrian. A droshky driver is called an isvoshchik, which word serves as a sample of the Russian language. Our hotel looks like any large modern hotel, but it proves to be second-rate, as are the hotels of all Russian cities. The rooms are untidy, the servants lazy and 12 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA talkative, and there are fleas in the carpets, and else- where. But the beds are clean, so we unpack our baggage, hang up our United States flag and our pic- ture of the President, and order tea served in our room. Each floor of the hotel has its own servants and a little kitchen, from which one may quickly obtain a "short order" meal of tea, toast, eggs, and other simply prepared dishes. The waitress brings us a Russian tea urn, called a samovar. This is a tall copper urn with a cylinder in the center where charcoal burns. This keeps the water in the urn at boiling heat, so that tea may be freshly made for each cup. The samovar belongs particularly to Russia, which is a nation of tea-drink- ers. The Russians import vast quantities of tea from China, some of it of very fine quality. While here, we shall drink our tea in Russian style, from a glass, with a slice of lemon in it, no milk, and the lump of sugar held in our fingers, to be sucked between sips. At seven o'clock in the evening w T e have a Russian dinner; and if the hotels are second-rate in other re- spects, they are "tip-top" when it comes to meals. Russians are hearty eaters. The meal begins with an "appetizer." On the sideboard are numerous dishes, containing cheese, dried fruits, pickles, potted fish, smoked sturgeon, smoked ham, pickled herring, chicken and game; and there, too, are wines, and wonderful Russian brews, spicy and delicious. •The appetizer seems to us a full meal in itself, and after it come soups, fish pie, roasts, vegetables, pud- dings and confectionery, with glass after glass of scald- ing hot tea. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 13 We are delighted with the cakes, pastry, and sweets. Russians have famous appetites for such goodies. Nowhere else in Europe do pastry-cooks and candy- makers receive wages so high as those paid them in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, and other Russian cities. Some one has said that a Russian may be without towels and soap, combs and brushes, brooms and matches, but nowhere is he far from a candy shop. We taste none of the peculiar Russian dishes of which we have heard, leaving them till chance takes us to a restaurant later on. We give our waiter some kopecks (copper coins worth one hundredth part of a silver ruble), and, summoning a droshky, start for an after-dinner drive through the beauti- ful summer gardens on the islands of the Neva. These islands are connected by numer- ous fine bridges, and are oc cupied by public buildings, the summer villas of the nobles, pleasure gar- dens, driveways, open-air theaters, and pavilions where bands play. On the a pie seller 14 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA island of Vassili Ostroff are the customhouse, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Fine Arts, the barracks, the buildings of the mining corps, the Ex- change, and other stately structures. We go to Strelka Point and have a splendid view of this mighty cit}^ We look out toward the Gulf of Finland and still may see the sunset glow across its waters. One could see the summer sun all night long from the top of a high building. We drive from island to island, often in a fairyland of lights, fountains, flower gardens, pavilions, terraces, swaying vines and shadowy trees. Boats with festoons of electric lights ply the river in every direction. Music sounds from cafe and garden. It is a fascinating place, and the very next morning we return to the summer gardens and loiter about amid the trees, looking at the flowers, fountains, and statuary. p, We see a monument to Kriloff, the Russian writer of fables, who was the special delight of Russian children. They still like to read his queer stories about horses, cows, sheep, donkeys, foxes, wolves, hens, and other fur and feather folk. Kriloff died at St. Petersburg in 1844. Around the pedestal of his monu- ment figures of his animal friends are carved in relief. Kriloff himself is represented in his dressing-gown, seated in his arm chair, apparently gazing down upon this procession of animals. Looking upon the Neva, its banks and islands, we see how low is the site of the city. It was built on marshes and has several times been flooded by the waters of the Gulf of Finland, which, driven by terrible A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 15 winds, backed up into the river, causing an overflow. St. Petersburg is an unhealthful place. Fevers rage among the poor, who live in crowded underground rooms along the river banks. When the Neva rises high these wretched cellar homes are flooded, and the tenants are driven out upon the street. Then as soon ALEXANDER COLUMN AND THE GENERALTY as the waters subside, the poor return to their un- wholesome homes, where disease sweeps them off by hundreds. How did the Russian capital happen to be built in such a spot? Let us visit the tomb of its founder, Peter the Great — the truly greatest czar in Russian history, and one of the most remarkable men in all 16 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA history — and there speak of the founding of this city East of the island of Vassili Ostroff is the fortress island with its Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. This cathedral is the burial place of Peter the Great and of all the czars but one since his time. We pass within the dark fortress walls (for the cathedral is inside the fortress) and before entering the church pause to look up at its beautiful spire, which we saw on approaching the city. Richly gilded, the spire rises over three hundred feet above the ground. On its peak stands the figure of an angel bearing aloft a cross. In the gloomy interior of the church are the marble tombs of Russian royalty whose bodies lie beneath the floor. Here rests Czar Peter; and but a few steps from this church is the little hut where he lived while superintending the building of his capital city. He laid the foundations of this fortress in 1703, as the very beginning of St. Petersburg. Although Russia is over a thousand years old, she is still called a young nation. This is because for many centuries she was not half civilized, was even a barbarous nation, and so was of small importance among the civilized peoples of Europe. For over two centuries (from 1237 to 1481) Russia was overrun by the Tartars, an Asiatic horde, cruel and barbarous, and was subject to them. When New York city had been settled nearly a hundred years, and Boston over seventy, the place where St. Petersburg now stands was a desolate swamp half under water, surrounded by forests, its wastes visited by only a few poor fishermen. Russia was A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 17 still a country of which the rest of Europe knew little and for which it cared less. Russians then lived as do the half-civilized peoples of the Far East to-day. The men wore robes and flowing beards, and kept their wives and daughters hidden in a kind of harem. When the women appeared in the streets they were veiled, or rode in carriages with curtains drawn. Wife-beating was a common custom; only priests advised the husbands not to use too thick a club. When the czar's subjects appeared before their ruler they prostrated themselves to the ground, with heads bent in the dust. Schools, libraries, museums, hos- pitals were wholly lacking. There was no navy; no disciplined Russian army. In remoter parts of the land bands of armed men pillaged and plundered as they chose. The czar murdered his subjects, and the people now and then murdered a czar. Moscow was the capital. Peter the Great began to reign when he was seven- teen years old. His elder sister Sophia had tried to keep the government in her own hands and to make him unfit to rule by purposely giving him no education and placing every evil temptation in his way. He had a hot temper, was coarse in manner and ignorant of books. But he had a keen thirst for knowledge, high ambitions for his empire, and a will of iron. His empire was then inland, except on the northern boundary, where the Polar sea broke on icebergs. Archangel, his only seaport, was ice-bound almost the year around. The Swedes were between Peter's iaad and the Baltic; the Turks kept him from the 18 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA Black Sea ; and the Persians were in possession of the region along the Caspian. Peter knew that no country could prosper without communication by sea with other lands. He wanted a seaport, " a window toward Europe." "It is not land I need, but water!" he cried. So he fought the Swedes until he wrested from them the Baltic provinces. This gave him a seaboard. The only place for his sea- port was thus the low land where the River Xeva flows into the Gulf of Finland. It was a most unpromising site for a city. The sea often flooded these swamps. It was so far north that the harbor would be ice-bound six months in the year, while for two months every year there is no night at all, dawn beginning where twilight ends; and for two winter months the daylight lasts less than five hours in every twenty- four. There was not only no dry land upon which to build a city, but also no material with which to construct it — no stones, clay, or wood. To cap all these diffi- culties, there were no workmen, and no tools; and lying in wait for Peter, just across the Baltic Sea, was his chief enemy, King Charles XII. of Sweden. Peter cared nothing for difficulties. He enjoyed hard tasks. When he decided to do a thing, he did PETER THE GREAT A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 19 it. He built his log hut here on this island of the Neva, and with his own hands laid the first stones of the fortress. Thousands of laborers were brought to the task from all parts of his empire : Finns, Russians, Tartars, Cossacks, even criminals from Siberia. They had no tools; so Peter ordered them to dig with their hands and carry earth in their caps or in bags made of their clothing. Stone was needed; so Peter pro- hibited the use of stone in any other city of his em- pire and had every boat in Russia bringing stone to his new capital. Cold, hunger, and fevers killed his workmen. More were brought to take their places. Over a hundred thousand men perished during the first year of building St. Petersburg. Meantime Charles XII. of Sweden sent word that when he had time he would come and burn down Peter's wooden town. In less than nine vears the new capital was ready for inhabitants. It was protected by the fortress on this island, and had a harbor. Peter now ordered people to come and live in his city. Three hundred and fifty noble families were moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, where they were forced to build palaces for themselves in the places pointed out to them by Peter. He commanded merchants, arti- sans, and mechanics to move hither from every part of his empire. He brought artists and engineers from all over Europe to his city, selecting the inhabi- tants for his new capital just as a housekeeper would choose furniture for her house. Splendid buildings rose in St, Petersburg on all 20 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA sides. Much care had to be taken in laying all foun- dations, because the soil was wet and yielding. It is said that the foundations of St. Petersburg have cost almost as much as the city. Piles must be driven into the marshy land, one upon another, extending downward row on row until a building reaches as far into the earth as it does into the air. Thus six hundred acres have been reclaimed from waste land and made into the city of Peter the Great. Charles XII. did not burn down Peter's wooden town. He was defeated by Peter once and for all at Poltava. Peter's little hut on the fortress island has been carefully preserved by enclosing it within an outer shell. One little room has been fitted up as a chapel, to which many devout Russians come often for prayer. Leaving the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, we cross the Neva to the main part of the city. Let us drive down the chief boulevard, called the Nevski Prospect. It runs parallel with the Neva, giving a view of the river, as its name indicates. At one end of this fine boulevard is the building of the Ad- miralty, with a tall gilt spire bearing on its peak a golden ship for a weathervane. From the Admiralty square, the Nevski Prospect extends three miles in a straight, level course. It is as broad as a Paris boulevard and is bordered by handsome buildings, churches, shops, the Winter Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Imperial Library, the home of Nicholas II. and his family, and other places of interest. Pedestrians and vehicles throng the Nevski at all hours, yet so broad are these St. Petersburg streets A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 21 and so vast the squares, that one almost feels lonely. The crowds of people do not seem like crowds. How- ever, St. Petersburg has a population of 1,003,315. It is the fourth city in size in Europe. Among the handsome coaches and smart traps on the Nevski, we see man}^ troikas. A troika is a vehicle drawn by three horses abreast, only the middle horse be- ing harnessed in the shafts, with the high arched yoke over his neck. The two outer horses, harnessed by a rein, have their heads bent outward. They must be kept at a gallop, the middle horse at a desperate trot. At its best, the troika is a very dashing turnout, peculiarly Russian. In winter the sleighs, drawn by three horses thus harnessed, must be a gallant sight. On country roads bells jingle on the high yokes of the horses, but in the cities no bells are permitted. Instead the drivers shout a warning to one another as they meet. Add to this the snap- A HOUSE PORTER CARRYING WATER 22 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA ping of whips, the clucking noise that the drivers make as they urge forward their swift horses, and the cries of "Faster! faster!" from gay merrymakers in the sleighs, and the scene must be exciting. Almost as swiftly as a sleigh our carriage flies up and down the Nevski, finally leaving us at Admiralty Place, the square where are situated the chief public buildings. Here we see the splendid