the Gostinnoi-Dvor: while
other city shops ask various prices, and sell for whatever they can
get, this great bazaar has fixed prices, and is supposed to adhere to
them. Regarding the quality of the goods sold here, truth compels us
to say that the intelligent traveller will hardly feel inclined to
invest much money in their purchase. Pictures of saints and packs of
cards are the two articles which find the largest sale in such
places. A propensity to gamble is as natural to this people as it is
to the Chinese. The popular cry of the Spanish lower classes is
"bread and bulls;" that of the Russians might be "saints and cards."
Next to vodka, cards are the evil genius of the masses. Many are the
dram-shops and potent the liquor where the idlers play with cards and
liquid fire. We were speaking to a resident upon these matters, when
he closed by saying: "Ah, yes, it is to be regretted; but what can
you expect? It is so hard to be good, and so very easy to be bad!"

Coming out of the labyrinth of narrow alleys and long arcades of the
bazaar upon the Nevsky Prospect side, we overtook a bevy of nursery
girls with their juvenile charges bound for the shady paths and
fragrant precincts of the Summer Garden. These maids are here quite a
social feature, and in their showy distinctive dress recall those of
the Tuileries at Paris, the Prado at Madrid, or the Ceylon nurses of
English officers' children at Colombo. These St. Petersburg domestics
much affect the old Russian costume, with added vividness of color,
producing a theatrical and gala-day effect. It seems to be quite a
mark of family distinction to have a nurse thus bedecked about the
house, or abroad with its baby-representative, while there is evident
rivalry between the matronly employers in regard to the richness of
the dresses worn by the maids. These costumes consist often of a
bonnet like a diadem of red or blue velvet, embroidered with gold,
beneath which falls the hair in two long braids. The robe is of some
wadded damask, the waist just below the arms, supplemented by a very
short skirt. Plenty of gold cord decks these garments, which are
usually braided in fantastic figures.

The one vehicle of Russia is the drosky, the most uncomfortable and
unavailable vehicle ever constructed for the use of man, but of which
there are, nevertheless, over fifteen thousand in the streets of the
imperial city. It has very low wheels, a heavy awkward body, and is
as noisy as a C