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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter four of The Boy Travelers in the Russian Empire.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Betty b. The Boy
Travelers in the Russian Empire by Thomas Wallace Knox, Chapter four.
(00:23):
Instead of returning to the hotel for dinner, our friends
went to a tractor or Russian restaurant in a little
street running out of Admiralty Square. The youths were anxious
to try the national dishes of the country, and consequently
they accepted with pleasure doctor Bronson's suggestion relative to their
dining place, The finest and most characteristic restaurants of Russia
(00:47):
are in Moscow, rather than in Saint Petersburg, said the doctor,
as he led the way to the establishment they had
decided to patronize. Saint Petersburg has a great many French
and German features that you do not find in Moscow.
And when we get to the latter city, we must
not fail to go to the Makovsky Tract, which is
(01:07):
one of the most celebrated feeding places of the old Capitol.
There the waiters are clad in silk shirts or frocks
extending nearly to the knee over loose trousers of the
same material. At the establishment where we are now going,
the dress is that of the ordinary French restaurant, and
we shall have no difficulty in finding someone who speaks
(01:29):
either French or German. They found the lower room of
the restaurant filled with men solacing themselves with tea, which
they drank from glasses filled and refilled from pots. Standing
before them on each table was a steaming samovar to
supply boiling water to the teapots as fast as they
were emptied. The boys had seen the samovar at railway
(01:52):
stations and other places since their entrance into the Empire,
but had not thus far enjoyed the opportunity of examining it.
We will have a samovar to ourselves, said the doctor,
as they mounted the stairs to an upper room, and
then you can study it as closely as you like.
The Russian Belle affair was too much for the reading
(02:13):
abilities of any one of the trio. The doctor could
spell out some of the words, but found they would
get along better by appealing to one of the waiters.
Under his guidance. They succeeded very well, as we learned
from Frank's account of the dinner. Doctor Bronson told us
that cabbage soup was the national dish of the country,
(02:33):
and so we ordered it under the mysterious name of
she A Kharsha. The cabbage is chopped and then boiled
till it falls into shreds. A piece of meat is
cooked with it. The soup is seasoned with pepper and salt,
and all together that she soup is decidedly palatable. Kartia
is barley thoroughly boiled and then dried over the fire
(02:57):
until the grains fall apart. A saucer full of this
cooked barley is supplied to you along with the soup,
and you eat them together. You may mingle the kharsha
with the she as you would mix rice with milk,
but the orthodox way of eating is to take a
small quantity of the karsia into your spoon each time
(03:17):
before dipping it into the soup. A substantial meal can
be made of these articles alone. And there are millions
of the subjects of His Imperial Majesty the Czar, who
dine today and many other days in the year on
nothing else. The emperor eats she, and so does the peasant.
Probably the emperor has it less often in the year
(03:38):
than does his poor subjects. But the soup is of
the same kind, except that very often the peasant cannot
afford the important addition of meat. Don't forget, Fred interposed,
when the foregoing description was read to him. Don't forget
to say that they served us a little cup or
mug of sour cream along with it. Tas that, so,
(04:00):
responded Frank. But I didn't like it particularly, and therefore
came near forgetting it. We remember best the things that
please us. Then perhaps you didn't like the zakushka or
appetizer before dinner, said the doctor. As I see you
haven't mentioned it. I hadn't forgotten it, said the youth,
But was going to say something about it at the end.
(04:21):
You know, the preface of a book is always written
after the rest of the volume has been completed. But
as you've called attention to it, I'll dispose of it
now Here it is. There was a side table on
which were several plates containing relishes of different kinds, such
as caviare, raw herring, dried beef, smoked salmon cut in
(04:42):
little strips or squares, radishes, cheese, butter, and tiny sandwiches
about the size of a half dollar. A glass of cordial,
of which several kinds were offered, goes with the zakushka
for those who like it. The cordial and a few
morsels of the solid things are supposed to sharpen the
appetite and prepare it for the dinner, which is to
(05:04):
be eaten at the table. The sakushka is inseparable from
a dinner in Russia and belongs to it just as
much as do any of the dishes that are served
after the seats are taken. While we were standing around
the side table where it was served at our first
dinner in Saint Petersburg, doctor Bronson told us a story
(05:25):
that is too good to be lost. I'll try to
give it. In his words, there was once a Russian
soldier who had a phenomenal appetite. He could eat an
incredible quantity of food at a sitting, and the officers
of his regiment used to make wagers with strangers about
his feeding abilities. They generally won, and as the soldier
(05:46):
always received a present when he had gained a bet,
he exerted himself to the best of his ability. One day,
the colonel made a wager for a large amount that
his man could eat an entire sheep at a sitting.
The sheep was selected, slaughtered and sent to a restaurant,
and at the appointed time the colonel appeared with the
soldier in order to help the man along. The keeper
(06:09):
of the restaurant had cooked the different parts of the
sheep in various ways. There were broiled and fried cutlets,
roasted and boiled quarters, and some stews and hashes made
from the rest. Dish after dish appeared. When almost the
entire sheep had been devoured, the soldier turned to the
kernel and said, if you give me so much zakushka,
(06:31):
I'm afraid I shan't be able to eat all of
the sheep when they bring it. But to return to soups.
In addition to she the Russians have uka, or fish soup,
made of any kind of fish that is in season.
