SCENES ON THE ROAD. 133 



ply give rein to the nonsensical politeness of misinform- 

 ing him as to the distance, in order to minimize it 

 and win his momentary approval. 



In Orel we, as a matter of course, excited the suspi- 

 cions of the police, who, however, contented themselves 

 with merely keeping a close watch upon our move- 

 ments until we left the city. The streets of Orel were 

 disreputably rough even for a Russian provincial city, 

 and the whole place seemed such a wretched dust-hole 

 that we halted in it only long enough to get dinner 

 and to give our horses a few hours' rest. As in any 

 other Russian town the conspicuous objects were the 

 churches and the prison. At the doors of the churches 

 stood old men, mechanically jingling little hand-bells, 

 and extending to passers-by, for donations, alms-re- 

 ceivers decorated with crosses. 



A peculiar feature of religious fanaticism and men- 

 dicancy in Russia are certain old men who sometimes 

 take their stand at favorable points in the cities, and 

 sometimes wander about all over the empire, from vil- 

 lage to village, like the wandering dervishes of Persia. 

 These men have taken vows to collect money enough 

 to build a church for the salvation of their own souls, 

 or they hold commissions from one or other of the big 

 churches of Moscow or Kiev to collect money for re- 

 pairs or other purposes. They simply devote their 

 lives to wandering about and begging for money, and 

 because it is not for theirown use, but for religious pur- 

 poses, they are able to accumulate large sums. 



Here, it seemed to the writer, newly impressed at 

 this time with the financial slipperiness of the people 

 along the road, was a particularly fine field for the ex- 



