78 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XII 



by their liquor-selling landlords, their families perishing 

 of typhoid and smallpox on account of the negligence and 

 maladministration of the local politicians, but who, as a 

 rule, were almost if not quite ready to mob and murder 

 those of us who brought in a new health board and a bet 

 ter order of things ; showing him that for years the very 

 class of people who suffered most from the old, vile state 

 of things did their best by their votes to keep in power the 

 men who maintained it. 



We then passed to thei subject of the trans-Siberian 

 Railway. In this he seemed interested, but in a vague way 

 which added nothing to my knowledge. 



Asking me regarding my former visit to Moscow, and 

 learning that it was during the Crimean War, he said, 

 &quot;At that time I was in Sebastopol, and continued there 

 as a soldier during the siege. 



As to his relations with the imperial government at 

 present, he said that he had been recently elected to a 

 learned society in Moscow, but that the St. Petersburg 

 government had interfered to stop the election; and he 

 added that every morning, when he awoke, he wondered 

 that he was not on his way to Siberia. 



On my leaving him, both he and the countess invited me 

 to meet them next day at the Tretiakof Museum of Rus 

 sian Pictures; and accordingly, on the following after 

 noon, I met them at that greatest of all galleries devoted 

 purely to Russian art. They were accompanied by several 

 friends, among them a little knot of disciples young men 

 clad in simple peasant costume like that worn by the mas 

 ter. It was evident that he was an acknowledged lion at 

 the old Russian capital, for as he led me about to see the 

 pictures which he liked best, he was followed and stared 

 at by many. 



Pointing out to me some modern religious pictures in 

 Byzantine style painted for the Cathedral of Kieff, he said, 

 i They represent an effort as futile as trying to persuade 

 chickens to reenter the egg-shells from which they have 

 escaped. He next showed me two religious pictures ; the 