The most expensive is made from stirlet, a fish that
is found only in the Volga and sometimes sells for
(06:52):
its weight in silver. We tried it one day and
liked it very much, but it costs too much for
frequent eating, except by the wealthy. A very good fish
soup is made from trout, and another from perch. After
the soup, we had pyrok, or pie made of the
spinal cord of this sturgeon, cut into little pieces about
(07:12):
half as large as a pea. It resembles icingnglass in
appearance and is very toothsome. The pie is baked in
a deep dish with two crusts, an upper and an
under one. Doctor Bronson says the Russians make all kinds
of fish into pies and patties, very much as we
make meat pies at home. They sometimes put raisins in
(07:34):
these pies, a practice which seems very incongruous to Americans
and English. They also make soliyanka, a dish composed of
fish and cabbage, and not at all bad when one
is hungry. Red or black pepper liberally applied is an improvement.
What do you think of a kroshka, a soup made
(07:55):
of cold beer with pieces of meat, cucumber, and red
herrings flow in it, along with bits of ice to
keep it cool. Don't want any, neither do we, But
the Russians of the lower classes like it, and I
have heard Russian gentlemen praise it. Many of them are
fond of botvinia, which is a cold soup made in
(08:15):
much the same way as okroshka and about as unpalatable
to us. We ordered a portion of okroshka just to
see how it looked and tasted. One teaspoonful was enough
for each of us, and Batvinia we didn't try. After
the pirog, we had cutlets of chicken and then roast
mutton stuffed with buckwheat, both of them very good. They
(08:38):
offered us some boiled pigs, served cold with horseradish sauce,
but we didn't try it, and then they brought roast
grouse with salted cucumbers for salad. We wound up with
nessel Rode pudding made of plum pudding and ices and
not unknown in other countries. Then we had the samovar,
which had been made ready for us, and drank some
(09:00):
delicious tea, which we prepared ourselves now for the samovar.
Its name comes from two words, which means self boiling,
and the samovar is nothing but an urn of brass
or copper with a cylinder in the center, where a
fire is made with charcoal. The water surrounds the cylinder
(09:21):
and is thus kept at the boiling point, which the
Russians claim is indispensable to the making of good tea.
The beverage is drank not from cups but from glasses,
and the number of glasses it will contain is the
measure of a samovar. The Russians rarely put milk with
their tea, the common people never do so, and the
(09:42):
upper classes only when they have acquired the habit. While abroad,
they rarely dissolve sugar in their tea, but nibble from
a lump after taking a swallow of the liquid. A
peasant will make a single lump serve for four or
five glasses of tea, and it is said to be
an odd sensation for a stranger to hear the nibbling
(10:02):
and grating of lumps of sugar when a party of
Russians is engaged in tea drinking. We sat late over
the samovar, and then paid our bill and returned to
the square. Doctor Bronson told us that an enormous quantity
of tea is consumed in Russia, but very little coffee. Formerly,
all the tea used in the Empire was brought overland
(10:25):
from China by way of Siberia, and the business enabled
the importers of tea to accumulate great fortunes. Down to
eighteen sixty, only one cargo of tea annually was brought
into Russia by sea, all the rest of the importation
being through the town of Kiachta on the frontier of Mongolia.
(10:46):
Since eighteen sixty the ports of the Empire have been
opened to tea brought from China by water, and the
trade of Kiachta has greatly diminished, but it is still
very large, and long trains of sledges come every winter
through Siberia laden with the tea which has been brought
to Kiachta on the backs of camels from the districts
(11:09):
where it has grown. There is one kind of the
Chinese herb called Joeltai Chai yellow tea, which is worth
it retail about fifteen dollars a pound. It is said
to be made from the blossom of the tea plant,
and is very difficult to find out of Russia, as
all that is produced comes here for a market. We
(11:30):
each had a cup of this tea to finish our
dinner with, and nothing more delicious was ever served from
a teapot. The infusion is a pale yellow or straw color,
and to look at appears weak enough, but it is
unsafe to take more than one cup if you do
not wish to be kept awake all night. Its aroma
fills the room when it is poured out. All the
(11:52):
pens in the world cannot describe the song of the
birds or the perfume of the flowers, and so my
pen is unable to tell you about the aroma and
taste of jol Tai Chai. We'll get a small box
of the best and send it home for you to try.
It was so late in the day when our friends
had finished their dinner and returned to the square, that
(12:14):
there was not much time left for sight seeing. They
were in front of the Winter Palace in Saint Isaac's Church,
but decided to leave them until another day. Fred's attention
was drawn to a tall column between the winter Palace
and a crescent of lofty buildings called the atat Major
or staff headquarters, and he asked the doctor what it
(12:36):
was that is the Alexander Column. Was the reply to
the question. It is one of the largest monoliths or
single shafts of modern times. And was erected in eighteen
thirty two in memory of Alexander the First. What a
splendid column, said Frank, I wonder how high it is.
Thereupon the youth fell to guessing at the height of
(12:57):
the column. After they had made their estimates, neither of
them near the mark, but considerably below it, Doctor Bronson
gave them its dimensions. The shaft without pedestal or capital,
is fourteen feet in diameter and eighty four feet high.
It was originally one hundred and two feet high, but
was reduced through fear that its length was out of
(13:19):
proportion to its diameter. The base and pedestal are one
single block of red granite, about twenty five feet high,
and the capital is sixteen feet high. The angel above
the capital is fourteen feet tall, and the cross in
the hands of the angel is seven feet above it.
