AT ORENBURG. 3G1 



quarters at the Hotel Europansky. This liotel and its pro- 

 prietor I can recommend as very nice. After dinner we 

 drove to the depot, saw the locomotives and cars, conversed 

 with the station-master, and arranged for our passage to 

 Moscow. The passenger cars are in compartments, with ac- 

 commodations not to be compared to our Pullman or Wag- 

 ner cars. They are mounted on six wheels and steel side- 

 springs. The locomotives use wood for fuel, and are of 

 German manufacture on the lines on which I have traveled. 



Orenburg is, in my mind, a very interesting place, and be- 

 fore the last heavy conflagration must have been a fine city. 

 I saw in the public square a circus, which looked natural. 

 Telegrams, letters, and some drafts for money (last but not 

 least) awaited us here. The stores were well filled with 

 many kinds of goods. The Tartar bazaars were very inter- 

 esting places, containing many fancy articles, such as caps, 

 slippers and boots, beautifully embroidered with silk and tin- 

 sel ; also, perfumes, rugs, and droll-looking, rainbow-hued 

 silk and wool robes. Peddlers came to us at the hotel with 

 different articles. They had beautiful rings of diamonds 

 and turquoise, necklaces of amethysts and Siberian crystals, 

 pearls, topazes, and rubies in pins and ear-rings, and not 

 mounted. Also jewel-boxes in malachite and lapis lazuli, 

 with other varieties of native stone, carved to represent fruit 

 and flowers. I fortunately obtained some of these lovely 

 things, and brought them safely home. 



We left Orenburg at 9:30 P. M., April 26th, for Moscow. 

 When the train arrives at a station a man in uniform strikes 

 quickly and several times a bell hung on the depot near the 

 mail box. The train is started by the same man, who an- 

 nounces the departure by striking the bell. At every sta- 

 tion numbers of Cossacks with sidearms are seen, doing- 

 police duty. 



The country we now went through was level, and good 

 for grazing, with some woods, pond-holes, and streams. 

 Numerous flocks of plover, snipe, and ducks started up as 

 the train proceeded. The sensation of being bowled along 



