DEPRESSED CONDITION OF WORKS. 107 



whom he had entrusted his ill-gotten gains might prove a 

 rotten stick, so he thought his money would be safer in 

 the hands of an Englishman, a merchant residing in his 

 own zavod, and to him he gave a written order to receive 

 back from his doubtful friend 30,000 roubles as a first 

 instalment. But the old fox was not to be caught napping ; 

 and when that order or letter was presented this honour- 

 able thief friend exclaimed, " What does the man mean ? 

 Is he gone mad ! If he do not retract his words, and 

 that in writing, I'll prosecute him for libel ; and I'll call 

 upon him to show how he comes to be possessed of so much 

 money. I never had a rouble of his ! What has he to 

 show that I ever had ?" He (the Prekazchik) saw that he 

 had jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire; and as 

 he had no legal evidence which he could or durst produce, 

 he had to submit and collapse, while his former friend 

 spread out further his branches like a green bay tree. 

 And notwithstanding that it is a generally understood 

 thing how this man has acquired his great wealth, yet every 

 one bows and wishes Ivan Trefeemovitch good morrow 

 with all apparent deference. So much for the commercial 

 morality of the Ural, and the brigand-like honour among 

 Siberians. 



' I have referred to this disreputable affair in perhaps, 

 for you,^ too lengthened detail; but I have done so to 

 show you the undercurrent influence which is always at 

 work. The motive power that pervades and moves all 

 classes is self-interest self first and self last no matter 

 how secured, and often by subterfuges that will not bear the 

 light of day. And then they bear themselves with a bold- 

 ness and effrontery which is inexplicable. They make a joke 

 and a laugh of it. They treat it altogether so ; and they 

 have a string of characteristic proverbs which govern them 

 in their sharp practices such as the following : " Simplicity 

 is worse than duplicity ;" " A fool will lose his own money 

 as well as yours ; but the cunning fellow that has brains 

 enough to make money for himself has sense enough to 



