TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 75, 28 March 1878, Page 4

TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA.

[From the Pall Mall Gazette J Rus.ia is the most uncomfortable of countries fo travel in. Such railways as there are run mostly in straight lines from terminus to terminus, witbout Inking tha slightest account of the towns on the road. If you want »o alight at a town half way down the line you find Ihat the station that bears its name ia some twenty miles distant from the town itself. You climb into a paracl edsoi, a three-horse truck without springs, and ask that your luggage may be put in with you. The station porter, clad in a kaftan reaching to his feet, smiles kindly, but cannot give you your luggage without the permission of some official who is absent. It takes money to find tbis official. When he has consented to inspect the luggage, he proceeds to examine ev .ry nrticle ns if it were a new and curious invention. More money is required to stop him ; then you scramble into the truck again, and off it goes like wildfire, the .Kalmuck driver yelling all the way, and thwacking the shafts with the stump of his whip to make you fancy he is dragging the vehicle by himself. The bumping is something to remember « for tbe roads are leffc to mend themselves, and in winter soma of the ruts are big enough to hold coffins. In some districts a chance of being chevied by a pack of dinnerlees wolves adds to the interest of the journey, but if ife be night a lantern with a strong reflector hung at the back of the carriage will be enough to k?ep them from approaching. At length tho town of your destination is reached, and, pounding along its unpaved Btreets with a last flourish of howls, tha isvoslchik gallops into the court-yard of the place that calls itself an hotel. Out tumbles a flat-nosed oatler, whom the driver begins to thump and swear at, just to show his zeal in your service. Then comes the landlord, generally a German, who talks broken French, and wboae accommodation for travellers consists of two or three rooms without beds, and some hot water. It is expected that a traveller Bhould bring his own provisions ; if be have not done so, he must pay for food at famiae prices, — and what food ! It is no use asking for a chop or steak, for the last gridiron seen in Russia (except in private houses) was the one which Ivan the Terrible used for the broiling of refractory courtiers. A chunk of beef stewed in sugar and vinegar, and served wilh a saucerful of salted cucumbers and pickled cherries, will be about tbe extent of the bill of fare ; though if there happen to be a wedding going on in the town, the landlord will run off to beg some choicer dainties, and return in ttiumph with the leg of a goose stuffed with cloves, or a piece of pork braised with nutmegs or marsh-mallows. As to beds, they are quite a modern innovation iu Russia, and many well-to-do houses are still unprovided wish tbem. Peasants Bleep on the tops of their ovens ; middle class people and servants curl themselves up in sheepskins and lie down near stoves ; soldiers rest upon wooden cots without bedding ; and it is only within the last ten years tbat the students in Slate schools have been allowed beds. A traveller must therefore roll himself up iu rugs and furs, and spend his night on the floor of his inn room. Russions see no hardship in this, even if they be rich and accustomed to luxuries. They rather prefer boards to mattresses, and are first-rate travellers, for they make shift to sleep anywhere. A man had better not fall ill while in a Russian country town, for all the doctors outside the large cities are believers in phlebotomy and violent purgatives. They prescribe tea, but drug it without telling you, and the effocts -are felt for days afterwords. Their fee is anything you like to give ; but whatever you may offer they will be sure to aßk more, and must therefore be dealt with as bluntly as tradesmen. The prices of goods in Russian shops are assessed according to the apparent wealth of the customer. A stranger must first choose the article he wants, then offer what he thinks rea&onable, and turn on his heel if the tender be declined. Should the tradesmen hurry after him in the street, he may be sure that he has offered too much j should he be allowed to go, his bid has really been to low ; and oi course, it is liable to happen with persons accußlomed to Western prices, for the cost of everything in Russia is exorbitant. A suit of fairly good ciotbes costs £14 ; a pair of knee boots, £6 ; an average cigar, a shilling. The gOnly cheap things are lea, vodki, und articles made of leather; but even thete cannot be had at a reasonable price unless bought through a native. In the large French hotels of Ht. Petersburg, wbere Parisian furniture and beds are to be had, tbe day's board for a bachelor without a servant cannot be put down at less than £2. The price of a single room will range from 15f. to2of. ; table d'hote dinner costs 12f. without wine ; a bottle of pale ale one rotable; one of champaone five roubles, and so on. Amusements, such as theatres and concerts, cost about three times as much as in England. On the Patti nights at the Italian Opera of St. Petersburg the Btalls are bought ap by Jews ; and one can scarcely be procured under £5. At the French theatre there is a certain ogio on the BeatB, and the playgoer bas to add a reckoning of vails for box-openers and programme vendors, who will leave him no peace until compounded with. The theatres and restaurants of tbe capital are luxurious, and so are tbe first ciass railway carriages oa tbe line from St.

