RETURN TO KERTCH. 181 



head, considering it in our case a bitter disgrace that 

 our Prime Minister should be an alien, and totally 

 forgetting that not one officer of state only, but 

 two-thirds of their highest officials in fact, almost 

 the entire brain of their country are alien, and 

 principally of the race they most affect to hate, viz. 

 the Germans. 



It may be readily imagined that I soon tired of 

 the society at the Petersburg Hotel, Ekaterinodar, 

 and indeed, early on the morning after my arrival, 

 I was at the treasury (' kasnochest ') applying for a 

 travelling ticket. Of course I had to wait over 

 half an hour, while half a sheet of paper was being 

 filled in with a few signatures and my own name, 

 and during that time I had an opportunity of ob- 

 serving some of the noticeable features in this 

 public office. Most of the clerks were smoking 

 cigarettes (those who were not had probably no 

 tobacco) ; none of them used blotting-paper, but 

 instead either blotted their manuscript on the 

 white-washed walls or sprinkled it with sand from 

 one of the many old sardine-boxes, supplied ap- 

 parently by a frugal government to contain that 

 valuable commodity. All expectorated with the 

 freedom and frequency, if not with the accuracy, of 

 the proverbial Yankee. Almost every clerk had 

 some decoration, and all were in uniform. 



But the ' podorojna ' was ready at last, and armed 

 with it I started once more for Kertch. On the 



