104 FORESTRY IN EASTERN RUSSIA. 



urging that they have to maintain the rank, position, and 

 appearance of a gentleman on the income of an artisan. 

 But, like the man that pled as an excuse for adulterating 

 his goods, that " he must live," to whom the complainant 

 replied, " I don't see any necessity for that in the least," 

 so is it with them. 



' Allow me to relate an anecdote bearing on this sweep- 

 ing assertion of mine, and I believe it to be strictly true, 

 as I had it as a fact from an English engineer formerly 

 employed at these very works, in regard to which I have 

 to supply you with details. Suffice it here to say : Here, 

 on the Ural, is a very large estate, upwards of 400 square 

 versts, said to be very rich, almost inexhaustibly so, in 

 water, timber, iron, copper, gold, nickel, plumbago, and 

 goodness knows what besides, having twenty different 

 zavods on the estates. These works and mines are called 

 " zavods,"* not towns or villages, but some of them 

 contain 35,000 inhabitants. 



' The proprietor of these estates died a few years ago, 

 and left them in a very prosperous condition, without a 

 kopec of debt, and under administration till his two sons 

 should come of age ; but he unfortunately, too confidingly, 

 made his wife chief executrix, and his steward joint executor. 

 Well, this beautiful young widow, a Moscow merchant's 

 daughter, very shortly thereafter married a fine, handsome 

 man, a General, and, as is often the case, a poor, beggarly 

 spendthrift, a gambler, a libertine, and a bankrupt. They 

 spent for a time a gay life, chiefly in London and 

 Paris, and their plenipotentiary on the Ural had got to 

 supply them with 250,000 roubles a year. No matter how 

 he does it, or what he does, or where the money comes 

 from, so long as there is a constant and regular remittance 

 they ask no questions, and never look at, much less look 

 into, the reports and accounts that are sent. They esti- 

 mated these at what they were worth. They had a pretty 

 strong and settled idea that the one in full possession was 

 very comfortably feathering his own nest all the while and 

 all the same, without ever saying "By your leave." 