Petersburg to Moscow. If a stranger coDfined his travels to a journey on this line he would go away with a fine idea of Russian comfort, for all the latest American improvements in the way of sleeping nnd dining care, dressingrooms, and attendance are available. Nor on this ons line are tbere any vexations formalities about luggage and passports. Everywhere else a passport in in constant request, and ihe ouly way to avoid exhibiting it a dozen times a day is to produce a twenty-kopeck piece in its stead. Tbe traveller who forgets the coin is liable to be invited to step into the police-office, where he will have to prove, by showing otber .papers, that the passport is really his and not one that he has stolen. There ie cne good side to travelling in Russia, and it is this. If a stranger be not .a_iug for commercial purposes, be wiil be made a welcome guest at the houses of the authorities in any town where he may wish to spend more than a day. The civil governor will despatch a secretary to hia hotel, and be glad to have him to dinner for the sole sake of hearing what news he has ■ to briug. Thia is pleasant «nough, and tha hospitality is the more gracious as tlie stranger canuot make any return for it beyond thanks. On tbe other hand, a Btranger who settles for any term exceeding a week in a country town will have to be careful of the company into which he falls ; for Russian friendship soon turns to fumilarity, and one of the first manifestations of familiarity is to ask the straDger to take a hand at ecarte. Then it becomes s question of refusing and being deemed a boor, or accepting and being promptly cleaned out. The Russians are fearful gamblers, and a stranger with circular notes in his pockets is a godsend to them. They do not cheat ; but play and play until the result is utter irapecuuiou3ness to one of the two parties to the game. The women are aa bad as the men, and think nothing of winning a few hundred napoleons from a stranger whom they have not known for more than a week. It must be borne in mind that the ladies here alluded to are those of a certain rank, who affect to copy Parisian manners; for those of the middle class do not show themselveß to their husband's guests. In country houses card-playing is the ordinary evening's amusements, counters being used when money is not foitheouiing ; but in these places a stranger wiil often get two or three day's excellent shooting in return for the bank-notes he dtops ou his host's table at night. Russian game consist of wolves, foxes, bares, partridges, and several varieties of wild fowl ; and a day with the gun leads to a turn out of al! the ramble doggery of the country.. All the mujicks round about leave their woik to see the sport and almost every one brings a dog with him. Happily the game is not wild, else it wonld be ail scared away by the frantio shouts raised by the peasant eveiy time a bird rises on tbe line of eight or a grey fox slinks away down a furrow. Another favorite country-house amussment is daucing, and a foreigner will be delighted by the pretty jigs which Russiun ladies dance wiih Bcarves or shawls something after the fashion of the almees. They will sing too, accompanying themselves with triangular guitars rather like baDJoes. It should be mentioned that there is no colloquial equivalent in Russia to "Sir" or •• Madam," and this puts social relations at once on a very friendly footing. Tschinovniks and their wives are addressed by their inferiors as " Your High origin " or High Nobility," as the case may be, but amongst equals the usual formula is to address a person by his Christian name, coupled to that of hie father— as thus, Paul-Petrowitch, i.e., Paul son of Peter ; and the same in regard to women, " MariaNicoloievna," Mary, daughter oi Nicholas . It goes without saying that the guest-chamber in a Russian countryhouse is as devoid of beds as a country hotel. At most a foreginer will be accommodated with an ottoman spread with oatskins; but even if he have to lie on the floor, he will be sure to sleep, for a night-cap will be given him in the shape of a pint bowl, full of a mixture of teo, egg yolks, and arak punch, enough to make him cty when he swallows it, and warranted to procure him a grand series of nightmares (Ul morning.