STOPPED BY THE POLICE. 183 



the houses are painted green and red, among which 

 are a half dozen enormous churches with golden domes, 

 or domes painted blue and spangled with golden stars, 

 in imitation of the sky, presents a pretty enough pic- 

 ture spread over a gentle slope, with a broad river for 

 a foreground. 



Vast quantities of paint are used in Russia. Every- 

 thing is daubed with paint — houses, roofs, railway sta- 

 tions, prisons — nearly everything in the cities. The 

 colors most in vogue are red, blue, green, and yellow. 



The colors of the roofs and houses in the cities, and 

 the equally gay hues of the clothes worn by the peas- 

 ants in the country, are the salvation of Russia from an 

 artistic point of view. Without the red shirts of the 

 moujiks the Russian villages would present not a sin- 

 gle feature pleasing to the eye of the passing traveler; 

 and without the brightening paint the provincial cities 

 would be equally depressing. 



Ekaterinoslav consists of one long, broad street, or 

 boulevard, and several short streets, crossing it at right 

 angles. It is a provincial capital, and contains about 

 40,000 inhabitants, with a large proportion of Hebrews 

 and sectarians of many creeds. It was founded by 

 Catharine II, on her memorable and fantastic journey of 

 triumph through her dominions, from St. Petersburg to 

 the Crimea, under the management of her gorgeous 

 favorite, Potemkin. 



That shrewd and gallant courtier of the great Catha- 

 rine, having discovered in advance that much of the 

 territory through which his Imperial mistress would pass 

 was uninhabited steppe, conceived and carried out the 

 truly Oriental project of building sham villages all 



