Appendix 



EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF HON. RUDOLPH 



BLANKENBURG 



Commissioner to Russia to distribute the cargo of S. S. 

 "Indiana," March, 1892. 



THE first impression one gets of Russia is that of 

 vastness. The country at the frontier reminds one of 

 some of our great prairie States, slightly rolling and 

 without limit or boundary. The train, drawn by an 

 engine larger than those in England or Germany and 

 fed with birch or pine wood, slowly winds its way 

 through the snow-clad country, past human abodes 

 that would seem strange and poor even to the earliest 

 pioneers of our Western States. Low buildings, with 

 straw roofs, no chimneys, and one or two small windows 

 are the characteristics of these villages and hamlets. 

 Of the people we can as yet see and judge but little. 

 It is cold and disagreeable and only those who are 

 compelled are out of doors. Those we do see are hardly 

 prepossessing. They are clad in sheepskin clothes, the 

 skin inside, something like a fur cap on their heads, 

 and enormous boots or footgear that is entirely un- 

 known with us. The men mostly wear long beards and 

 hair, and combs seem to be one of the luxuries that 

 they indulge in only on great fete days. Quite a 



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