IX THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -I 



found that all the old clothing which had been stored there 

 during many generations had descended from the shelves 

 and hooks and had assumed kneeling postures about the 

 iloor. All of us heard the story with much solemnity, 

 when good old Dr. Law, chaplain of the British church, 

 broke the silence with the words, "That must have been 

 a family of very pious habits." This of course broke the 

 spell. 



I should be sorry to have it thought that all my stay 

 in the Russian capital was given up to official routine and 

 social futilities. Fortunately for me, the social demands 

 were not very heavy. The war in the Crimea, steadily 

 going against Russia, threw a cloud over the court and 

 city and reduced the number of entertainments to a mini- 

 mum. This secured me, during the long winter evenings, 

 much time for reading, and in addition to all the valuable 

 treatises L could find on Russia, I went with care through 

 an extensive course in modern history. 



As to Russian matters, it was my good fortune to be- 

 come intimately acquainted with Atkinson, the British 

 traveler in Siberia. Tie had brought back many portf olios 

 of sketches, and his charming wife had treasured up a 

 great fund of anecdotes of people and adventure, so that 

 I seemed for a time to know Siberia as if L had lived there. 

 Then it was that I learned of the beauties and capabilities 

 of its southern provinces. The Atkinsons had also 

 brought back their only child, a son born on the Siberian 

 steppe, a wonderfully bright youngster, whom they des- 

 tined for the British navy. lie bore a name which I fear 

 may at times have proved a burden to him, for his father 

 and mother were so delighted with the place in which he 

 was born that they called him, after it, "Alatow-Tain 

 ( 'hi bou la k/ 1 ' 



The general Russian life, as I thus saw it, while intensely 

 interesting in many respects, was certainly not cheerful. 

 Despite the frivolity dominant among the upper class and 



1 Since writ instil" ;il 10 ve. T h;tve h;id the pi <;! si ire of receiving ji letter from this 

 frenilen MIL who h;is for -.MM"' time held the responsible ;in<] interesting posi- 

 tion of superintendent of pulilie inst met ion in the I I;i \\\\ \\\\ \\ Ishmds. his son, 

 ;i LTiiduMf e of the 1 ' 1 1 i ve rs i t y of Michigan, having l>een Secretary of tin- Ter- 

 riti i'-- . 



