194 PETERSBURG IN WINTER 



so rough off, that some of the skin went with them, could 

 ever have prevailed with the Russes to have parted with 

 their Beards. A great many of my Men that had worn 

 their Beards all their Lives, were now obliged to part with 

 them, amongst which, one of the first that I met with just 

 coming from the Hands of the Barber, was an old Russ 

 Carpenter that had been with me at Camishinka, who was 

 a very good Workman with his Hatchet, and whom I always 

 had a friendship for. I jested a little with him on this 

 occasion, telling him that he was become a young man, and 

 asked him what he had clone with his Beard ? Upon which 

 he put his hand in his Bosom and pull'd it out, and shew'd 

 it to me ; farther telling me, that when he came home, he 

 would lay it up to have it put in his Coffin and buried along 

 with him, that he might be able to give an Account of it to 

 St. Nicholas, when he came to the other world." When 

 Peter died, all the common people started to grow their 

 beards in peace ; but the unfortunate soldiers have had to 

 keep them shaved ever since. If the Russians capture 

 India, by which time I sincerely hope to be dead, they 

 will have a lot of trouble in making their Sikh sepoys 

 shave. 



The sight, which we may often see in Russia, of one 

 policeman marching off to jail, say, a dozen or two of culprits, 

 without any of them making the slightest attempt to escape, 

 gives the new-comer as deep a veneration for the law of 

 that country, as the natives have for their beards. I have 

 often seen (generally after closing time) three or even four 

 sturdy members of the Metropolitan force fully occupied in 

 removing a young lady from decorous Tottenham Court Road 

 or irom the fashionable Haymarket to the lock-up. We may 

 well ask : Is the difference due to the superior persuasive 

 power of the Muscovite bobby, or to the greater pugnacity 

 of Miss Bull? To neither; but to the fact that everyone 



