LIFE IN THE CAPITOL. 851 



squares, with long rows of stands and small booths where 

 new and second-hand articles, food for man and beast, 

 clothing, house-keeping utensils, etc. were to be found. 

 The dealers, men and women, were a shrewd set. One 

 feature of trade here and elsewhere in Russia is detestable. 

 I refer to "beating down" the price of an article. It is a 

 practice regularly indulged in. In purchasing trunks here, 

 for our journey further, I effected a discount of more than 

 twelve dollars from the first price. Dealers, I am told, 

 expect to be asked to sell goods for less than the price first 

 asked. Then, too, for the same articles, the difference in 

 prices asked at stores on the main street and by dealers at 

 the bazaar often was a good deal. 



At Irkutsk telegraph communication commences. Over 

 two thousand miles beyond this place we first heard rumors of 

 the assassination of the American President Garfield and the 

 Czar. How this information was transmitted so far beyond 

 the wires, and so nearly correct, must be left to the reader 

 to conjecture. At this place, after the lapse of nearly two 

 and a half years, I first received tidings from my family, 

 first by cable, and later from eighteen letters brought by Mr. 

 Jackson, London correspondent of the New York Herald. 

 This gentleman was sent by Mr. Bennett to gather all infor- 

 mation possible about the Jeannette and the fate .of her 

 crew. He was accompanied by Mr. A. Larson, artist of the 

 Illustrated London News. The reader can perhaps imagine 

 the pleasure it was to us to meet these gentlemen, and to 

 hear our mother tongue again from other lips than those 

 with which we had for so long been associated. In this place, 

 however, I must not fail to mention a gentleman who spoke 

 English very fairly. I refer to Count Ahlefeldt Laurvigen. 

 His kind thoughtfulness will keep thoughts of him green in 

 our memories for many a day to come. 



After interviewing the party and gathering all possible 

 news and sketches of our movements, and making necessary 

 preparations, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Larsen, with Seaman 

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