With the platform on which it rests, the whole structure
(13:40):
rises one hundred and fifty four feet from the level
of the ground. They must have had a hard time
to make the foundations in this marshy ground. One of
the boys remarked, they drove six rows of piling there,
one after the other, before getting a foundation to suit them,
said the doctor. The shaft alone, which was put up
(14:00):
in the rough and finished afterwards, is sought to weigh
about four hundred tons, and the pedestal and base nearly
as much more. Unfortunately, the shaft has suffered from the
effects of the severe climate and may be destroyed at
no distant day. Several cracks have been made by the frost,
and though they have been carefully cemented, they continue to
(14:23):
increase its size. Pieces have fallen from the surface of
the stone in the same way that they have fallen
from the Egyptian Obelisk in New York. And it is
very evident that the climate of Saint Petersburg is unfriendly
to monuments of granite. The bronze on the pedestal and
capital is from Turkish cannon, which were melted down for
(14:43):
the purpose. The only inscription is in the few words
to Alexander the first grateful Russia. Frank made a sketch
of the monument, together with the buildings of the Etat
Major and a company of soldiers that marched past the
foot of the column. Doctor Bronson said the soldiers belonged
to the guard of the Palace, where they had been
(15:04):
on duty through the day, and had just been relieved
from the column and the buildings surrounding it. The trio
of strangers walked to the bank of the river and
watched the boats on the water, where the setting sun
slanted in long rays and filled the air with the
mellow light peculiar to high latitudes. Near the close of day.
(15:24):
It was early in September, and already the evening air
had a touch of coolness about it. Saint Petersburg is
in latitude sixty degrees north, and consequently is quite near
the Arctic Circle. Doctor Bronson told the use that if
they had come there in July, they would have found
very little night, the sun setting not far from ten
(15:44):
o'clock and rising about two. In the four hours of night,
there is almost continuous twilight, and by mounting to the
top of a high building at midnight one can see
the position of the sun below the northern horizons. Anyone
who goes to bed after sunset and rises before sunrise
would have very little sleep in Saint Petersburg. In summer,
(16:08):
on the other hand, said the doctor, the nights of
winter are very long. Winter is the gay season here,
as the city is deserted by fashionable people in summer,
and one is not expected to make visits. The Imperial
court goes away. The Emperor has a palace at Yalta
in the Crimea, and there he passes the autumn months,
(16:28):
unless kept in Saint Petersburg or Moscow by the affairs
of the nation. They have some public festivities here in summer,
but not generally, most of the matters of this kind
being reserved for the winter. Boats were moving in all
directions on the placid waters of the river, darting beneath
the magnificent bridge that stretches across the stream, and carrying
(16:51):
little parties who sought recreation or were on errands of business.
On the opposite side of the Neva, and beyond the
win in her palace was the grim fortress of Saints
Peter and Paul, with whose history many tales of horror
are connected, and where numerous prisoners of greater or less
note have been confined. It was there, said doctor Bronson,
(17:14):
that Peter the Great caused his son Alexis to be
put to death. Caused his son to be put to death,
exclaimed the youths together. Yes, it is generally believed that
such was the case. The doctor answered, though the fact
is not actually known. Alexis, the son of Peter the Great,
was opposed to his father's reforms and devotedly attached to
(17:36):
the old superstitions and customs of Russia. Peter decided to
exclude him from the throne. The son consented and announced
his desire to enter a monastery, from which he managed
to escape to Austria, where he sought the protection of
the Emperor of that country. Peter sent one of his
generals in pursuit of Alexis. By a combination of threats
(17:58):
and promises, he was in used to return to Saint Petersburg,
where he was thrown into prison and afterwards tried for
high treason and condemned to death. Peter pardoned but did
not release him. On the seventh of July seventeen eighteen,
he died suddenly, and it was and is now generally
believed that he was poisoned or beheaded by his father's order.
(18:22):
And was he really guilty of high treason? Fred asked,
according to Russian law and custom, and particularly according to
the law and custom of Peter the Great, he certainly was.
Doctor Bronson replied, Remember the Emperor is autocratic in his power,
at least in theory, and in Peter's time he was so. Actually,
(18:43):
the will of the founder of the Russian Empire was law.
Alexis was opposed to that will and consequently opposed to
the imperial law. The progress of Russia was more in
the eyes of Peter than the life of any human being,
not even accepting his own son and the jitimate heir
to the throne. The proceedings of the trial were published
(19:04):
by Peter as a justification of his act. Peter the Second,
the son of Alexis and grandson of the Great Peter,
died suddenly at the age of fifteen. Peter, the third
grandchild of Peter the Great, through his daughter Anna, was
the husband of the Empress Catherine the Second, but his
reign was very short. His life with Catherine was not
(19:25):
the happiest in the world, and in less than eight
months after he became emperor, she usurped the throne, deposed
her husband, and caused him to be strangled. Catherine was
a German princess, but declared herself thoroughly Russian when she
came to reside in the Empire. If history is correct,
she made a better ruler than the man she put aside,
(19:47):
but this can be no justification of her means of
attaining power. Her son, Paul the First, followed the fate
of his father in being assassinated, but it was not
by her orders. She brought him up in complete ignorance
of public affairs and compelled him to live away from
the Imperial court until her death in seventeen ninety six.
(20:08):
She kept him in retirement, although she had his sons
taken to court and educated under her immediate supervision. Treatment
like this was calculated to make him whimsical and revengeful,
and when he became emperor, he tried to undo every
act of his mother and those about her. He disbanded
her armies, made peace with the countries with which she
(20:30):
was at war, reversed her policy in everything, and became
a most bitter tyrant towards his own people. He issued
absurd orders, and at length his acts bordered on insanity.
A conspiracy was formed among some of the noblemen, who
represented to his son Alexander that it was necessary to
secure the abdication of his father on the ground of incapacity.
(20:54):
Late at night March twenty third, eighteen o one, they
went to his bedroom and presented a paper for him
to sign. He refused and was then strangled by the conspirators.
Alexander the First was proclaimed emperor, and the announcement of
Paul's death was hailed with delight by his oppressed subjects.
