264 THR OUGH R US SI A ON A M US TA NG. 



o'clock next morning. Kamaret in hand, I sallied 

 forth in the glare and dust to see if there was any- 

 thing worth photographing. Some Turcoman team- 

 sters, with a string of camel carts, filed past, an Asiatic 

 spectacle that I had not before seen in European Rus- 

 sia. Tzaritzin, however, is in easy touch with Asia by 

 an all-water route down the Volga to Astrakhan and 

 across the Caspian. 



A rude bench on the edge of the bluff on which the 

 town is built attracted me by reason of the good view 

 to be obtained from it of the Volga, and the multitude 

 of busy workers among the rafts and shipping. 



About five o'clock there appeared on the southern 

 horizon of the river a white speck that grew larger 

 apace, and finally assumed the shape and dimensions of 

 a magnificent steamboat, patterned after the floating 

 palaces of the Mississippi. As it steamed majestically 

 up to the landing, there could be no manner of doubt 

 that the steamer owed its existence to American enter- 

 prise, which must have either placed it on the Volga or 

 furnished the pattern for those who did. 



My chief interest in it, however, was as to the time 

 of its departure up stream, and I at once repaired to 

 the office on the floating dock, to which it was shortly 

 moored. By dint of insistence with the ticket agent, 

 who persisted in replying " sei tchas," which means 

 any length of time, from a minute to a year, I at 

 length discovered that it would start in half an hour, 

 and would take me to Nijni Novgorod. At the hotel 

 I was advised by the proprietor to remain and witness 

 the performances at the theatrical end of the dining- 

 room in the evening, the character of the entertain- 



