Wolf-Hunting in Russia 



eler. Special mention is made of this road 

 because its counterparts exist all over the em- 

 pire. It is the usual road, and not the excep- 

 tion, which is worse, as many persons have 

 ample reasons for knowing. This condition 

 is easily explained by the scarcity of stone, 

 the inherent disregard of comfort, the poverty 

 of the peasants, the absence of a yeoman 

 class, and the great expense that would be 

 entailed upon the landed proprietors, who live 

 at enormous distances from each other. The 

 country in these and many other governments 

 has been civilized many generations, but so 

 unfinished and primitive does it all seem that 

 it recalls many localities of our West, where 

 civilization appeared but yesterday, and where 

 to-morrow it will be well in advance of these 

 provinces. The hand-flail, the wooden plow- 

 share, the log cabin with stable under the 

 same roof, could have been seen here in the 

 twelfth century as they are at present. Thanks 

 to the Moscow factories, the gala attire of the 

 peasant of to-day may possibly surpass in bril- 

 liancy of color that of his remote ancestry, 

 which was clad entirely from the home loom. 

 With the exception of the white brick church- 

 es, whose tall green and white spires in the 



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