Among the foolish edicts he issued was one which forbade
(21:17):
the wearing of round hats. Within an hour after his
death became known, great numbers of round hats were to
be seen on the streets. You've had enough of the
history of the Imperial family of Russia for the present,
said the doctor, after a pause, and now we'll look
at the people on the streets. It is getting late,
and will go to the hotel, making our observations on
(21:39):
the way. Here are distinct types of the inhabitants of
the Empire, the doctor remarked, as they passed two men
who seemed to be an animated conversation. The man with
a round cap and long coat is a Russian peasant,
while the one with the hood over his head and
falling down to his shoulders is a fin Or, a
(22:00):
native of Finland. How far is it from here to Finland,
Frank asked, Only over the river, The doctor replied, you
cross the Neva to its opposite bank, and you are
in what was once the independent Duchy of Finland, but
has long been incorporated with Russia. When Peter the Great
came here, he did not like to be so near
(22:21):
a foreign country, and so made up his mind to
convert Finland into Russian territory. The independence of the duchy
was maintained for some time, but in the early part
of the present century, Russia defeated the armies of Finland
and the country was permanently occupied. Finland has its constitution,
which is based on that of Sweden, and when it
(22:43):
was united with Russia, the constitutional rights of the people
were guaranteed. The country is ruled by a Governor General,
who is appointed by Russia. It has a parliament for
presenting the grievances and wishes of the people, but all
acts must receive the approval of the Imperial government before
they can become the law of the land. What are
(23:04):
those men standing in front of a building, said Fred,
as he pointed to a fellow with a broom talking
with another in uniform. The one in uniform is a postman,
was the reply, and the other is a devornik or
house guardian. The devornick sweeps the sidewalk in front of
a house and looks after the entrance. He corresponds to
(23:25):
the porter or portier of other countries, and is supposed
to know the names of all the tenants of the building.
The postman is reading an address on a letter, and
the devornik is probably pointing in the direction of the
room occupied by the person to whom the missive belongs.
I have read that letters in Russia are examined by
(23:45):
the police before they are delivered, said one of the boys.
Is that really the case? Formerly it was, or at
least they were liable to examination, And it probably happens
often enough at the present time. If a man is
spected of treasonable practices, his correspondence is liable to be seized,
unless there is a serious charge against him. It is
(24:08):
not detained after examination, provided it contains nothing objectionable. The
post office, like everything else in Russia, is a part
of the military system, and if the government wishes to
do anything with the letters of its subjects, it generally
does it. The correspondence of foreigners is rarely meddled, with
(24:28):
writers for the foreign newspapers sometimes complain that their letters
are lost in the mails or show signs of having
been opened. But I fancy that these cases are rare.
For one, I have in the least feared that our
letters will be troubled, as we have no designs upon Russia,
other than to see it if we were plotting treason,
(24:49):
or had communications with Russian and Polish revolutionists in France
or Switzerland, it is probable that the government would not
be long in finding out what would happen to us.
Supposing that to be the case, Frank inquired, Supposing it
to be so, for the sake of argument, the doctor answered,
(25:09):
our treatment would depend much upon the circumstances. If we
were Russians, we should probably be arrested and imprisoned, But
as we are foreigners, we should be asked to leave
the country unless the matter is very serious. The authorities
do not like to meddle with foreigners in any way
that will lead to a dispute with another government, and
(25:30):
their quickest way out of the difficulty is to expel
the obnoxious visitor. How would they go to work to
expel us? An officer would call at our lodgings and
tell us our passports were ready for our departure, he
would probably say that the train for the frontier leaves
at eleven a m. Tomorrow, and he would expect us
(25:50):
to go by that train. If the case was urgent,
he would probably tell us we must go by that train,
and he would be at the hotel at ten o'clock
to a square to it. He would take us to
the train and accompany us to the frontier, where he
would gracefully say goodbye and wish us a pleasant journey
to our homes. If matters were less serious, he would
(26:12):
allow us two or three days, perhaps a week to
close our affairs. All would depend upon his orders, and
whatever they were, they would be carried out. Before the
days of the railways, objectionable parties were taken to the
frontier in carriages or slaves, the government paying the expense
of the posting, and no matter what the hour of
(26:33):
arrival at the boundary, they were set down and left
to take care of themselves. An Englishman who had got
himself into trouble with the government in the time of
the Emperor Nicholas, tells how he was dropped just over
the boundary in Prussia in the middle of a dark
and rainy night and left standing in the road with
his baggage fully a mile from any house. The officer
(26:55):
who accompanied him was ordered to escort him over the frontier,
and did it excaps. Probably his passenger was a trifle obstinate,
or he would not have been left in such a plight.
A little politeness and possibly a few shillings in money,
would have induced the officer to bring him to the boundary.
In the daytime and in the neighborhood of a habitation,
(27:17):
expelled foreigners have rarely any cause to complain of the
incivility of their escorts. I know a Frenchman who was
thus taken to the frontier after a notice of two days,
and he told me that he could not have received
greater civility if he had been the guest of the
Emperor and going to Saint Petersburg instead of from it.
He added that he tried to outdo his guardians in politeness,
(27:40):
and further admitted that he richly deserved expulsion, as he
had gone to the Empire on a revolutionary mission. On
the whole, he considered himself fortunate to escape so easily.
The conversation led to anecdotes about the police system of Russia.
And at their termination, our friends found themselves else at
the door of the hotel. Naturally, they shifted to other
(28:03):
topics as soon as they were in the presence of others.