equestrian statue of Peter the Great. It is of bronze, mounted upon a block of Finland granite which weighs fifteen hundred tons — said to be the very stone on which Peter stood watching while his navy gained a victory over the Swedes. The monument represents Peter astride his steed, which he is reining in at full gallop on the brink of a precipice. His face is turned toward the Neva, while his right hand points to the city which he caused to rise from the frozen swamps. Under the horse's feet is a serpent, the symbol of those obstacles which Peter overcame in building his capital. Falconet, a French sculptor, designed this monument for the Empress Catherine II. The inscription upon it reads. TO PETER I. FROM CATHERINE II. 1782 Peter's monument peers out through the trees of a little park, upon the great church opposite it. RUSSIAN CHURCHES St. Isaac's Cathedral is one of the grandest modern churches of Europe. Its golden dome rising brightly above the city roofs is always the first object to catch A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 23 the eyes of the traveler approaching St. Petersburg. This mighty central dome is surrounded by a cluster of smaller ones, each surmounted by a gilded cross. Mounting to the central dome, we have a broad view of the city, which, as some one has said, looks from here like a barge so overladen, in the midst of ,JC^ III 1 \ V P. - - •• t_ "3W^^t ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL the waters, that if one put a few more tons upon it it would sink. Some people even prophesy that St. Petersburg will be destroyed by flood one of these days. From this dome we look directly down upon St. Isaac's roof. The church is of marble and Finland granite, built in the form of a Greek cross. All the treasures of Russian quarries and Russian mines 24 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA have been brought together in adorning it. Descending to the street, we enter the church by one of the four magnificent entrances. Each is approached by three flights of stone steps, and each flight is cut from a single block of rose granite. We pass through a portico supported by granite pillars polished like mirrors. Each pillar is a monolith (a col- umn cut from a sin- gle block of stone) 60 feet high and 7 feet in diameter, with a weight of 128 tons. These monoliths are the largest ever quar- ried. No wonder it took twenty-five years merely to lay the foundations of this massive building. Forty years were con- sumed in building the cathedral, and $14,- 000,000. In all $65,- 000,000 has been ex- pended upon it since it was begun. In this great church a priest is conducting service. A burst of glorious music greets us as we enter. The congregation is standing. Many persons hold tapers in their hands. Lights blaze here and there before A BISHOP OF THE GREEK CHURCH A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 25 holy pictures adorned with countless jewels. The priest is in the richest robes and chants his part of the service with a splendid bass voice. All about we look upon gems, carvings, and jewel-decked paint- ings. The pavement is of variegated marble; the altars blaze with precious stones; the walls are inlaid with verd-antique. There is no organ. The Russian Church has no music but that of male voices; but the services are almost all music, and the voices are such as we may hear nowhere else in the world. Nowhere outside of Russia are there such basses, while the soprano sung by boys is wonderfully sweet and clear. The choir is concealed from view behind a screen. There are no pews. The congregation stands or kneels. Even the czar must stand. As the service often lasts two hours, this is a test of one's piety and strength. But the Russian churches are crowded always. There never was a more religious people than the Russians. Besides, they must obey their p priests. Usually there are even more men at church than women. Women are never allowed to sing in a Russian church; nor may they enter the holy place, a sacred room behind the altar. We see no images in this cathedral such as are everywhere in a Roman Catholic Church. The Greek Church (or Russian, as we have been calling it) does not permit the use of images. Instead there are sacred pictures of the Saviour, the Virgin and the saints, called icons. Every icon in the church is framed with rich jewels, the gift of worshipers whose prayers to the saint have been answered. 26 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA On entering a church the pious Russian buys a candle to place before the icon of his guardian angel. Kneeling before the picture, he kisses it, and bows his forehead to the pavement in prayer. Often during the service the members of the congregation fall upon their knees, bowing their foreheads to the floor. Prayer is to the Russians an hourly exercise. They are forever prostrating themselves in prayer, mak- ing the sign of the cross, and burning candles before icons. Saints' days are constantly being cele- brated. Feasts and fasts occupy so many days that a devout Russian has left but one hundred and thirty working days in a year. The Greek Church has endless rites and ceremonies. Baptisms, marriages, deaths, harvests — all are honored by the Church with long religious ceremonies. All new buildings must be blessed by the priest before they are used, even hotels, railway stations, jails, and factories. After the people have left St. Isaac's Cathedral, we spend an hour or more examining the ornaments and treasures of this vast church. The columns of malachite are the largest columns of this costly mineral found anywhere in the world. There are beautiful pillars of lapis-lazuli, and exquisite mosaics. The chief wealth of treasure consists in the jeweled icons. An icon is like no other painting, for only the face and hands of the figure are painted, the rest of the picture is raised work in silver or gold. The frames of many are closely set with rubies, dia- monds, amethysts, sapphires, and pearls. Stored away in caskets are the richest of priestly vest^ ments and other relics. The Greek Church is not A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 27 only the most ancient Christian church, but also the richest by far. We pass a street shrine, one of many hundred in St. Petersburg. These shrines are tiny chapels which in appearance have been likened to toll-houses. Each has on its walls the picture of the saint to which it is dedicated. Every passer-by crosses himself, doffs his cap, or kneels in prayer at the shrine. This shrine near the St. Nicholas Bridge is dedicated to Saint Nicholas. A mujik is kneeling, with his forehead upon the ground, before the sacred picture of Saint Nicholas; he even kisses the pavement. Nicholas is a popular saint, being the patron of children, sailors, pilgrims, nobles, and adventurers. The Book of Saints declares him the most powerful saint in heaven, though he was once just a poor Russian priest. All along the splendid Nevski Prospect are churches. Indeed, this boulevard has been called " Toleration Avenue" because it is bordered by churches of so many different faiths: Greek, Roman Catholic, Dutch, Lutheran, and Armenian. The Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan is dedicated to the Virgin, and has a wealth of precious stones and jewels lavished upon it. Kazan, in eastern Russia, was once a Tartar capital, strongly fortified and defended, and a source of much trouble to the Russians. Under Ivan the Terrible, a fierce, warlike czar, the Russian soldiers took Kazan, carrying at the head of their columns a precious picture of the Virgin. They believed that the Virgin gave them the victory over their Tartar enemies, and they built this cathedral in memory of 28 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA the event. The picture, richly covered with jewels and pearls, is worshiped here. We see here on the walls all manner of war trophies, flags taken in battle and keys of captured cities; and here are even tombs of generals killed in the war with France. It seems strange to attend service in this vast' church, where the chorus of men's voices rises to the roof in solemn chants; where prayers, and incense, and kneeling figures all speak of peace in the midst of memories of wars on wars. We see a church of white marble, the Smolni Cathe- dral; and the splendid Memorial Church, built on the spot where Alexander II. was assassinated by dynamite bombs thrown by Nihilists. Around the belfries of all the churches fly flocks of pigeons. Such a fluttering of wings as there always is about the spires and domes! We see many crows and magpies, too, but the pigeon, or dove, is sacred in Russia. The people say that the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ in the form of a dove, and so the dove must be protected and cared for. SIGHTS OF THE CITY Not far from St. Isaac's Cathedral we see the famous Alexander column. It stands before a crescent-shaped line of buildings called the staff headquarters and rises to a total height of 154 feet. St. Petersburg is proud of this column because the shaft, 84 feet high and 14 feet in diameter, is the largest monolith of modern times. It is of red Finland granite and rises from a pedestal of bronze, being surmounted by a bronze capital. On the capital stands the figure of A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 29 WINTER PALACE AND ALEXANDER COLUMN an angel bearing aloft a cross. The angel is 14 feet high — over twice the height of a tall man. The bronze used for pedestal and capital was melted down from Turkish cannon captured in battle. On the pedestal is a simple inscription: GRATEFUL RUSSIA TO ALEXANDER I. Alexander I. was czar when Napoleon Bonaparte marched into Russia with a vast army to conquer the empire; but the Russians set fire to Moscow, compelled the French to retreat in winter when snow and storm killed many, and delivered not only Russia but all Europe from the French conqueror. Alexander I. was hailed as the Deliverer. 30 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA Because of its great weight the column was given a foundation about 150 feet deep. Yet it is said to be settling slowly downward and thus may be destroyed in time. The climate is so severe in winter that all the monuments and public buildings are suffering. Every June, in St. Petersburg, an army of painters and decorators is set at work recoloring the stucco houses and repairing the chipped and cracked orna- ments on the buildings. So summer shows the cap- ital beautified anew. On the Neva bank facing the square of the Admiralty stands the Winter Palace. It is one of the largest and finest royal palaces in Europe, but is now used only for court receptions, balls, and state ceremonies. The czar Nicholas II. and his family, when in St. Petersburg, live in the Anitchkoff Palace on the Xevski Prospect. Xear the Winter Palace we pass a small guard-house, before which stands a palace guard as immovable as a statue. He wears an enormous top-lofty fur cap, his uniform is decorated with straps and medals, and the rifle by his side is highly polished. The Winter Palace has always been well guarded, but in spite of care the Nihilists, a party of desperate people who wished to overthrow the Government, gained entrance there about twenty years ago and blew up with dynamite a portion of several rooms. Alexander II. was czar at that time. He was grand- father of the present czar and is called the Emancipa- tor, because in 1861 he freed the serfs of his empire. After two hundred and sixty years of serfdom, fifty million Russian peasants became free men at the command of Alexander II. As serfs they were A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 31 fixed to the soil which they tilled. When an estate was sold the serfs went with it as a part of the fixtures, like the cattle and farm implements. Their condition was one of utter misery. Several czars had deter- mined to abolish serfdom, but until Alexander II. came to the throne no one ever really undertook the task. The peasants greatly loved him; so did all good people in his empire. But the Nihilists hated czars and determined to kill him. Five times they attempted it and twice nearly succeeded. After being conducted through one imposing apart- ment after another in the Winter Palace, where polished marble, frescos, paintings, gems, statuary, and costly curios glitter everywhere, we come to a simple little room sacred to the memory of Alexander II. On Sunday morning, March 13, 1881, he left this little room, and went out to inspect a regiment of marines. An hour later he w AG carried back, fast bleeding to death, one leg shattered to the thigh, the other to the knee, and placed upon the narrow iron bed in the recess, and there he breathed his last. As he was driving homeward to the palace a bomb had been thrown beneath his carriage. Stepping unhurt from the carriage to approach the assassin, whom the police had seized, he was struck down by another bomb. Then he was carried home to the little room. Thus the Russian czar who freed fifty million slaves suffered death by assassination just as did our own Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. The negro slaves were freed in 1863, but two years after Russian serf- dom was abolished. Russia fought no war of libera- 32 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA tion; the serfs were bought from their owners by the Government, set free, and given enough land to make a home for each family. We turn away, to wander through the Throne Room of Peter the Great, and through the vast Hall of St. George, which has been the scene of many grand balls and court receptions. This hall is 140 feet long and 60 feet wide; for court festivities it is transformed into a wonderful summer garden with tropical plants, flowers, foliage, music, and fountains, amid which the brilliant uniforms of the nobles and the satins and jewels of the ladies make a beautiful picture. We see the crown jewels of Russia in a room guarded day and night. The czar's crown is heavy with dia- monds, being in the form of a dome upon the top of THE HERMITAGE A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 33 which is an immense ruby, bearing a cross of almost priceless diamonds. The czarina's crown is a mass of precious gems. Adorning the czar's scepter is the famous Orloff diamond, said to be the most magnificent jewel in the world. Once this diamond formed the eye of an idol in a temple in India. A French soldier stole it and sold