ST. PETERSBURG. 3 



New York Times, himself a distinguished traveler, 

 observed : " Possibly this reverse may have been still 

 fuddling the clear spirit of our author when he reached 



Baku Mr. Stevens was probably of the same 



way of thinking (just then) as that energetic traveler 

 who wished that the last Russian would murder the 

 last Turk, and be hanged for doing it." 



Nearly four years, mainly devoted to travel and ad- 

 venturous undertakings, had mellowed this gloomy 

 reminiscence of the Russians, and had broadened my 

 experience of mankind in general. Perhaps, after all, 

 there might have been something in the book reviewer's 

 suggestions, that I was not then in a sufficiently amia- 

 ble frame of mind to do Muscovy justice. 



However this may have been, such was not the case 

 as the author stepped aboard an Atlantic liner, May 

 i, 1890, bound for Russia, on a special mission for the 

 New York World. 



For many years the people of America had taken a 

 friendly interest in Russia. We had been, in trying 

 times, the recipient of courtesies from its government, 

 and our sympathies had gone out to it as a great 

 nation of people groaning under the oppressive rule 

 of an autocracy, which is the extreme antithesis of our 

 own institutions. Our position in regard to its gov- 

 ernment had been peculiar. From our own point of 

 view the Czar's government cannot appear otherwise 

 than as a monstrous enemy to the very principles that 

 are the life-blood of all that we hold dear and precious 

 in the name of liberty, fraternity, and justice ; yet we 

 have accepted courtesies at its hands as from the hands 

 of a bosom friend. Now and then our sentiments in 