It was an invariable rule of our friends not to discuss,
in the hearing of anyone else, the politics of the
countries they were visiting. End of Chapter four
Chapter four of The Boy Travelers in the Russian Empire.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Betty b. The Boy
Travelers in the Russian Empire by Thomas Wallace Knox, Chapter four.
(00:23):
Instead of returning to the hotel for dinner, our friends
went to a tractor or Russian restaurant in a little
street running out of Admiralty Square. The youths were anxious
to try the national dishes of the country, and consequently
they accepted with pleasure doctor Bronson's suggestion relative to their
dining place, The finest and most characteristic restaurants of Russia
(00:47):
are in Moscow, rather than in Saint Petersburg, said the doctor,
as he led the way to the establishment they had
decided to patronize. Saint Petersburg has a great many French
and German features that you do not find in Moscow.
And when we get to the latter city, we must
not fail to go to the Makovsky Tract, which is
(01:07):
one of the most celebrated feeding places of the old Capitol.
There the waiters are clad in silk shirts or frocks
extending nearly to the knee over loose trousers of the
same material. At the establishment where we are now going,
the dress is that of the ordinary French restaurant, and
we shall have no difficulty in finding someone who speaks
(01:29):
either French or German. They found the lower room of
the restaurant filled with men solacing themselves with tea, which
they drank from glasses filled and refilled from pots. Standing
before them on each table was a steaming samovar to
supply boiling water to the teapots as fast as they
were emptied. The boys had seen the samovar at railway
(01:52):
stations and other places since their entrance into the Empire,
but had not thus far enjoyed the opportunity of examining it.
We will have a samovar to ourselves, said the doctor,
as they mounted the stairs to an upper room, and
then you can study it as closely as you like.
The Russian Belle affair was too much for the reading
(02:13):
abilities of any one of the trio. The doctor could
spell out some of the words, but found they would
get along better by appealing to one of the waiters.
Under his guidance. They succeeded very well, as we learned
from Frank's account of the dinner. Doctor Bronson told us
that cabbage soup was the national dish of the country,
(02:33):
and so we ordered it under the mysterious name of
she A Kharsha. The cabbage is chopped and then boiled
till it falls into shreds. A piece of meat is
cooked with it. The soup is seasoned with pepper and salt,
and all together that she soup is decidedly palatable. Kartia
is barley thoroughly boiled and then dried over the fire
(02:57):
until the grains fall apart. A saucer full of this
cooked barley is supplied to you along with the soup,
and you eat them together. You may mingle the kharsha
with the she as you would mix rice with milk,
but the orthodox way of eating is to take a
small quantity of the karsia into your spoon each time
(03:17):
before dipping it into the soup. A substantial meal can
be made of these articles alone. And there are millions
of the subjects of His Imperial Majesty the Czar, who
dine today and many other days in the year on
nothing else. The emperor eats she, and so does the peasant.
Probably the emperor has it less often in the year
(03:38):
than does his poor subjects. But the soup is of
the same kind, except that very often the peasant cannot
afford the important addition of meat. Don't forget, Fred interposed,
when the foregoing description was read to him. Don't forget
to say that they served us a little cup or
mug of sour cream along with it. Tas that, so,
(04:00):
responded Frank. But I didn't like it particularly, and therefore
came near forgetting it. We remember best the things that
please us. Then perhaps you didn't like the zakushka or
appetizer before dinner, said the doctor. As I see you
haven't mentioned it. I hadn't forgotten it, said the youth,
But was going to say something about it at the end.
(04:21):
You know, the preface of a book is always written
after the rest of the volume has been completed. But
as you've called attention to it, I'll dispose of it
now Here it is. There was a side table on
which were several plates containing relishes of different kinds, such
as caviare, raw herring, dried beef, smoked salmon cut in
(04:42):
little strips or squares, radishes, cheese, butter, and tiny sandwiches
about the size of a half dollar. A glass of cordial,
of which several kinds were offered, goes with the zakushka
for those who like it. The cordial and a few
morsels of the solid things are supposed to sharpen the
appetite and prepare it for the dinner, which is to
(05:04):
be eaten at the table. The sakushka is inseparable from
a dinner in Russia and belongs to it just as
much as do any of the dishes that are served
after the seats are taken. While we were standing around
the side table where it was served at our first
dinner in Saint Petersburg, doctor Bronson told us a story
(05:25):
that is too good to be lost. I'll try to
give it. In his words, there was once a Russian
soldier who had a phenomenal appetite. He could eat an
incredible quantity of food at a sitting, and the officers
of his regiment used to make wagers with strangers about
his feeding abilities. They generally won, and as the soldier
(05:46):
always received a present when he had gained a bet,
he exerted himself to the best of his ability. One day,
the colonel made a wager for a large amount that
his man could eat an entire sheep at a sitting.
The sheep was selected, slaughtered and sent to a restaurant,
and at the appointed time the colonel appeared with the
soldier in order to help the man along. The keeper
(06:09):
of the restaurant had cooked the different parts of the
sheep in various ways. There were broiled and fried cutlets,
roasted and boiled quarters, and some stews and hashes made
from the rest. Dish after dish appeared. When almost the
entire sheep had been devoured, the soldier turned to the
kernel and said, if you give me so much zakushka,
(06:31):
I'm afraid I shan't be able to eat all of
the sheep when they bring it. But to return to soups.
In addition to she the Russians have uka, or fish soup,
made of any kind of fish that is in season.
