274 CENTRAL SIBERIA. 



shops retailed 8,139,530 gallons of vodka, having a 

 total value of £3,242,341, the clear profit amounting 

 to £2,410,568. This shows an increase of profit over 

 the previous year of £1,252,528, or nearly 100 per 

 cent ! Excellent for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 no doubt, though hardly an inspiring outlook from the 

 temperance point of view. What a pity the anti- 

 compensationists — et hoc genus omne — don't live in 

 Russia ! 



But my discussions on the Russian peasant and his 

 faults are carrying me away from the subject in hand, 

 which is the government of Tomsk. If the villages 

 are severe in their simplicity, the towns show signs of 

 a higher ambition. Barnaul, capital of the district of 

 the same name, comes as a surprise. Here large build- 

 ings of brick and stone are plentiful, there are broad 

 streets and commodious shops, a substantial, almost 

 magnificent. Government House rises in the centre of 

 the town, and the churches, of course, form conspicuous 

 objects. Altogether, the town wears an air of pros- 

 perity and progress. Houses of wood still exist in 

 parts, but in many places these may be seen in process 

 of demolition, while superior buildings of brick are 

 rising, phoenix-like, from their ashes. I went into one 

 of the chief shops, which displayed an assortment of 

 goods from bicycles to tooth-brushes. A map was my 

 modest requirement, and a courteous shop-walker sent 

 off an assistant to unearth the maps from the stationery 

 department. In the meantime, was there anything else 

 he could show me ? He had several excellent gramo- 

 phones, recently imported — there were half a dozen on 

 the counter, one of which was braying forth what I 

 took to be a Russian comic song, in the harsh metallic 

 cadence common to gramophones. No, I was in no 

 need of a gramophone at the moment. Well, then, a 