it for two thousand guineas. Finally it was bought by Prince Orloff, who paid over half a million dollars for it and presented it to Empress Catherine II. We could spend days of sightseeing in the Winter Palace, it is so large. Several thousand people at a time have dwelt beneath its roof. Merely the brooms with which to sweep it cost a small fortune each year. The exterior is not really fine, though the size makes it imposing ; the outer walls are of stucco, painted yellow and brown. THE HERMITAGE We cross a bridge from the Winter Palace to the Hermitage, now an art museum, but formerly a little palace built for Catherine II. as a refuge from the cares of her empire. Here she gathered about her a group of celebrated artists, musicians, men of letters and philosophers — just as Frederick the Great of Prussia had his group of illustrious men about him at Sans Souci Palace near Berlin. The present Hermitage has been rebuilt since Cath- erine's time. It is rich in art treasures: pictures by Dutch, Flemish, German, and Spanish Old Masters; and collections of antique sculptures — especially speci- mens of Greek vases, urns, and the like, excavated 34 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA from ruins on the north coast of the Black Sea and supposed to have been wrought by Greek colonists six hundred years before the time of Christ. This is one of the most valuable collections. There are in every nook of the Hermitage coins, gems, frescos, silken tapestries, porphyry vases, mala- chite tables, candelabra of violet jasper, ivory carvings, and rare books. We walk through long galleries full of books. It seems a pity that so much wealth should be shut up in palace libraries when forty-nine fiftieths of the Russian people receive no education in schools! One gallery opening from the Hermitage contains relics of Peter the Great. In the center of the rcom is a life-size wax effigy of Peter, seated in his own chair. In his hand is a sword given him by a deposed ruler of Poland. Here is the chariot in which Peter often drove; and here the horse which he rode at the battle of Pultava, when he defeated Charles XII. of Sweden. The charger is stuffed and is kept in a glass case. His favorite dogs also are preserved here; and we are shown casts of Peter's head taken after his death. On the walls are several portraits of him, one done in mosaic. Peter was a man of giant height. We see the wooden rod with which he was measured. It is notched a foot above a tall man's head. His walking stick is a heavy iron staff. We are shown his books, his tools (turning lathes, knives and chisels), specimens of his wood-carving, his telescopes, his drawing and surgical implements. Peter early determined to civilize his subjects and make Russia a great power among European nations. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 35 But first he must educate himself. So he studied foreign languages, science, art, ship-building and military tactics. Every art and handicraft which could help him in his purpose he mastered, working night and day. Besides, he sent fifty young nobles to European courts to study, and in time followed them, going to the Netherlands first, to learn ship- building and seamanship. Dressing himself in disguise and calling himself Peter Mikhailof, a Dutch skipper, Peter worked at ship-building in the village of Zaandam, Holland. Then he studied in Amsterdam, learning anatomy, geography, astronomy; nothing escaped him. He learned about everything he saw; rope-making, cutlery, the whaling industry, paper manufacture, how to pull teeth, and how to use a miscroscope. He was entertained at stately receptions at The Hague, where the Dutch nobility thought the Czar of Russia the strangest man ever born. His immense size and rude manners and his eagerness to learn amazed them. Peter decided that Russia must have a navy. So he returned home accompanied by a ship-load of naval officers, shipwrights, riggers and sail-makers, to teach his people seamanship. He was accompanied, too, by engineers, artists, surgeons and others dis- tinguished in every art and profession. With the aid of these he began to civilize his empire wholesale. He ordered all Russian men to shave their beards and dress in modern garments. At every city gate were stationed barbers and tailors, guarded by soldiers, whose duty it was to shave the long- bearded men and cut off their long coats. Of course 36 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA the Russians were bitterly opposed to all this, but Peter had his way. He decreed that the women should put aside veils, cease to live in harems, wear European clothing, and even attend balls and other social gatherings. The nobles had always presented themselves pros- trate before him, their faces laid in the dust. Peter ordered them up, even using a stick on them if they forgot their new manners. Strange as his method seems, it was largely successful. Russia quickly took on the outward appearance of modern civilization, where other barbaric nations have found it a slow growth. Peter established schools, hospitals, museums, a botan- ical garden, printing-houses, a medical college, and libraries. He gave Russia a navy, a disciplined army, and a brand-new seaport and capital city. THE IMPERIAL LIBRARY Loitering down the Nevski Prospect, we enter the Imperial Public Library. The catalogue tells us of the riches of this library. There are here over a million volumes and thousands of valuable manuscripts and engravings. Catherine II., the most famous empress of Russia, established this library; and her statue stands in front of the building. We are shown here the most valuable book in the world, a manuscript copy of the Old and New Testaments in Greek, written but three hundred and thirty years after the birth of Christ. During the persecutions of the Christians by the Roman emperors, in the first centuries after Christ, one wicked emperor undertook to search out all the copies A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 37 of the sacred books and burn them, It looked as though the Bible would be destroyed, and the world would lose it. But the Christians hid their copies of it — there were but a few copies — guarding the sacred book at the risk of being tortured to death. When Constantine, the first Christian emperor, began to reign, the best copies of the Bible were sought out, carefully compared, and revised. Then Constan- tine ordered fifty copies of this revised version to be made on the finest skins, by the best scribes. From these fifty copies all other editions were taken, but at length the fifty were no longer used and gradually disappeared. In 1859 a learned gentleman, Tischendorf, dis- covered an ancient manuscript in the convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. It was in excellent condi- tion, not a single leaf had been lost or mutilated, and it proved to be one of those fifty copies made by order of Constantine ! The story of its discovery by Tischen- dorf reads like a romance. The copy was brought to St. Petersburg and placed in the Imperial Library early in the nineteenth century. There are over fifteen hundred manuscripts of the Bible in existence at present, but this one is the most valued of three very precious ones. The Alexandrine manuscript in the British Museum, London, and the Vatican manuscript in the Vatican at Rome are the other two. THE MARKET We spend much time among the shops of the Gos- tinnoi Dvor, the great marketplace on the Nevski 38 A LITTLE JOtTRNEY TO RUSSIA Prospect. It is like the bazaars of the Far East with rows of small shops under one vast arcade. The articles for sale cover every need of man, it seems- urs food, household goods, from the largest article to the least clothing, carriages, pictures, horses, libraries, uniforms, flowers, tapestry, and curios from every land. We buy a brass samovar, and jewelry of malachite and lapis-lazuli from Siberian mines, and ■embroidered slippers and sashes from the Tartar provinces of eastern Russia, and a number of articles made in St. Petersburg factories Petersburg, as the Russians call their capital, is a commercial center for the whole empire. Goods come from far inland points to St. Petersburg by way of the canals which connect the different river systems in the sT t °K T ?° USandS ° f Pe ° ple are ^yZ n the St. Petersburg factories. There are glass-works tanneries sugar-refineries, cotton-mills, breweries, S bacco-works, a porcelain manufactory, and a carpet manufactory modeled after that of the Gobelins at As we loiter among the shops we see people from uTwoTnT ° f *}f CZa - r ' S em P ire - Heni "are" beau" Jul women from Georgia, south of the Caucasus Georgia is famous for its beautiful women. AndTre are P inns-short, sturdy, and always neat, though hey are seldom handsome. The Poles look 1 ike S Russian kinsmen. They are dark-haired, fine-lookinT and often distinguished in appearance 'and Tearing The Russian peasants, or nmjiks, are a sad-faced e P a e c°h P d7v Wea Ther n ° ^ *** ^ f ° r ^ ^ each day. There are sisters of charity from the con- i A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 39 vents, coarsely-robed monks, barefooted pilgrims on their way to. some shrine, policemen everywhere, students from the university, wealthy aristocrats in elegant coaches with servants in livery, and shopkeepers eag- erly showing them their choicest wares. Many people are in uniform, for in Rus- sia every professional man, every civil officer, every railroad employe, and every student, even to the school boys and girls, must wear a uniform. Doctors, teachers, artists, dentists, civil engineers, all are in uniforms prescribed by law. Among the soldiers there are policemen everywhere we are most mter- ested in the Cossacks, with their long dark blue coats, their trousers stuffed into heavy cavalry boots, their sabers and guns, and their warrior air. The Cossacks inhabit south- eastern Russia. The men are born soldiers, tall, strong and fearless. The Cossack women are renowned for their beauty. As horsemen the Cossacks are not surpassed by any people Their children learn to ride 40 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA almost before they learn to walk; their babies' cradle songs are war songs. All their training. is for a soldier's life. So no part of the Russian army is more important than the Cossack cavalry. All difficult scouting, sending of secret messages, sentinel duty, and the like is entrusted to the Cossacks in war time. Like Indians, they are quick to note signs of the enemy's presence, and are able to slip, undetected, across hostile territory, where no one else would venture. The Cossack's horse is almost a part of him. These men can ride in any posture, standing up, leaning low at the horse's side, lying upon his back, or as they will. The rider checks his horse with a motion when going at a frightful pace, reins him in at the point of a precipice, or silently guides him almost through the very camp of the enemy. Horse and rider have wonderful powers of endurance, never seeming to tire. They move so quickly and silently that the suddenness of their attack is terrible to the enemy. Sometimes in making an attack the Cossack flings himself to the ground, orders his horse to lie down in front of him, and resting his gun on the animal, fires from behind him as a breastwork. WINTER IN THE CITY We should like to visit St. Petersburg in winter. The czar returns from his summer palace; the nobility open their luxurious homes for the court season; in the theaters and opera houses are nightly performances 1 > y the finest actors and singers in the world ; the shops are brilliant with lights, rich wares, and elegantly A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 41 clad shoppers ; sleighs throng the streets and fly up and down the frozen Neva in bewildering confusion; and fun, frolic, and good cheer are in the very air. The Neva ice is the center of winter sports. Part of it is a broad ice road, covered by sleighs and sledges and chairs on runners. On part a railway is laid each winter from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt. And on still another part skaters in furs make merry by the hour. Rich folk are given to buying skates made of gold or silver. One may even see skates set with pearls and precious stones. Diamonds are sometimes used for adornment. Russians naturally skate well, but care less for such sport than for sleighing. Ice- hilling, an amusement akin to our tobogganing, is popular. The ice-hills are built of wood in the form of a long slide. An icy path is made by letting water freeze on the slide, and down this inclined plane sleds dash at a terrific speed. In January occurs the ceremony on the Neva called " blessing the waters." The czar, all the court officials, and the priests of the Greek Church gather at the Winter Palace and form a procession, which moves solemnly toward the middle of the river, on a carpeted board platform. In mid-stream a hole has been cut in the ice and a wooden temple built over it. The procession bearing lighted tapers arrives at the temple, where crowds have gathered to witness the ceremony. The priest immerses the cross in the icy river, blesses the stream, prays that it may enrich the soil and bring prosperity to the people, and sprinkles the people with the consecrated water. Many carry away bottles 2; O M X r. 2 OS - 02 P 3 — — > H aa A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 43 of the blessed water, believing it to have great power after the ceremony. In country districts this " blessing of the waters" is believed by the superstitious peasants to rid them of evil spirits, water nixies, demons and the like. In the spring, when the Neva ice breaks up, there is another ceremony at the Winter Palace. The fortress cannon boom a salute from the island, and the commander of the fortress crosses the Neva in a boat, to carry to the czar at the Winter Place a goblet of Neva water. With much pomp he announces to the czar that the river is open to commerce. The czar drinks the water and fills the goblet with silver coin. Winter is a season of extravagant living in St. Petersburg. The capital is an expensive city in which to dwell, and the Russian aristocracy are reckless money-spenders. They entertain lavishly and expend fortunes on dress and in card-playing. Heavy eating and drinking, constant cigarette-smoking and drinking of tea, dances, theaters, operas, gambling — these are the diversions of wealthy Russians. Cards keep them occupied day and night, often run them into debt (for gambling is a part of card-playing), and are thrown aside only when the church services demand attention. Playing and praying are the chief occupations of a Russian, it has been said. Debt hangs over many a family of seeming wealth. Most of the great estates of the Russian nobility are heavily mortgaged, the money obtained being used for pleasures. The magnificent homes of these gay aristocrats have rooms crowded with costly furniture, paintings, 44 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA and bric-a-brac; }^et we learn with astonishment, from those who know, that the elegance is all for show; that private rooms are untidy; that beds go unmade, floors unswept, clothing unbrushed; and that slovenly habits are not unknown in the most aristocratic families. Hospitality is a Russian virtue. The samovar is always steaming in the drawing-room, that a chance guest may have a glass of delicious tea. The dining- table is loaded with good things. The host and hostess are ever read} r with a cordial welcome. Educated Russians are brilliant talkers. They travel widely, speak several foreign languages (for Russians have a gift for languages), and are well read, in spite of the fact that they may not buy what books they wish, nor read all foreign papers. The Censor bars from sale in Russia so many books that were a Russian gentleman to buy for his library the works which men in our own country think most necessary for their libraries, he would be exiled to Siberia for life. Siberia has always been a land for exiles — criminals and political offenders. It has been called the " Russian Prison." The Censor has all foreign periodicals examined and everything not to his taste is " blacked out." A foreign paper frequently appears in Russia with numerous blackened spaces. Of course everybody is then curious to find out what was printed under those black squares. Often people write to friends abroad to send them clippings of the paragraphs blacked out. This is dangerous, however, for if it should be found out, they would be arrested. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 45 When one wishes to give a ball or party, in Russia, he must first ask permission of the police. The guests must always be guarded in their conversation, too, for members of the secret police are present, watching everyone. All public meetings for the discussion of any public subject whatever are forbidden in Russia. Sometimes the university students hold such a meeting in secret. But almost always the police discover the gathering, a riot follows, students are arrested wholesale, and a number of them may be sent to Siberia for several years of exile. PLEASURE TRIPS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD The summer resorts, villas, and royal palaces along the Neva and the Gulf of Finland are the objective points of pleasant excursions for us. We visit the royal estate of Tsars-Koe-Selo, fifteen miles from the city. The first railroad in Russia extended from St. Petersburg to Tsars-Koe-Selo, and was built by Americans. Catherine II. beautified this royal palace and has her name written in amber all over the walls of the famous Amber Room. There are amber walls, chairs and tables, even amber chess-boards and chess- men in the Amber Room. Another room at Tsars-Koe- Selo is the Hall of Lapis-Lazuli. Siberian mines furnished lapis-lazuli walls for this room, while the floor is of ebony, set with a mother-of-pearl mosaic in a flower design. The park surrounding the palace is beautiful, but we are chiefly interested in the black swans on the lake. Peterhof is a summer residence which was built for 46 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA Peter the Great on the south bank of the Neva. The palace stands on an eminence overlooking the Gulf of Finland, and has as its most interesting room an apartment decorated for Catherine II. by an Italian artist. The walls are paneled with portraits of beauti- ful young women — eight hundred and sixty-three pictures — each lovely maid being represented in a different pose. Peterhof is celebrat- ed for its splendid fountains and water- works, which are almost equal in won- der to those at Ver- sailles in France. Returning in a troika from Peter- hof, we order our " cabby" to take us to a Russian restaur- ant. The restaurant has a picture sign showing different articles of food. So few of the Russian people can read that shops often have picture signs. A sign showing coats and trousers is at the tailor's; one showing books we see at the book-shop; pictures of cabbages and turnips are displayed at the grocer's, and pictures of knives A FLOOR RUBBER A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 47 and cutlery at the hardware dealer's. Entering the restaurant, we find ourselves in a large room filled with people drinking tea from glasses. Each table has a samovar steaming in the center, and each tea-drinker has his glass filled and refilled while he munches a lump of sugar between sips of tea. The waiter serves us with stchie, the regular soup of the people. It is made of half -fermented cabbage, chopped with cold boiled mutton and flavored with butter, salt, barley and various herbs. The poorest peasants use linseed oil instead of butter. Another national dish served us is borsch. This is cabbage soup colored with beets and having other vegetables swimming in it. It is thickened with sour cream and eaten with a side dish of roasted buckwheat. A common beverage is kvas, made of fermented barley meal and honey. We taste a soup of cold beer in which float bits of meat and cucumber. Delicious white bread is set before us, and there is black ryebread also. The fish pies make our mouths water, but we do not enjoy all of these Russian dishes at the first trial. A RAILWAY JOURNEY All Russian railway stations are large, well-built structures, surrounded by grassy lawns, adorned with flowers. Every station building was blessed by the priest before it was open for use. And in every one is an icon with a lamp burning before it. Russians always kneel before the icon and cross themselves before buying their railroad tickets. We are shown to our places in the train by an official A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 49 wearing a black uniform, high boots, astrakhan cap, and a silver badge on his breast showing the Russian double eagle. The Government owns most of the railroads. Our train has first, second and third class coaches, as good as the best in Europe, while the first-class sleepers are better than those one finds in France. In the dining-car meals are served at any time, always with the same queer collection of dishes. One could not tell from the food served whether he was eating breakfast, luncheon, dinner, or late supper. Travel is very, very slow. The stops are long and tedious. Often the passengers are none too clean, and it is disagreeable to have to be near them. Even people of the better classes may have soiled hands, carelessly kept clothing, and a look of having economized on soap and towels. Yet there are no pleasanter, better- natured people than the Russians; and we enjoy making their acquaintance. All seem friendly to Americans, for American capital and American brains have been freely used in developing Russian industries. The first railways were built by Americans, and the Russian engines are still built like those in our own country. We grow weary of the scenes from our car windows. Mile after mile we travel, seeing only monotonous plains, or long stretches of dreary forest, or great grain-fields; then more plains, more forest, more lonely fields. In southern Russia one could travel a week by railroad and see only wheat-fields. We pass through no cities, but see now and then a shabby hamlet or a village. The poor little huts built of logs and thatched with straw stand in a 50 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA forlorn row on either side of a wagon road. The road is often a mere trail across the flat country, along which a peasant's cart travels with difficulty, sinking deep in mire or sand. The villagers about the railway station have coarse black hair, narrow, bead-like eyes, and low, furrowed brows. They wear rough clothing of homespun (or sheep-skin, in winter). For stockings, rags are tied about their legs; and sandals do duty for shoes. Even among the village children one seldom sees a bright, happy face. Better villages have larger izbas. (A peasant's house is called an izba.) There is a white church, too with green roof, gilded dome and glittering cross. Sometimes a monastery, with clustered domes and many crosses, is seen in the distance, its bells sounding clear and sweet when the train pauses. Russia is the land of sweet-toned bells. One of our fellow passengers has been the full length of Russia's longest railroad, the Trans-Siberian, which extends from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. A branch leads from a point near Vladivostok down through Manchuria to the Russian seaport of Dalny. It took thirteen days of constant traveling to make the trip by rail from Dalny to Moscow. Our friend tells us much of this wonderful trip across Siberia, of the monotonous level lands where the railroad points straight ahead like an arrow, while the lonely open steppes spread out on either side like the ocean; of the magnificent trains built for these long Trans-Siberian journeys, made up of sleeping, parlor and dining cars, with libraries, writing-tables, pianos, bathrooms with hot and cold water, and even a little A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 51 gymnasium for people who wish to stretch themselves on the long runs between stops. He says that soon it is hoped to increase the speed of the trains so that the journey from Vladivostok to Moscow will take but eight days. Another important Russian railroad is the line from the southern shore of the Caspian Sea to Samarkand in central Asia, called the Trans-Caspian Railway. We leave the train at one of the stops, to take luncheon in the station restaurant. The station is a handsome brick building, and the restaurant is a delight to hungry travelers. Every dish is properly cooked, piping hot, and well served, while the price for this excellent meal is but a ruble. Such good things one always finds in Russian railway restaurants ! From here we take a carriage for a seventy-mile drive across the country to the estate of a Russian gentleman. We wish to see the farm lands. RUSSIA A GREAT FARM The Russian Empire has been called the biggest farm on earth. While large sections of the country are barren wastes and vast morasses, and millions of acres are left uncultivated, there are enough farm lands left to keep eighty million people busy tilling the soil. The most productive grain lands lie between the Baltic Ocean and the Black Sea, extending east- ward from Prussia and Austria to the Volga. Rye, wheat, barley, oats, hemp, flax, tobacco and sugar- beets are raised in such quantities that Russia is called the granary of Europe. The czar owns about one-third of all the land. The 52 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA peasants own almost as much as the czar — in land granted them by the Government when they were freed from serfdom. And the nobles own a little less than the peasants. When the serfs were freed, each peasant family received enough land for its support, on condition that the Government should be paid for this land in yearly installments. The peasants were granted many years in which to pay for their little farms (about thirty acres for each family), and some have now finished these payments. But most of them are still struggling with their debt. No longer does each family own thirty acres. As the sons married, the farm was divided for each new family. Thus a peasant's farm is now but a tiny strip. Meantime, as the Government had paid a big price bo the nobles for these peasant lands, it was hoped the nobles would use their new-gotten wealth in improving their great estates. Many Russian nobles own estates of from fifteen to twenty thousand acres. If these immense farms were rightly cultivated, think how rich and prosperous Russia would be ! But the nobles, in most cases, have spent their money in foreign travel and luxurious living in Moscow and St. Peters- burg. So their lands still need enriching, and no money is left with which to do it. We learn all these facts about farms as we drive across the country behind a team of strong Russian horses, with jingling bells on their yoke. Long country drives in Russia are not a pleasure. This road is a sandy tract, into the loose soil of which our carriage sinks to the axle. It is like traveling through soft A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 53 snow. Where forests border our way, we find small branches of trees strewn over the road to make a more solid foothold for the horses. Xow and then we come to a lazy stream (Russia is so nearly level that all its streams are lazy), and the bridge upon which we cross makes us fear an upset. The bridge is formed of untrimmed pine poles laid cross -wise upon two heavy pieces of timber. The poles project on either side far beyond the beams on which they are laid, and as no parapet guards the sides, a heavy carriage which failed to cross exactly in the middle of the bridge would tip into the stream below. Many times we cross these rude bridges, and often we get out and walk, when the road, with its covering of branches, becomes too rough. Sometimes it is necessary to drive over moorland or meadow, quitting the sandy road entirely. For miles on miles we toil through forests, past fields, across moors, and beside streams. We stay over night in a village inn, a poor little cabin with mud floors, bad odors, a group of noisy peasants drinking about a table, and with beds which are but hard bunks in a shed opening into the stable. In the night a pig strays into our room, while a rooster, perched on the foot of our bunk, wakes us with his midnight crowing. We drive all the next day. One must carry sup- plies with him on these wearisome rides. We have cushions, rugs, a basket of edibles, plates, knives, forks, and a teapot. A camp fire by the roadside boils our tea-kettle. 