ST. PETERSBURG. 7 



hat. Imagine a " stove-pipe " hat, six inches tall, with 

 a very rakish brim and a very expansive crown, some- 

 thing like the hats of the ancient and honorable 

 beef-eaters at the Tower of London, and you see 

 any one of the 30,000 coachmen's hats of St. Peters- 

 burg. I say 30,000, because there are, beside the 

 public isvoshchics, about five thousand private coachies, 

 similarly dressed. 



The only difference between the public and private 

 isvoshchics is that the latter look about three times 

 larger than the former. All the private isvoshchics 

 are men of Falstafifian girth. Some are of a truly 

 startling circumference ; their stomachs bulging out 

 like barrels, and the breadth of their figure more than 

 fills the seat of the drosky. The thinness of the face 

 often contrasts ludicrously with the vast proportions 

 of the body, for the amplitude of the latter is not flesh 

 but padding. The impression that the private coach- 

 man desires to make upon the world at large is that he 

 is the " well-fed servant of a generous man." To this 

 end, huge pads, like pillows, are fastened about the 

 body, and over them is wrapped the all-concealing 

 overcoat. To complete the deception, the colored 

 waistband pinches into the padding, as if the chief 

 concern of the owner of this vast wealth of fat were 

 to reduce his girth, if such an impossible thing were 

 possible. 



Whilst every private isvoshchic in Russia is thus a 

 living lie in his figure, every public one is likewise a 

 perambulating Ananias in a way that more directly 

 concerns the pockets of the public. Every drive you 

 take in St. Petersburg has to be bargained for in ad- 



