102 RETURN TO ST. PETERSBURG 



groom or a sovereign (to say nothing of paper) to the game- 

 keeper after a day's hunting or shooting at a friend's place ; 

 but the obligation in Russia to deliver up that tuppence-ha'- 

 penny (10 kopecks) to the man who opens the door, and the 

 same fee to the Johnnie who takes one's overcoat, every time 

 one goes into a restaurant, is an intolerable infliction. 



To one accustomed to the "remittance man" of the 

 Colonies, and the European loafer of India, St. Petersburg 

 appears to be singularly free from the English waster element. 

 It is true that on rare occasions a fellow-countryman will tell 

 the tale and try to borrow a bit to go on with ; or, in the old 

 familiar way, will on seeing a bottle of whisky in the middle 

 of a party of strange brother Britons, come smiling up to 

 the table, seat himself down and make a thirsty remark 

 about the weather. But such men do not stay long in the 

 great city by the Neva ; for the Russian authorities have an 

 effective method, admirable to those who like to pay their 

 way, of removing out of their capital all human waifs and 

 strays whether native or foreign. There are very few 

 beggars, and even they solicit alms in a furtive and abashed 

 manner that shows a struggle between want and fear of 

 detection. In the interior, mendicity is as much a trade, as 

 it is in Spain, Italy, Ireland or India, and is so much 

 respected that the pious expression, Bokh swami (God be 

 with you = may God help you) is the recognised form of 

 refusing to part. 



Russia must be a happy hunting-ground for Englishmen 

 of commerce ; for I have rarely seen one of them at the 

 Hotel d'Angleterre, which is a great resort of the British 

 trader, without the "materials" in front of him. These 

 gentlemen tell me, that to do business with Russians, one 

 must drink. They are lucky in having an occupation that 

 combines duty and pleasure. Several months' intercourse 

 with commercial men at this hotel and elsewhere throughout 



