ore
than twenty millions; above them stood more than a hundred thousand
owners. The princely strength of the largest owners was best represented
by a few men possessing over a hundred thousand serfs each, and, above
all, by Count Scheremetieff, who boasted three hundred thousand. The
luxury of the large owners was best represented by about four thousand
men possessing more than a thousand serfs each. The pinching
propensities of the small owners were best represented by fifty thousand
men possessing fewer than twenty serfs each.

The serfs might be divided into two great classes. The first comprised
those working under the old or _corvee_ system, giving usually three
days in the week to the tillage of the owner's domain; the second
comprised those working under the new or _obrok_ system, receiving a
payment fixed by the owner and assessed by the community to which the
serfs belonged. The character of the serfs had been moulded by the serf
system. They had a simple shrewdness, which, under a better system, had
made them enterprising; but this quality soon degenerated into cunning
and cheatery--the weapons which the hopelessly oppressed always use.
They had a reverence for things sacred, which under a better system
might have given the nation a strengthening religion; but they now stood
among the most religious peoples on earth and among the least moral. To
the picture of Our Lady of Kazan they were ever ready to burn wax and
oil; to truth and justice they constantly omitted the tribute of mere
common honesty. They kept the Church fasts like saints; they kept the
Church feasts like satyrs.

They had curiosity, which under a better system would have made them
inventive; but their plough, in common use, was behind the plough
described by Vergil. They had a love of gain, which under a better
system would have made them hardworking; but it took ten serfs to do,
languidly and poorly, what two free men in America would do quickly and
well. They were naturally a kind people; but let one example show how
serfage can transmute kindness. It is a rule, well known in Russia, that
when an accident occurs, interference is to be left to the police. Hence
you would see a man lying in a fit, and the bystanders giving no aid,
but waiting for the authorities. Some years ago, as all the world
remembers, a theatre took fire in St. Petersburg, and crowds of people
were burned or stifled. The whole story is not so well known. The
theatre was