The most expensive is made from stirlet, a fish that
is found only in the Volga and sometimes sells for
(06:52):
its weight in silver. We tried it one day and
liked it very much, but it costs too much for
frequent eating, except by the wealthy. A very good fish
soup is made from trout, and another from perch. After
the soup, we had pyrok, or pie made of the
spinal cord of this sturgeon, cut into little pieces about
(07:12):
half as large as a pea. It resembles icingnglass in
appearance and is very toothsome. The pie is baked in
a deep dish with two crusts, an upper and an
under one. Doctor Bronson says the Russians make all kinds
of fish into pies and patties, very much as we
make meat pies at home. They sometimes put raisins in
(07:34):
these pies, a practice which seems very incongruous to Americans
and English. They also make soliyanka, a dish composed of
fish and cabbage, and not at all bad when one
is hungry. Red or black pepper liberally applied is an improvement.
What do you think of a kroshka, a soup made
(07:55):
of cold beer with pieces of meat, cucumber, and red
herrings flow in it, along with bits of ice to
keep it cool. Don't want any, neither do we, But
the Russians of the lower classes like it, and I
have heard Russian gentlemen praise it. Many of them are
fond of botvinia, which is a cold soup made in
(08:15):
much the same way as okroshka and about as unpalatable
to us. We ordered a portion of okroshka just to
see how it looked and tasted. One teaspoonful was enough
for each of us, and Batvinia we didn't try. After
the pirog, we had cutlets of chicken and then roast
mutton stuffed with buckwheat, both of them very good. They
(08:38):
offered us some boiled pigs, served cold with horseradish sauce,
but we didn't try it, and then they brought roast
grouse with salted cucumbers for salad. We wound up with
nessel Rode pudding made of plum pudding and ices and
not unknown in other countries. Then we had the samovar,
which had been made ready for us, and drank some
(09:00):
delicious tea, which we prepared ourselves now for the samovar.
Its name comes from two words, which means self boiling,
and the samovar is nothing but an urn of brass
or copper with a cylinder in the center, where a
fire is made with charcoal. The water surrounds the cylinder
(09:21):
and is thus kept at the boiling point, which the
Russians claim is indispensable to the making of good tea.
The beverage is drank not from cups but from glasses,
and the number of glasses it will contain is the
measure of a samovar. The Russians rarely put milk with
their tea, the common people never do so, and the
(09:42):
upper classes only when they have acquired the habit. While abroad,
they rarely dissolve sugar in their tea, but nibble from
a lump after taking a swallow of the liquid. A
peasant will make a single lump serve for four or
five glasses of tea, and it is said to be
an odd sensation for a stranger to hear the nibbling
(10:02):
and grating of lumps of sugar when a party of
Russians is engaged in tea drinking. We sat late over
the samovar, and then paid our bill and returned to
the square. Doctor Bronson told us that an enormous quantity
of tea is consumed in Russia, but very little coffee. Formerly,
all the tea used in the Empire was brought overland
(10:25):
from China by way of Siberia, and the business enabled
the importers of tea to accumulate great fortunes. Down to
eighteen sixty, only one cargo of tea annually was brought
into Russia by sea, all the rest of the importation
being through the town of Kiachta on the frontier of Mongolia.
(10:46):
Since eighteen sixty the ports of the Empire have been
opened to tea brought from China by water, and the
trade of Kiachta has greatly diminished, but it is still
very large, and long trains of sledges come every winter
through Siberia laden with the tea which has been brought
to Kiachta on the backs of camels from the districts
(11:09):
where it has grown. There is one kind of the
Chinese herb called Joeltai Chai yellow tea, which is worth
it retail about fifteen dollars a pound. It is said
to be made from the blossom of the tea plant,
and is very difficult to find out of Russia, as
all that is produced comes here for a market. We
(11:30):
each had a cup of this tea to finish our
dinner with, and nothing more delicious was ever served from
a teapot. The infusion is a pale yellow or straw color,
and to look at appears weak enough, but it is
unsafe to take more than one cup if you do
not wish to be kept awake all night. Its aroma
fills the room when it is poured out. All the
(11:52):
pens in the world cannot describe the song of the
birds or the perfume of the flowers, and so my
pen is unable to tell you about the aroma and
taste of jol Tai Chai. We'll get a small box
of the best and send it home for you to try.
It was so late in the day when our friends
had finished their dinner and returned to the square, that
(12:14):
there was not much time left for sight seeing. They
were in front of the Winter Palace in Saint Isaac's Church,
but decided to leave them until another day. Fred's attention
was drawn to a tall column between the winter Palace
and a crescent of lofty buildings called the atat Major
or staff headquarters, and he asked the doctor what it
(12:36):
was that is the Alexander Column. Was the reply to
the question. It is one of the largest monoliths or
single shafts of modern times. And was erected in eighteen
thirty two in memory of Alexander the First. What a
splendid column, said Frank, I wonder how high it is.
Thereupon the youth fell to guessing at the height of
(12:57):
the column. After they had made their estimates, neither of
them near the mark, but considerably below it, Doctor Bronson
gave them its dimensions. The shaft without pedestal or capital,
is fourteen feet in diameter and eighty four feet high.
It was originally one hundred and two feet high, but
was reduced through fear that its length was out of
(13:19):
proportion to its diameter. The base and pedestal are one
single block of red granite, about twenty five feet high,
and the capital is sixteen feet high. The angel above
the capital is fourteen feet tall, and the cross in
the hands of the angel is seven feet above it.