54 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA At last we reach the country house of our friend. Although it is almost nine o'clock at night, the field hands are just returning from work; and it is light enough out of doors to read a newspaper. The country house is a large wooden dwelling of one } story, with walls vastly thick, ceilings so high that we feel lonely, rooms large and rather barely furnished, windows double to keep out the bitter winter cold (though now they are wide open), and stoves of porcelain, huge enough to warm the whole estate, we should imagine. The stoves are built into the rooms and reach almost to the ceiling. Our host says that they keep the house at an even, warm temperature during the coldest days in winter. Little ventilation is possible during cold weather because of the tight double windows, though one pane of glass may be opened a short time to purify the air. Every room has its icon, before which candles burn. On entering the room each member of the family bows before the icon and makes the sign of the cross. Russian nobles dislike country life and make no effort to beautify their country homes as do the English people. Why, they ask, should they fill their houses with rare furnishings, pictures and books, when the buildings are of wood and may soon perish by decay or fire? Forest fires are frequent in Russia, and dwellings may easily be destroyed. The English, who love country life, build large houses of stone which last for centuries. Here they gather treasures and live their happiest days. Rus- sians spend only the busy summer upon their estates. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 55 For the winter they rush away to the cap- ital, to lose in feasting, gambling, and other foolish pleasures all the money their har- vests have brought them. An army of ser- vants and laborers dwell in villages on this estate. There is much to do : plowing, sowing, and reaping for the field laborers ; cheese and butter making in the great clean dairy; the pre- serving and drying of fruits both for winter use and for sale (for Russian dried and candied fruits, packed in pretty baskets, are largely exported to other countries); the making of great barrels of fermented cabbage for the winter's supply of cabbage soup, and the preparation of barrels of kvas (the fermented barley drink), which are stored in the large cellar beneath the house. Fuel must be cut and cloth must be spun and made into garments for the servants. A crowd of people must be fed daily in the family's dining-hall and that of the servants. The big brick-paved kitchen A RUSSIAN NURSE 56 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA is as busy a place as a factory, for the family is large, there are often guests, and the house-servants fill long tables in their own quarters. We are shown a colony of out-buildings where the cattle and horses are housed, and the farm machinery is kept. On these large estates the best modern agricultural machinery is beginning to be used. Not all Russian estate owners are thriftless. Many now buy German or English steam thrashers, besides cultivators, drills, sulky plows, harrows and the like. American-made machinery is also used. We see that the mowers, reapers, rakes, and all small tools on this estate are of the best modern make. But our host says that for the most part the farm tools and methods of work used in Russia are as rude as those described in the Bible. Grain is sowed broadcast by hand and is thrashed in any one of several old-fashioned ways: either by flails, by hulling it by hand or foot, or by the tread of horses and cattle. Millions of bushels are thrashed by driving carts over the grain as it comes from the fields. The plow may be a heavy two-wheeled wooden plow, or a poor affair with two iron shares but no point, or even but a wooden stick. Of course such a plow merely scratches the earth, making the soil yield but little. Our host explains the cause of the frequent famines in certain parts of Russia. He says that the farmers overwork the soil. They neglect to change their crops from year to year, which is just as hard on the soil as the use of but one set of muscles year after year would be on the human body. In this way A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 57 the soil is worn out. But even when the soil is good, the summers may often be all too short to harvest the crops. Too soon winter sweeps down upon the fields, destroy- ing all that the summer toil has won. The hardest field work is turned over to the peasant wo- men. They hoe, dig, spade the earth, and cut grain and hay with sickles and scythes. We see them bending low over their tasks, their faces sad and deeply furrowed with care, while not far away under a tree or a little covering of leafy boughs their babies sleep on the ground. Such ex- posure of tiny babies — some perhaps but a few davs old — often results in their death. In rural Russia, we learn, eight out of ten children die be- fore they reach ten years of age. Only the strong babies live, it seems. We see women riding astride horses, often without saddles. They pitch hay like men; and even girls TOLSTOI, THE PEASANTS' FRIEND 58 A LITTLE JOURXEY TO RUSSIA do all manner of rough labor. All the women and girls wear short skirts. Here are some girls who appear very contented with their tasks. They wear bright red cotton skirts, some have on white chemisettes, and all wear aprons heavily embroidered. On their feet are sandals, while rags are tied on for stockings. Their hats are clumsy looking turbans, or perhaps shawls or kerchiefs knotted over the hair. Farm hands often work fourteen hours a day. Summer daylight is so long that the peasants set out for the fields at four o'clock in the morning, not re- turning until eight or nine at night. Slowly they plod homeward, singing some harvest chorus, perhaps. How much have they earned that day? If men, perhaps twenty-five cents. If girls, maybe but ten cents. In spite of poor tools, poor farming, low wages, and short summers, Russia in Europe produces 2,000,000,- 000 bushels of grain a year. Rye, which furnishes the bread of the people, is the chief crop, about 735,000,000 bushels being raised yearly. This estate has across it a zig-zag trail of small potato and cabbage gardens and tiny fields of flax and rye. These are the peasant lands. The Govern- ment granted to the freed serfs the very lands they dwelt upon, together with their villages, at the time they were freed. Often this took a zig-zag strip out of the best part of a noble's estate. Each peasant raises on his bit of land enough grain and flax to feed and clothe his family. All Russians live in villages, towns, or cities. Rus- sian peasants not only cling together in villages, A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 59 but they hire out in gangs, work in groups, travel in groups, and if they migrate, even migrate by whole villages. We shall visit their villages by and by. Our host seems to have no neighbors. Large land- owners cannot have neighbors. The estates are so vast on account of forests, waste lands, bogs, lakes, moors, and immense tracts of peasant lands that a country noble must ride days to reach his nearest neighbor. Then the roads are wretched; and in winter the cold is so intense that a sledge ride across country is as much of a hardship as an arctic expedition. One must put on several suits of heavy clothing, bundle in furs, have a foot warmer, provide food and cover- ings against a night in the snow-drifts, and run the risk of being eaten by wolves. European Russia is said to be infested by about 175,000 wolves. They are fierce little beasts when hungry, and to a sledge party making its lonely way across the great wastes of snow their cry brings terror. One hundred and fifty human beings perish annually from wolves. Cattle, sheep, and dogs are devoured by the hundred thousand on the cold plains and steppes. In the forests there are still some bears, but these are not dangerous to human life. No wonder, in view of all these drawbacks, that most Russian nobles leave their estates through the winter for life in the cities. Some old-time customs of the peasants on our host's estate interest us. We remember that the Russians are Slavs, the Slavs being a family of tribes which in the early centuries settled northeastern Europe. Slav traits often appear in these people. 60 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA Once we discover our hostess rebuking a maid servant. The mistress speaks sharply, while the maid sinks to the ground, clinging to her mistress' skirts and kissing her feet. We think this a very serious trouble, but find that such outbursts are frequent and are quickly over. The foot-kissing is only a relic of serfdom; and the mistress' hasty temper forbodes no cruelty. The Russians are quick-tempered, but quick to forgive also. To one custom belonging to days of serfdom, the older peasant men and women still cling. When they have a request to make of their master and mistress, they come at evening to the lawn before the piazza and there stand humbly waiting the appearance of our host. He steps out upon the piazza, and the peasant, removing his cap and bowing low, tells his story, making his request. It all seems very quaint to us, quite as though our host were a king. A RUSSIAN BATH The Russian creed requires bathing every Saturday, and so the peasant is sure to be clean once a week, but does not devote much time to scrubbing himself between times. He sleeps at night in the clothes he wears by day, and often contents himself with a dry rub. And no wonder. A Russian bath is a heroic wav to become clean. The little Russian is first steamed until he is almost cooked, in a hole under the stove, or in one of the vapor baths to be found in all the villages. Then pailfuls of hot water are poured over him, followed by pails of ice-cold water; or else he is tumbled out into the snow. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 61 Near the dwelling of our host is a bath-house. Russian steam baths are famous; so we decide to try one. The bather slips off his clothing in the dressing-room and enters the large bathroom, where an attendant dashes buckets of hot water upon him, one after the other, as long as he can stand it. Then the attendant flagellates (whips) the bather all over with little pine branches until the skin is blood-red. Next he spreads fresh pine leaves on the brick floor, which is really the brick roof of a furnace, and bids the bather stand on this, while more buckets of hot water are dashed upon him, the steam rising in clouds about him until he can hardly gasp. He is then taken aside and scrubbed with soap-suds and a pine brush, while he wonders that he has any skin left to be scrubbed. But the attendant now begins all over again, bathing, scrubbing and steaming him a second time, and finishing off by dashing buckets of cold water (not quite ice-cold) upon him. The cold water comes upon him with such force, however, that he cannot tell whether it is very hot or very cold. We are told that in winter bathers run home through snow- drifts, carrying most of their clothing under their arms. Such a bath is said to be very stimulating; but we are willing to do without this remarkable tonic for the rest of our lives. VILLAGE LIFE Because Russians will not dwell apart in solitary homes, but must always live near their fellow men, Russia is an empire of villages. We are told that 62 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA there are 500,000 villages in European Russia alone. To us they all look alike, but in different parts of the country the huts are built of different materials. In the northern forest region, the houses are of logs. In the South they are of sun-dried brick. On a distant corner of our host's estate we find a tiny hamlet of about fifty log cabins, set among dreary fields. The villagers' only view is of bogs and scrubby pine forests. The cabins stand at irregular intervals along either side of the road, which here is like a wide, dirty street. Some cabins have a lean-to at the back, and one has two stories, but the rest are but square huts, about eight feet high from ground to roof, made of rough pine logs mortised at the corners, with the spaces between filled with moss and mud. The roofs are thatched with straw or moss. In the spring these moss-thatched roofs often show a thick sprinkling of wild flowers which have bloomed from chance seeds in the moss. We see no beauty of flowers now. The little garden patches with their cabbages and potatoes are but ugly little plots. The unpainted cabins are grimy with smoke and rain. Horses, cows, pigs, and chickens live under the family roof, and in winter must make these huts wretchedly filthy. Where the road or dooryards have 'miry puddles, pigs wallow freely, while nearly every cabin has a savage dog which snarls at our heels. Xot far from this hamlet is the church, a white- painted building with green-painted plank roof, and a spire surmounted by a cross. Of course there are trn tsite,o eats in this litle wooden church. We en A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 63 first pausing to look at the rude icon which is over the doorway. The priest is within, an old man with long, flowing hair, tall felt hat of queer shape, and full sweeping robe. His life is a hard one. He must hold endless services, baptize babies, marry the young folk, bury the dead, bless the houses, the harvests, the waters, the coming and going, the sorrowing and rejoicing of every member of his flock. He is not often loved or respected, as we should suppose. His life is a lonelv one. He must be married, but if his wife dies, he must retire to a monastery and never marry again. If anything goes wrong in the village, he is likely to be blamed, for should he not have pre- vented mishaps by prayers and fasts? The villagers trust absolutely in his religious rites and ceremonies, for they are superstitious, but it is often the case that they care little for the priest. We enter a poor little hut. The floor is of mud, the windows are small and tightly closed, and a clutter of old farming tools and harness is the only furniture. But this is the storeroom, we find. Behind it is the one real room of the house. Here the family cooks, eats, sleeps and works. The chief piece of furniture is a brick stove which rises almost to the ceiling and fills about one-fourth of the room. On the top of this stove the various members of the family sleep in winter, lying down in the clothing which they wear in the daytime and huddling close together to keep warm. When they do not sleep on the stove, they sleep on the floor, or in bunks around the wall. 64 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA In winter these peasants' clothing is of sheepskin with the wool turned inside, and as these garments are not changed or washed, the average peasant is filthy in the extreme. Aside from the brick stove in this hut we are visiting, there is scanty furniture. A table, a bench, some stools and a few boxes are all one sees. In one corner hangs an icon. This one is a picture of the Virgin. Beneath it a lamp burns. To keep that lamp burning, the peasant will save his olive oil, using for his own food common linseed oil. People who live in cold climates must have oily food of some kind. But the icon lamp must first be fed, in Russia. Now this icon is the family altar, and when one steps into the room he bares his head, crosses himeelf, and says a prayer before it. Every room in a Russian home is sanctified. About once a month the priest with two assistants enters every house in his parish, sprinkles the rooms with holy water, cleanses them with prayer, and signs them with the cross. If we stayed for a meal at this home we should sit on a bench with the family, before the rude table. A big bowl of cabbage soup set in the middle of the table is alwavs the chief dish. Into it each of us would dip with a wooden spoon, carrying the soup to his mouth. A tray of ryebread ("black bread") and a jug of kvas are the remaining items on the peasant's usual bill of fare. Smoked fish, dried herring, sour cabbage, and cucumbers are very much enjoyed also. Vodka, a strong liquor distilled from corn, is the drink which has always been a curse to Russian peasants. Every village has its drink-shop where A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 65 this fiery liquor is sold. But lately the Government has undertaken to do away with intemperance by manufacturing a diluted vodka, which is sold now in certain amounts only. Other villages which we visit are larger, having from a few hundred to a thousand inhabitants. The homes are better, with several rooms, perhaps, and a comfortable living-room where before the big stone chimney a samovar steams, while the men-folk sit about it drinking glasses of hot tea, with a bottle of vodka to add to the cheer. In larger villages there is a better church, a school, and an inn, and at one end of the place we see a long building, a much larger one than the rest, which forms the village work-shop, or factory. The best dwelling in the village is sure to be the home of the starosta, an officer elected by his fellow villagers to act as chief man — a kind of mayor. The starosta has much power. With his council of village peasants about him, he lays down the law for the village. He can, by vote of the council, order any villager flogged, put out of town, or exiled to Siberia. But what is made in the village factory? we ask. A Russian friend tells us about the thriving cottage and village industries ot Russia. COTTAGE INDUSTRIES So small has the allowance of land for each peasant family now become that it will not support even a small family. So the peasants spend their winter months making articles for sale. Millions of Russian farm laborers spend their winters 66 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA making shoes, shawls, lace, wooden spoons, knives, locks, razors, metal icons, paper-mache articles, and cheap toys. Every little cottage has its loom, or turning lathe, or work-bench. Father, mother, and children all work, often from five o'clock in the morning until nine at night. And although these Russian peasants are as skillful as any laboring people in the world, they work for the lowest pay. Goods are sold at so low a price in this country that if each of the family makes a few cents a day, he is quite satisfied. Large city firms and foreign dealers order goods from these cottage toilers early in the season, for so well are the articles made that there is a ready demand for them not only in Russia but also in other European countries and even in Asia. These cottage industries, as they are called, have trained the people in useful handicraft, have made them independent bread-winners, and have been the beginning of many little village factories, called cooperative associations. For these factories the peasants of a village club together and build a large shop, which they fit up with tools, machinery, looms, or whatever is needful for their work. Then they appoint a leader to get orders for them from large firms, and to direct their work. All winter long they keep at their tasks, as busy as bees in a hive. The leader pays all expenses and receives all the money. At the close of the season the profits are divided among the workers. We enter the village factory, where the villagers are making icons for sale, turning them out by the A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 67 thousand. These are not the richly jeweled, gold and silver icons such as we saw in St. Petersburg. The face and hands of the saint, Virgin, or Saviour are crudely painted. The rest of the picture is in raised work of paper-mache. Sometimes the raised work is of brass. These pictures sell for from a few cents to many dollars, according to their size and workmanship. And they sell wherever there is a Greek Church, whether in Russia or in foreign lands. Every village in Russia is busy during the winter, making articles to sell at home and abroad. We see village factories where they are mak- ing cheap wall clocks, and looking-glasses, and where they are weaving silk or linen. Calf -skin boots are made by the million pairs. They are good boots, too. Leather is made by the vil- lagers, both in their homes and in their little factories. More than a million dol- lars' worth of leather is made in a year. The leather known as russia-leather was originally a specialty of Russia, but the RUSSIAN BASKET SELLER 68 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA best russia-leather is now made in Austria. Lace is made by the hundred million yards. Russian peasants wear a great deal of coarse lace. The men have it on their best shirts, and the women deck their dresses and aprons with it. In one group of provinces of European Russia there are said to be thirty thousand people engaged in making lace. Every year they make over 500,000,000 yards; and not all of it is coarse lace. Some of the patterns are fine and delicate. With so many good workmen in these Russian villages, it is not strange that great factories have been established all over the country. Wherever labor is skillful and cheap, big factories are certain to be opened. A boy or girl who has worked in the home cottage from early childhood and has spent a few years in a village factory, is easily taught to do the work of a great manufacturing establishment. Children usually get about eight cents a day in these large factories. Like their elders, they must work long hours for this poor pay. But they have many holidays, for the factories must close for every fast and saint's day in the Greek Church. And there are about a dozen of these holidays for every month in the year. Recent laws have ordered that all large factories outside of towns must provide schools for the children, besides free hospitals, baths, and libraries for all their laborers. Russia has great natural resources. Her coal fields are the largest in the world. Her oil wells in the Baku district of the Caucasus out-yield those of the United States. Iron lies buried in rich deposits in A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 69 the Ural Mountains and Siberia. With forests, grain fields, waters abounding in fish, the steppes of Eastern Russia overrun by immense herds of cattle — what more does Russia need to make it leap to the head as the chief industrial country? It has only begun to live as a modern, civilized, prosperous nation. Time to develop its resources is all that the czar's land needs, with more freedom for the people, more good schools, and better laws. RUSSIAN CHILD LIFE Our young friend Ivan (Ivan is the Russian for John) has a little sister named Anna. They know a wee bit of English, and we know a few Russian phrases. So we get on famously as friends. The first thing we notice about these Russian children is their religion. Each has a guardian angel, or patron saint; and to these saints they pray many times a day. Over their beds hang excellent icons of their saints. They believe their "Angels," as they call these saints, are always watching them. Ivan tells us all about his religious duties, and it seems to us that these must take up a greater part of his time. He must keep a light burning day and night before the icon over his bed. A priest has consecrated the picture by reciting prayers before it, and Ivan himself always kneels before it and makes the sign of the cross on entering his room. The boy was baptized when he was but eight days old and was confirmed in the Greek Church immediately after baptism. Baptism in the Greek Church is a long, long cere- mony. Sometimes it lasts several days. The baby 70 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA is anointed with oil, signed with the cross, immersed three times in water, and blessed by the priest. Often Russian children are named in honor of their patron saint. Ivan celebrates the day dedicated to his "Angel," and invites us to his house for the occasion. What Ivan does is what every man, woman and child in the Greek Church is expected to do in honor of his own guardian angel. On his Angel's day Ivan does not work, but, dressed in his best clothes, goes to church, where he kneels before his Angel's shrine, touches his little head to the ground, says long prayers, and kisses the floor beneath the icon. Then he buys from the priest some consecrated loaves of bread to give to the poor. On returning home, he finds a feast spread, and all his friends and relatives there to help him celebrate the day. Everybody kisses him, and does reverence to the Angel's picture, and dines at the generously loaded table. After dinner, and a little gossip, the people all go home to their various tasks, only to come back for another hearty meal in the evening. It is a great day for Ivan. Anna celebrates her Angel's day in the same way. The children fast many days every year, just as do their parents. During Lent no butter, eggs, fish or meat may be eaten, and only young children may drink milk. There are other long fasts, before Christ- mas, in August, and on saints' days. Every Wednes- day and Friday of the whole year one must fast. Men folk make up for all this fasting by drinking much vodka, but it is hard on the children. Indeed, when A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 71 the fasts are over, everybody eats such a quantity of food that often many are made sick. Ivan and Anna have prayers to repeat at school, and many of them. There are certain prayers when the term begins, others when the holidays come, still other prayers, when a new teacher is engaged, and others for use on the playground, in the workshop, the factory, and on the farm. Religion goes with every act of their lives. As in every country, the education of a Russian child depends upon his parents' position in life. The peasant girls rarely go to school. The boys go only in the winter when they are unable to be of help to their parents. The school buildings of the poor villages are miser- able huts, without ventilation. Each pupil is bound to bring some wood to school, to heat the building. When it is very cold the pupils do not go to school. Each family in turn boards the schoolmaster. In many of the villages the teachers are paid less than the shepherds, and are not respected or well cared for. They are often very ignorant themselves, and a great part of the time are drunk, even while in the schoolroom. Much of the actual teaching is done by the older pupils. School-children always wear uniforms; so do school- teachers. The cloth, the color, the cut, of the gar- ments, even the size and number of buttons on them, are fixed, and whether the dress is becoming or not to Ivan, or his sister Anna, they must wear it. In the poorest villages very often nobody cares whether the children attend school or not. Boys and 72 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA girls idle about, or earn their own living with only a day now and then at school. Their uniforms get rag- ged, books are mislaid, school is all but closed. Then word reaches the village that the School In- spector is coming, and what a sensation there is ! All the brightest boys and girls are hustled off to school, good uniforms are borrowed from a neighboring town, the children are drilled in a good lesson all around, everything is rubbed up and made to look its best. The School Inspector is really delighted with his visit. If he suspects that all this splendor will fade as soon as he rides away, he gives no sign. But good village schools are now being opened. The czar is making an effort to improve the common schools. Besides the regular studies, children are learning useful occupations. Some village primary schools have school-gardens or fields where boys and girls learn modern methods of gardening and farming. Bee-keeping, silk-worm culture, trades and various handicrafts are being taught. These schools are for the peasants. Children of the aristocracy are either taught at home by well-trained governesses and tutors, or they attend the convent schools established by the government in the leading cities. They are taught " accomplish- ments " — to have fine manners, to dance, to speak modern languages, and to sing, play, and be fashion- able ladies and gentlemen. They are permitted to go to the theater and the opera, to take part in the carnival sports before Lent, and are even allowed, perhaps, to attend a breakfast at the palace, given by the czarina. The older boys who stand highest in their class are 1a A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 73 A RUSSIAN FAMILY OF ARCHANGEL taken to court receptions, to act as pages to the ladies. Russian children have few games and care little for out-door sports. They think ice-hilling great fun; and they are good skaters by nature. They sing well, and on holidays one sees them parading the village streets with their elders — men and boys in one line, women and girls in another — singing choruses. Some- times on holidays all the villagers sit on benches out- 74 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA side their cabins, singing together in a great chorus. When several Russians are together they fill the air with music. The people sing at their tasks, while tramping to the fields, while gathering fuel in the forest, or while pushing their boats across lake or stream. The children look forward with delight to their fairs and festivals, of which there are many. The first of these is in Easter week. This is followed by the festival of the river nymphs. Then comes a festival in honor of John the Baptist; then a harvest feast, and George's Day, which is celebrated twice a year, on the 23d of April and the 26th of November. Later come the Christmas and New Year's festivals and the great Russian Carnival or Butter week, which ends the winter's festivals. At these fairs and festivals the Russians amuse themselves much as do the people in other parts of the world at festivals. The main square of the city is given up to booths where candy and sweetmeats are sold. There are fortune-tellers, and merry-go-rounds, and swings, and shows, and theaters, and (in winter) sleigh-drives. Clowns go about disguised in wigs and peasant dress, and with their jokes and antics add to the fun. The Russians are very kind-hearted and polite and they are fond of their children. One seldom hears a cross word or any quarreling among them, even in the great crowds at the fairs. The brothers and sisters of a family are devoted to one another and to their parents. The courtesy Russian children show toward their parents, and their consideration for older people, are always noticed by travelers. