454 SUNDRY JOURNEYS AND EXPERIENCES-V 



I had one curious experience of Muscovite ideas of 

 trade. Moscow is one of the main centers for the manu 

 facture of the church bells in which the Russian peasant 

 takes such delight ; and, being much interested in campa 

 nology, I visited several of the principal foundries, and 

 was delighted with the size and workmanship of many 

 specimens. Walking one morning to the Kremlin, I saw 

 at the agency of one of these establishments a bell weigh 

 ing about two hundred and fifty pounds, most exquisitely 

 wrought, and such a beautiful example of the best that 

 Russians can do in this respect that I went in and asked 

 the price of it. The price being named, I said that I 

 would take it. Thereupon consternation was evident in 

 the establishment, and presently the head of the con 

 cern said to me that they were not sure that they wished 

 to sell it. But I said, &quot;You have sold it; I asked you 

 what your price was, you told me, and I have bought it. 

 To this he demurred, and finally refused altogether to 

 sell it. On going out, my guide informed me that I 

 had made a mistake; that I was myself the cause of 

 the whole trouble; that if I had offered half the price 

 named for the bell I should have secured it for two thirds ; 

 but that, as I had offered the entire price, the people in 

 the shop had jumped to the conclusion that it must be 

 worth more than they had supposed, that I had detected 

 values in it which they had not realized, and that it was 

 their duty to make me pay more for it than the price they 

 had asked. The result was that, a few weeks afterward, 

 a compromise having been made, I bought it and sent it 

 to the library of Cornell University, where it is now both 

 useful and ornamental. 



The most interesting feature of this stay in Moscow 

 was my intercourse with Tolstoi, and to this I have de 

 voted a separate chapter. 1 



One more experience may be noted. In coming and 

 going on the Moscow railway I found, as in other parts 

 of Europe, that governmental control of railways does 



i See Chapter XXXVH. 



