COMMERCIAL IMMORALITY 



367 



were promptly delivered, and the account hurriedly 

 presented for payment as the steamer was on the point 

 of leaving- to go farther down the river. Fortunately 

 for us one of our party could read Russian. He found 

 that the seventy-three roubles already paid were included 

 in the amount claimed, and their payment thus demanded 

 a second time. Twenty odd casks of tallow, and about 

 as many sacks of biscuits, were also to be brought down 

 to us by the steamer ; in both cases one package less 

 than the proper quantity was de- 

 livered. The captain promised 

 to have these missing packages 

 found, and left for usat Dudinka, 

 but I felt certain that we might 

 as well at once have written off 

 the value to our already suffi- 

 ciently large plunder account, 

 and, needless to say, we never 

 heard any more of them. 



It would be unfair to repre- 

 sent this entire absence of any 

 feeling of commercial honour 

 as in any way an exclusively 



Russian characteristic. It is Asiatic, Oriental. The 

 moment you have crossed a line which one might 

 draw from Konigsberg to Trieste, you have ceased 

 ethnologically to be in Europe, and as far as race and 

 character go you are to all intents and purposes in Asia. 

 West of this line people do frequently act dishonourably, 

 but they are ashamed of it, and it is only the temptation 

 of the gain which reconciles them to the disgrace which 

 they try to hide. East of this line it gives a man far 

 more pleasure to cheat you out of a sovereign than to 

 earn a sovereign in a legitimate manner. So far from 



RUSSIAN IKON 

 (Brass and enamel) 