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 75 CHRISTMAS IN RUSSIA Christmas holidays in Russia begin at sunset on Christmas Eve and last twelve days, until the festival of Epiphany. At sunset of Christmas Eve children, and older people, too, go about the town singing carols under the windows of the nobles and other great folk. At the head of their procession is carried a pole, on top of which is a bright "Star of Bethlehem." Showers of coins are thrown the singers from the win- dows, in return for their carols. Often after singing their songs before a house, the boys and girls enter, to congratulate the family on the arrival of Christmas and to wish them a happy New Year. This is a village custom. After the carols everyone dresses in the guise of sheep, oxen, and cattle, in memory of the scenes a- round the Christ Child's manger, and as the evening star appears supper is served on tables covered with straw. "Mumming" is a favorite frolic in country places. "Mummers" are mischievous young folks disguised as bears, goats, clowns, blind beggars, and thieves. They wear masks and go about to various homes where parties of young people are gathered, bursting into the room and performing all kinds of antics. The bears and goats dance together, the clowns tell stories and recite nonsense verses about those present, while the blind beggars (called Lazaruses) sing their "dismal dumps so dull and heavy," and the thieves pretend to have broken into the house to steal valuables. There is an uproar of merriment at such times; nor is "mumming" a frolic of the common people only, 76 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA • CATHEDRAL AT OSTAXKINO, NEAR MOSCOW (Russian Droshky in Foreground) Even among the upper classes young people dress in disguise and go from house to house. At Christmas time the people greet one another with, "A happy feast to you!" And a happy feast it usually is. At dinner on Christmas Day is served a huge pyramid of rice, with raisins, blessed at the church. Every servant receives a useful gift, and the A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 77 peasants on the estates generally offer gifts of em- broidery to the lady of the castle, and receive presents in return. The poor are always fed on Christmas Day. Santa Claus does not go to Russia. An old woman known as Baboushka takes his place and carries the children their gifts. Christmas trees, with their lighted candles, presents, and good wishes, are a part of the Christmas Eve celebration. On Christmas Day the churches, bril- liantly lighted and crowded with worshipers, hold long services, when the priests appear in their most gorgeous robes and the choirs chant their most splendid music. Huge bonfires are set going both on Christmas and New Year. Village folk in some parts of Russia save the sweepings from their cottages from Christmas to New Year, and burn them on New Year's Day at sun- rise in the garden. Large parties are held in the country houses during these gay holidays. The guests come in sledges from long distances — parents and children, and servants. The merrymakers wear old-time costumes, and eat old- time Christmas goodies, and play games handed down from their far-off ancestors. They play one game x thus : A bowl containing water is set on the table, while the players, gathering in a circle about it, throw into the bowl many different tokens, such as rings, earrings, bracelets, and brooches. The bowl is covered with a cloth and its contents are stirred by the eldest nurse in the family, while the players sing the "song of the salt and the bread. " Salt, bread, and charcoal have meantime been placed near the table, perhaps as an 78 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA aid to the enchantment of the bowl. The "song of the salt and the bread" has been translated for us thus: May the bread and the salt live a hundred years — slava! May our emperor live still longer — slava! May our emperor never grow old — slava! May his good courser never be tired — slava! May his shining garments ever be new — slava! May his good servants always be faithful — slava! (Slava means "glory.") Each player at length draws a token from the bowl. From these tokens are discovered omens of the future — riches, a speedy marriage, a wish fulfilled, success, fame and the like. In the villages there is still much visiting from house to house ; while sledges are flying through the village streets, masked men are cutting capers, bells are tolling in the church towers, and sledge bells are jingling everywhere. The noise and bustle of it all are dis- tracting. HOW THE PEOPLE GET ABOUT We might not enjoy the long journeys one must make by sledge or carriage in Russia to get anywhere, but these people do not seem to mind them at all. In winter when the snow is deep, with a firm top crust, they bundle in furs and go sixty, seventy, or a hundred vi rs^s,* through forests, across meadows and frozen lakes, and over the ice of a broad river. Think of dashing in a sledge down a frozen river where sleighs are coming and going at tremendous speed, with sleigh bells ringing, whips snapping, and the drivers all alert to keep from running into the sail boats which stand frozen stock-still in the middle of this queer road! * Verxt: About two-thirds of h mile. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 79 If there is no snow, people often travel in a tarantass. This is a covered cart into which one mounts by steps. There are no springs, for in a country of wide, wide steppes and forests, where a break-down may occur forty miles from the nearest village, the fewer springs there are to give way the better. Instead of being on springs, the tarantass rests on a raft of poles — just rude saplings cut and trimmed with an ax and lashed in a row on the axles of the two pairs of wheels. The body of the tarantass is roomy; so hay and straw for a bed are piled in; a bag of clothing, some cooking utensils, provisions, and an ax, hammer, or whatever tools are likely to be needed in case of accident. If a pole breaks while the vehicle is jolting over the rough roads, the isvoschik, or driver, cuts down a pine sapling, smooths off the twigs, pushes it into position where the broken one came from, and there you are! And after all, a part}' jolting along in a tarantass can have a pretty good time. There are stories to tell — stories of evil spirits, fairies, demons, and other queer folk; for in spite of his religion, a Russian still loves to believe in the wonder-world, and the common people are very superstitious. Then there are the camp fires and out-door meals on this tarantass trip; and there is the fun of sleeping on the hay in the bot- tom of the rude coach. Sometimes there is a village to be seen — a pretty village, with a gleaming river flowing past it, and a white church with gilt spires, and some really pictur- esque houses painted pink, white, or terra cotta. There are men and boys fishing, and women washing clothes along the water's edge, while sail boats raise 80 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA their white canvas against a background of birch trees. Russian landscapes are not always desolate. To the boy or girl used to traveling over these country roads there is no other land so dear as Russia. These children would not live elsewhere if they could. PILGRIMAGES Thousands of Russians every year go on pilgrimages to some religious shrine. Rich and poor, high and low tramp over the country, through heat or cold, clad in coarse garb, star! in hand, begging their bread, it may be, as they go, glad to suffer hardship for Christ's sake. Most pilgrims are very poor, but to the peasants a pilgrim is a holy being; and they are always ready to give him food, shelter, and perhaps some coins to carry to the shrine. Often we meet bands of these pilgrims. They are tramping to Novgorod (south of St. Petersburg), or to Kief (in Poland), or to Palestine, or to the mon- astery of Solovetsk. To visit Palestine is the chief est joy of a Russian pilgrim. Xext in honor is a trip to Solovetsk. Solovetsk is the largest of a group of little islands in the White Sea — the Frozen Sea, as sailors call this icy body of water. Monks dwell on all these little islets, which are known as the Holy Isles. The mon- astery itself is on Solovetsk, a famous old shrine to which Russian pilgrims go by thousands every summer, often tramping one or two thousand miles to reach the holy place. We go to Archangel and from there cross to Solovetsk in a boat manned by monks. What a queer voyage! A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 81 The captain is a monk, in monk's hood and gown; the pilot is a monk; all the officers and crew are monks. The passengers are all pilgrims bound for the Holy THE SHRINE IN A RUSSIAN CATHEDRAL Isles. They are mostly solemn-faced folk, clad in sheepskin, rags, or some fantastic garb. Some are lame; some deformed; some blind; some beggars. Some have money and have traveled in comfort; 82 . A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA others are without a penny. One man is a pilgrim for life, vowed to spend all his time walking from shrine to shrine. There is much praying on board, and prostrating of bodies, and psalm-singing. A heavy gale strikes our boat, and the crew sing psalms while they work. The crews of boats passing us kneel with uncovered heads to receive our blessing. The monastery walls rise from the holy isle and show their towers far out at sea. Drawing near, we behold rising above the walls gold crosses, churches, spires, and domes, like the clustered roofs of a city. There are buildings and buildings — cathedrals, shrines, cells, chapels, refectories, a prison, a palace, and all the workshops of the monks. We find the monastery crowded with pilgrims. We are lodged in the Guest House outside the walls, where the women pilgrims also must stay. Women are not permitted to dwell on the isle of Solovetsk. During the pilgrim season (from June to August) they may come here to pray, may eat in the refectory, and lodge in the Guest House, but when the summer ends the monastery is closed to them. They are forbidden to enter some of the more holy chapels, and may never remain within the walls after nine o'clock at night. The Greek Church gives its best to men. No monk of Solovetsk leads an idle life. All in- mates of the monastery must both work and pray. During the pilgrim season much of the time is spent in prayer. The pilgrim's day begins at two o'clock in the morning with early matins. From then on until noon there is one long service after another in the A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 83 cathedrals, with prayers at the tombs of saints, and visits to holy spots on the island. A light dinner is followed by more services, until the eight o'clock supper, after which everybody goes to his cell, where he is expected to read the life of some saint until he goes to sleep. The pilgrims vie with one another in all this fasting, praying, bathing in holy lakes, kissing the stones of holy tombs, and bowing their heads upon church floors. But the monks have workshops as well as cells for prayer. They make things to sell — bread, clothing, rosaries, spoons, and what not. There is a model bake-house, where they make white and rye bread, and also consecrated loaves stamped with a cross and blessed by the priest, People from all parts of the coast come by boat to buy these loaves. The monks make famous kvas in their brewery, and they carve platters, make baskets, take photo- graphs, make icons, sew sealskin caps (seals frequent these isles), paint pictures, tan leather, knit, dry fruit, spin thread, build carts and sledges, quarry stone, fell and trim trees, even build boats. It is hard to tell what they do not do. In their little shops there is a hum of labor from dawn to dark. We find the monastery of Solovetsk a place so full of interest that we half wish we were monks. But we remember what winter must be on these far northern islands, and rejoice, after all, in our freedom. We should not like to be imprisoned by ice for eight or nine months every year 84 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA MOSCOW Moscow, the second capital of the Russian Empire, lies four hundred miles southeast of St. Petersburg. The railway between the two capitals is almost a straight line. As we approach the Holy Cit}^ (as the peasants call it) we look with surprise upon the crowd of many-colored domes and spires. " Mother Moscow " must have nothing but churches, we say. Now we understand why it is called the sacred city. But Moscow is more than a citv of churches. It is the most gorgeously colored city of Europe, the most Russian city of the empire. St. Petersburg is a copy of other European capitals. Moscow is the quaint old Russian capital. It has a tragic history. It has been sacked by Tartars, and burned, and rebuilt, and ruled by some of the cruelest monarchs the world has known. Its kremlin (or citadel) encloses curious old towers, palaces, cathedrals, monasteries, and chapels which have passed through