With the platform on which it rests, the whole structure
(13:40):
rises one hundred and fifty four feet from the level
of the ground. They must have had a hard time
to make the foundations in this marshy ground. One of
the boys remarked, they drove six rows of piling there,
one after the other, before getting a foundation to suit them,
said the doctor. The shaft alone, which was put up
(14:00):
in the rough and finished afterwards, is sought to weigh
about four hundred tons, and the pedestal and base nearly
as much more. Unfortunately, the shaft has suffered from the
effects of the severe climate and may be destroyed at
no distant day. Several cracks have been made by the frost,
and though they have been carefully cemented, they continue to
(14:23):
increase its size. Pieces have fallen from the surface of
the stone in the same way that they have fallen
from the Egyptian Obelisk in New York. And it is
very evident that the climate of Saint Petersburg is unfriendly
to monuments of granite. The bronze on the pedestal and
capital is from Turkish cannon, which were melted down for
(14:43):
the purpose. The only inscription is in the few words
to Alexander the first grateful Russia. Frank made a sketch
of the monument, together with the buildings of the Etat
Major and a company of soldiers that marched past the
foot of the column. Doctor Bronson said the soldiers belonged
to the guard of the Palace, where they had been
(15:04):
on duty through the day, and had just been relieved
from the column and the buildings surrounding it. The trio
of strangers walked to the bank of the river and
watched the boats on the water, where the setting sun
slanted in long rays and filled the air with the
mellow light peculiar to high latitudes. Near the close of day.
(15:24):
It was early in September, and already the evening air
had a touch of coolness about it. Saint Petersburg is
in latitude sixty degrees north, and consequently is quite near
the Arctic Circle. Doctor Bronson told the use that if
they had come there in July, they would have found
very little night, the sun setting not far from ten
(15:44):
o'clock and rising about two. In the four hours of night,
there is almost continuous twilight, and by mounting to the
top of a high building at midnight one can see
the position of the sun below the northern horizons. Anyone
who goes to bed after sunset and rises before sunrise
would have very little sleep in Saint Petersburg. In summer,
(16:08):
on the other hand, said the doctor, the nights of
winter are very long. Winter is the gay season here,
as the city is deserted by fashionable people in summer,
and one is not expected to make visits. The Imperial
court goes away. The Emperor has a palace at Yalta
in the Crimea, and there he passes the autumn months,
(16:28):
unless kept in Saint Petersburg or Moscow by the affairs
of the nation. They have some public festivities here in summer,
but not generally, most of the matters of this kind
being reserved for the winter. Boats were moving in all
directions on the placid waters of the river, darting beneath
the magnificent bridge that stretches across the stream, and carrying
(16:51):
little parties who sought recreation or were on errands of business.
On the opposite side of the Neva, and beyond the
win in her palace was the grim fortress of Saints
Peter and Paul, with whose history many tales of horror
are connected, and where numerous prisoners of greater or less
note have been confined. It was there, said doctor Bronson,
(17:14):
that Peter the Great caused his son Alexis to be
put to death. Caused his son to be put to death,
exclaimed the youths together. Yes, it is generally believed that
such was the case. The doctor answered, though the fact
is not actually known. Alexis, the son of Peter the Great,
was opposed to his father's reforms and devotedly attached to
(17:36):
the old superstitions and customs of Russia. Peter decided to
exclude him from the throne. The son consented and announced
his desire to enter a monastery, from which he managed
to escape to Austria, where he sought the protection of
the Emperor of that country. Peter sent one of his
generals in pursuit of Alexis. By a combination of threats
(17:58):
and promises, he was in used to return to Saint Petersburg,
where he was thrown into prison and afterwards tried for
high treason and condemned to death. Peter pardoned but did
not release him. On the seventh of July seventeen eighteen,
he died suddenly, and it was and is now generally
believed that he was poisoned or beheaded by his father's order.
(18:22):
And was he really guilty of high treason? Fred asked,
according to Russian law and custom, and particularly according to
the law and custom of Peter the Great, he certainly was.
Doctor Bronson replied, Remember the Emperor is autocratic in his power,
at least in theory, and in Peter's time he was so. Actually,
(18:43):
the will of the founder of the Russian Empire was law.
Alexis was opposed to that will and consequently opposed to
the imperial law. The progress of Russia was more in
the eyes of Peter than the life of any human being,
not even accepting his own son and the jitimate heir
to the throne. The proceedings of the trial were published
(19:04):
by Peter as a justification of his act. Peter the Second,
the son of Alexis and grandson of the Great Peter,
died suddenly at the age of fifteen. Peter, the third
grandchild of Peter the Great, through his daughter Anna, was
the husband of the Empress Catherine the Second, but his
reign was very short. His life with Catherine was not
(19:25):
the happiest in the world, and in less than eight
months after he became emperor, she usurped the throne, deposed
her husband, and caused him to be strangled. Catherine was
a German princess, but declared herself thoroughly Russian when she
came to reside in the Empire. If history is correct,
she made a better ruler than the man she put aside,
(19:47):
but this can be no justification of her means of
attaining power. Her son, Paul the First, followed the fate
of his father in being assassinated, but it was not
by her orders. She brought him up in complete ignorance
of public affairs and compelled him to live away from
the Imperial court until her death in seventeen ninety six.
(20:08):
She kept him in retirement, although she had his sons
taken to court and educated under her immediate supervision. Treatment
like this was calculated to make him whimsical and revengeful,
and when he became emperor, he tried to undo every
act of his mother and those about her. He disbanded
her armies, made peace with the countries with which she
(20:30):
was at war, reversed her policy in everything, and became
a most bitter tyrant towards his own people. He issued
absurd orders, and at length his acts bordered on insanity.
A conspiracy was formed among some of the noblemen, who
represented to his son Alexander that it was necessary to
secure the abdication of his father on the ground of incapacity.
(20:54):
Late at night March twenty third, eighteen o one, they
went to his bedroom and presented a paper for him
to sign. He refused and was then strangled by the conspirators.
Alexander the First was proclaimed emperor, and the announcement of
Paul's death was hailed with delight by his oppressed subjects.
