INTO MALO RUSSIA. 147 





There were more rockets and bombs, and then 

 everybody paused in their circular promenade around 

 the fountain to witness the dispatch of a tissue-paper 

 balloonlet. At the flight of the little messenger to the 

 clouds there was an universal clapping of hands, and 

 everybody looked supremely happy. All then resumed 

 the serious business of walking round and round. 

 There were a good many ladies, the elite of Kursk, and 

 a good many more who seemed to be even more ele- 

 gant ladies than the real ladies ; some were pretty, and 

 a good many more owed their pretensions to the same 

 to the kindly influence of the colored lamps and the 

 charitable twilight of the ending day. 



The military and the police were in the majority 

 among the gentlemen, and private citizens seemed to 

 be nowhere. Our friend, the assistant chief, was very 

 much on hand, overcoat suspended cavalierly from his 

 shoulders like a Spanish cloak, he, evidently, having 

 better use for his arms than to thrust them in the 

 sleeves. The arms were utilized as he walked, — not 

 round and round, as everybody else was doing, but at 

 eccentric angles, from one part of the garden to another, 

 for the purpose of greeting his many friends with a 

 glad and sudden surprise — utilized to bulge out the 

 coat to such ample breadth that he seemed to require 

 as much space as a full half dozen ordinary, private 

 subjects of the Czar. 



The greater part of the following morning was spent 

 in endeavoring to overcome the prodigious difficulties 

 of dispatching a valise off by rail to Ekatertnoslav. By 

 means of a vast deal of patience, and efforts that came 

 near being superhuman, we succeeded in eventually 