centuries of strange experiences. Many of its shops look now just as they looked cen- turies ago. Its old whitewashed buildings, its four hundred and fifty churches with domes of red, blue, green and gold, its splendid palaces, its hovels, its rough stone pavements, make it a city to delight travelers from every part of the world. The Russians in Moscow are the real old-time Rus- sians. They are not like the Europeanized Russians of St. Petersburg. Besides, there dwell here many strange-looking subjects of the czar: Tartars from the Volga region, Tartars of the Crimea, Calmucks and Circassins, and silent, strange people in robes and tur- bans, from Asiatic provinces. Moscow lies farther A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 85 east than Jerusalem. We call it oriental. Oriental cities are sure to be a jumble of color, filth, squalor, splendor, and richness. The city lies on both sides of the river Moskva. It has a population of one million, and is the greatest manufacturing city of Russia. Railways enter here THE KREMLIN FROM MOSKVA REKOI BRIDGE from every part of the empire. Over six million passengers enter or leave Moscow yearly. One-sixth of all the goods shipped on Russian railways load or unload here. From a magnificent railway station in one part of the city the Trans-Siberian trains start on their long journey to Dalny and Vladivostok. Over A LITTLE JOURXKY TO RUSS the entrance to this immense whit* 1 - ion are the rds. in letters of ligh* Save the Czar." Truly, Moscow is the heart of the st enipire. And the heart of Moscow is the kremlin. The word kremlin : i to mean fortress, or central official quarter. The high walls of the kremlin are pyramid- shaped and are built of pinkish colored brick. They enclose a triangle, one side of the wall being along the river bank. Great square watch towers rise here and there along the walls: and five gates give entrance to this fine old fortres- When Xapoleon invaded Russia with an army of five hundred thousand men. the Ross - - ire to - he French drew near their holy city. The invaders could no* - in a burning city: neither could th- rther into this bleak country, for the winter had set in with great severity. They began a retreat. This retreat of the French from Moscow was one of the most terrible marches ever made by an army. Cold, famine, dise nd weari- ness beset the soldiers. But. wo> il. th^ assailed them at every point along their route, killing thousands and capturing many prisoners Jy about twenty-five thousand French out of th^ _ * invading army left R s We are shown many memorials oleon within the kremlin. At this gate he entered: in this square e the cannons captured from his army — three hun- dred and sixty-five cannon! Here he dwelt, here h horses were stabled: and here his soldiers ravaged church and palace. We ascend to the top of the Tower of Ivan, a lof~ TOWER OF IVAN VELIKE, AND THE GREAT BELL 88 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA tower which is the first prominent structure to catch our eyes. Its five stories are capped by a golden dome with a cross on top. This is a bell tower in which hang thirty-six bells, two being of silver, and the largest weighing sixty-four tons. From the summit of this ancient bell tower the view of Moscow is one of great beauty. At the foot of the Ivan Tower is the famous bell which has room within it for forty people. It is twenty-four feet high and weighs two hundred tons. It is broken, but how this happened is not certain. Many different tales account for the accident. The opening in its side is large enough for a man to walk through. The palace, "The Great Palace," of the kremlin is full of rich apartments. Seven hundred rooms are crowded with art treasures and magnificent furnishings. In the treasury one sees coronation robes, czar's jewels, crowns, scepters, and insignia, canopies of velvet and gold, and thrones set with thousands of precious stones. One enters the Cathedral of the Assumption with especial interest in the little whitewashed church. The exterior of the cathedral is shabby, but within the church is adorned with gold, silver, and precious stones worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here are tombs of priests and princes; and sacred pictures of greatest value. In this cathedral the czar crowns himself; and, having placed the crown upon his own brow, crowns the czarina. When Nicholas II. per- formed this ceremony in 1896, the coronation scene was said to be the most magnificent the world has ever behold. Says a t raveler who was present : A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 89 " In the hol- iest spot of the Holy City, amid all the pomp of the living and all the solemnity of the dead, surrounded by the royalty of the world, while bells clash and can- non roar and multitudes throng with- out, he [the czar] crowns and conse- crates himself Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias." The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is the burial place of all the Russian royal family of two dynasties, until the time of Peter the Great. At different points in the Kremlin we are shown memorials of several famous czars. Who were the great ones among these rulers? Let us make a list, thus: Vladimir, who introduced Christianity into Russia. Ivan the Third, called the Great, who first took the title of czar. Ivan the Fourth, called the Terrible, a monster of cruelty, who was yet an able ruler. NEAR VIEW OF THE GREAT BELL 90 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA Peter the Great, of whom we have heard so much at St. Petersburg. Catherine II., an empress who ruled Russia with wonderful ability. Alexander II., the emancipator of the serfs. There are other rulers who have done much for Russia, but these are the most illustrious in a long list of monarchs. We leave the kremlin by the Gate of the Redeemer. Over this gate is a sacred picture of the Redeemer, with the consecrated oil always burning beneath it. Overyone must bare his head when passing through this gate. The people of the Greek Church also cross themselves here. Sentries always posted at this gate warn travelers not to fail in this custom of uncovering the head. Just without the Redeemer Gate is an open square called the Red Place, where two hundred years ago public punishments were executed. At one end of the Red Place stands the Church of St. Basil. St. Basil was an imbecile, a poor idiot beggar who thought himself a prophet and miracle-worker. So the people honored him as a holy man, for Russians are easily imposed upon, and when St. Basil died, Ivan the Ter- rible had a church built over his grave. It was to be a great church; and it certainly is of great size. Ivan the Terrible was pleased with the building, so different was it from anvthing the world had ever I seen in the way of churches. It is said that he sent for the architect and asked him if he could build another church like it. The architect declared he was certain that ho could. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 91 CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL, THE BEATIFIED Thereupon Ivan ordered that the architect's eyes be put out with red-hot irons, for he wished St. Basil's to be the only church of its kind! This story is not believed by everybody, however. The church has eleven domes, each of different shape and different color. Such a mixture of forms and a jumble of reds, blues, golds, greens, and yellows could not be found in any other sacred building. Inside 92 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA are eleven chapels dedicated to eleven saints. In the Tretiakoff Gallery we see a fine collection of paintings by Russian artists. We visit the libraries and museums and enjoy a morning in the Foundlings Hospital. This is a important institution, supported by the Government, for the care of destitute babies. Some thirteen thousand babies are admitted here each year. Hundreds of nurses care for these tiny charges. We shop in the handsome new Gostinnoi Dvor (the marketplace), which is built in the same style of archi- tecture as the kremlin. We ride over the rough pave- ments to the promenades and pleasure grounds of Moscow, and we wander about quaint old streets where pedlers and foreign-looking shopkeepers, and quaint ly dressed peasants remind us of the Midway at our Chicago World's Fair. The climate in Moscow and in other parts of Russia is nearly as trying in summer as it is in winter. The heat is almost intolerable during the short summer, and clouds of dust are everywhere. The people al- most live in the streets at this time. Men go around with odd little carts full of queer wooden jars, selling all kinds of cooling drinks. When we enter the restaurants we are waited upon by men in white shirts that look like night shirts. The peasants in the streets wear red shirts, and their trousers are tucked into high boots. They love bright colors, and their clothes look odd to us. They part their hair in the middle and have it cut straight all around. We see groups of prisoners setting out for the Siberian mines, exiles for life. We are glad that the czar is A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 93 now planning to abolish the exile system. Siberia has so long b6en but a prison for Russian evil-doers that it is now a country where honest folk dislike to live — indeed, cannot live in safety. From Moscow distinguished travelers often make a trip to the country estate of Count Tolstoi, which is seven miles from the neighboring town of Tula. Count PALACE OF PETROSSKY Tolstoi is a Russian novelist and philosopher. He is considered the greatest living man of letters in the world to-day. His desire has been to help the Russian peasants. He, himself a rich man, for years lived the life of a peasant, dressing, eating, and working as did the laborers on his estate. Through his efforts there have been established in 94 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA Moscow printing houses for publishing millions of cheap books each year for the peasantry. The best pictures are printed, too, at a small cost, and are circulated among the poor. There is no more interesting char- acter in Russia than Tolstoi, the peasants' friend. THE VOLGA RIVER The Volga is the longest river in Europe. Rising in the Valdai Hills, it makes its way southward, past many an ancient town, to the Caspian Sea, into which it flows, by seventy different mouths, near the sea- port of Astrakhan. Its basin is about seven hundred thousand square miles in extent, for ts tributaries ex- tend to the far limits of the empire. The Volga has been called the Russian Mississippi. The river is navigable from its source, and, with its tributaries and the many canals connecting with it. forms the great highway of Russia. A system of canals unites it with the Black Sea, the Baltic, and the " Frozen Sea." Its chief tributary on the west is the Oka. At the junction of the Oka with the Volga is the town of Xijni Xovgorod, which lies about two hundred and fifty miles east of Moscow. • For nearly ninety years Xijni Xovgorod has held a great national fair every July and August. While all European countries once held these fairs, Russia is now the only country in which they are still to be seen. The Xijni Xovgorod fair attracts a multitude of people from Russia, Asia, and, indeed, from our own continent. The town has a population of about 95,000, but in fair time the number swells to 250,000. The fair is a surburban town bv itself. An im- A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 95 mense space beside the rivers is laid out in passages or streets along which shops, booths, and other build- ings are erected. Flags fly from the buildings, people of every nationality are among the buyers, and shop- men speak the tongues of many lands. Here are sold silks, jewels, linen, cotton, and woolen goods, NIJNI NOVGOROD-FROM THE RAMPARTS antique rugs, priceless shawls, and quaint curios. One may buy leather goods, metal wares, porcelain, teas, coffees, wines and fruits. There is an electric tramway, a semicircular canal, a circus, a theater, floating bridges, and underground galleries, with many a pleasure booth, whence music and laughter sound. We find even a temperance 96 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA tea-shop among the many odd little restaurant^ On the boat which takes us down the Volga t crowds of people who have visited the fair. Sever. Americans are among the passengers. It is har< to travel in any part of the world and not meet ou* countrymen. We Americans are appropriately called " globe trotters/' About four miles from the left bank of the Volga, as we steam down stream, is the ancient city of Kazan, which the Russians captured from the Tartars, picture of the Virgin was carried at the head of the Rus sian attacking army, the very picture which we saw in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan at St. Peters burg. Kazan is a strongly fortified old city, ana has a university famed as a seat of oriental learni^ The largest Russian university is at Moscow. TL are other important ones at St. Petersburg, Odessa Warsaw, and Helsingfors in Finland. Because the Volga overflows its banks every spring, few towns are built directly on its shores. Ii autumn the river is so low that steamers are grounded on mud banks or sand bars, the spring a flood spreads over the low lands. Astrakhan is on a high island in the river, abou thirty miles from the Caspian. The city is connected by bridges with both river banks. The name of this seaport is derived from that of an article largely ex- ported from here. Astrakhan is the curly wool of young lambs of a variety of sheep found in Persia and Syria. The finest astrakhan is almost priceless. The stur- geon fisheries of the Volga are very important, and form a leading industry of the city of Astrakhan. A LITTLE JOURNEY TO RUSSIA 97 POLAND AND FINLAND .Poland was once an independent and powerful kingdom, with its capital first at Cracow and later ;AT H l»Uf CURRENT NEW5 Teachers can use the ordinary daily or weekly papers in the way of obtaining information on current events, but much of the matter in them is unreliable on account of haste, bias, politics, desire for notoriety, etc. It is being used by other teachers in thousands of schools. OUR TIMES A monthly illustrated magazine of important world events, dis- coveries and people. Large clear type, good print and paper, and many illustrations. 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