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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Cody Marsh 



THE BRICK STOVE IS ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING 

 FEATURES OF THE SIBERIAN HOME 



in front of our gate, after which he took 

 him to his private armored train, shot 

 him, and threw his body from the train.'' 



shopping for a samovar in the 

 thieves' market 



The city market-place is a most inter- 

 esting spot. There is a Russian section, 

 a Japanese section, and one occupied by 

 Chinese. Then there is a section known 

 as "The Thieves' Market." It is all that 

 its name implies but I did not know this 

 when I first stopped there. I went in 

 search of a samovar. The Russian says. 

 "What is home without a samovar" just 

 as I used to say, when a small boy, 



"What is home without a rub- 

 ber plant ?" or as the modern 

 American boy might say, "What 

 is home without a phonograph?" 

 A charcoal fire is built in the 

 samovar and water is kept hot 

 for the tea that is drunk every 

 few minutes, it seemed to me, 

 during the day. A small tea- 

 kettle of strong tea is kept hot on 

 the top of the samovar. Some 

 of this is poured into a glass and 

 then thinned down with hot water 

 from the samovar. Because the 

 samovar was to me the one dis- 

 tinctive accessory of Russian life, 

 I selected it as the one memento 

 of Siberia I wanted to take home. 

 So I went to "The Thieves' Mar- 

 ket" in search of one. 



None of the booths had what 

 I wanted. My requirements 

 specified a very large one, with 

 a Russian crest on it and some 

 Russian motto engraved on it. 

 Finally one man said that by 

 Saturday he could have what I 

 sought. This meant, as I found 

 out later, that he would have one 

 stolen to suit me. 



I returned Saturday with a 

 Russian friend who had lived in 

 America. Soon my eyes feasted 

 on a huge samovar, large enough 

 to provide tea for a brigade. The 

 thing was literally covered with 

 shields and crests and Russian 

 mottoes. I was convinced that 

 this samovar had been in the 

 Tsar's Winter Palace at the very 

 My Russian friend looked on quite 

 scornfully and finally blurted out, "Cer- 

 tainly you are not going to buy that piece 

 of junk!" I replied quite haughtily that 

 I certainly did intend to buy it if I had 

 to mortgage the farm. 



With that he yanked the samover from 

 the merchant, turned it upside down and 

 showed me. carved in plain English. 

 "Made in Waterbury. Conn." That was 

 Exhibit A. Then for Exhibit B he ex- 

 plained that these many crests and shields 

 were medals that this particular brand of 

 samovar had taken at various fairs, and 

 the Russian texts were merely legends 



least. 