Among the foolish edicts he issued was one which forbade
(21:17):
the wearing of round hats. Within an hour after his
death became known, great numbers of round hats were to
be seen on the streets. You've had enough of the
history of the Imperial family of Russia for the present,
said the doctor, after a pause, and now we'll look
at the people on the streets. It is getting late,
and will go to the hotel, making our observations on
(21:39):
the way. Here are distinct types of the inhabitants of
the Empire, the doctor remarked, as they passed two men
who seemed to be an animated conversation. The man with
a round cap and long coat is a Russian peasant,
while the one with the hood over his head and
falling down to his shoulders is a fin Or, a
(22:00):
native of Finland. How far is it from here to Finland,
Frank asked, Only over the river, The doctor replied, you
cross the Neva to its opposite bank, and you are
in what was once the independent Duchy of Finland, but
has long been incorporated with Russia. When Peter the Great
came here, he did not like to be so near
(22:21):
a foreign country, and so made up his mind to
convert Finland into Russian territory. The independence of the duchy
was maintained for some time, but in the early part
of the present century, Russia defeated the armies of Finland
and the country was permanently occupied. Finland has its constitution,
which is based on that of Sweden, and when it
(22:43):
was united with Russia, the constitutional rights of the people
were guaranteed. The country is ruled by a Governor General,
who is appointed by Russia. It has a parliament for
presenting the grievances and wishes of the people, but all
acts must receive the approval of the Imperial government before
they can become the law of the land. What are
(23:04):
those men standing in front of a building, said Fred,
as he pointed to a fellow with a broom talking
with another in uniform. The one in uniform is a postman,
was the reply, and the other is a devornik or
house guardian. The devornick sweeps the sidewalk in front of
a house and looks after the entrance. He corresponds to
(23:25):
the porter or portier of other countries, and is supposed
to know the names of all the tenants of the building.
The postman is reading an address on a letter, and
the devornik is probably pointing in the direction of the
room occupied by the person to whom the missive belongs.
I have read that letters in Russia are examined by
(23:45):
the police before they are delivered, said one of the boys.
Is that really the case? Formerly it was, or at
least they were liable to examination, And it probably happens
often enough at the present time. If a man is
spected of treasonable practices, his correspondence is liable to be seized,
unless there is a serious charge against him. It is
(24:08):
not detained after examination, provided it contains nothing objectionable. The
post office, like everything else in Russia, is a part
of the military system, and if the government wishes to
do anything with the letters of its subjects, it generally
does it. The correspondence of foreigners is rarely meddled, with
(24:28):
writers for the foreign newspapers sometimes complain that their letters
are lost in the mails or show signs of having
been opened. But I fancy that these cases are rare.
For one, I have in the least feared that our
letters will be troubled, as we have no designs upon Russia,
other than to see it if we were plotting treason,
(24:49):
or had communications with Russian and Polish revolutionists in France
or Switzerland, it is probable that the government would not
be long in finding out what would happen to us.
Supposing that to be the case, Frank inquired, Supposing it
to be so, for the sake of argument, the doctor answered,
(25:09):
our treatment would depend much upon the circumstances. If we
were Russians, we should probably be arrested and imprisoned, But
as we are foreigners, we should be asked to leave
the country unless the matter is very serious. The authorities
do not like to meddle with foreigners in any way
that will lead to a dispute with another government, and
(25:30):
their quickest way out of the difficulty is to expel
the obnoxious visitor. How would they go to work to
expel us? An officer would call at our lodgings and
tell us our passports were ready for our departure, he
would probably say that the train for the frontier leaves
at eleven a m. Tomorrow, and he would expect us
(25:50):
to go by that train. If the case was urgent,
he would probably tell us we must go by that train,
and he would be at the hotel at ten o'clock
to a square to it. He would take us to
the train and accompany us to the frontier, where he
would gracefully say goodbye and wish us a pleasant journey
to our homes. If matters were less serious, he would
(26:12):
allow us two or three days, perhaps a week to
close our affairs. All would depend upon his orders, and
whatever they were, they would be carried out. Before the
days of the railways, objectionable parties were taken to the
frontier in carriages or slaves, the government paying the expense
of the posting, and no matter what the hour of
(26:33):
arrival at the boundary, they were set down and left
to take care of themselves. An Englishman who had got
himself into trouble with the government in the time of
the Emperor Nicholas, tells how he was dropped just over
the boundary in Prussia in the middle of a dark
and rainy night and left standing in the road with
his baggage fully a mile from any house. The officer
(26:55):
who accompanied him was ordered to escort him over the frontier,
and did it excaps. Probably his passenger was a trifle obstinate,
or he would not have been left in such a plight.
A little politeness and possibly a few shillings in money,
would have induced the officer to bring him to the boundary.
In the daytime and in the neighborhood of a habitation,
(27:17):
expelled foreigners have rarely any cause to complain of the
incivility of their escorts. I know a Frenchman who was
thus taken to the frontier after a notice of two days,
and he told me that he could not have received
greater civility if he had been the guest of the
Emperor and going to Saint Petersburg instead of from it.
He added that he tried to outdo his guardians in politeness,
(27:40):
and further admitted that he richly deserved expulsion, as he
had gone to the Empire on a revolutionary mission. On
the whole, he considered himself fortunate to escape so easily.
The conversation led to anecdotes about the police system of Russia.
And at their termination, our friends found themselves else at
the door of the hotel. Naturally, they shifted to other
(28:03):
topics as soon as they were in the presence of others.
It was an invariable rule of our friends not to discuss,
in the hearing of anyone else, the politics of the
countries they were visiting. End of Chapter four
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