I be believed if I say
that I found it in custom-house officers and gendarmes? For the rest,
characters vary quite as much as they do elsewhere. It is a question of
individuals, in character and morals, and it is dangerous to indulge in
generalizations. My one generalization is that they are, as a nation,
too long-suffering and lenient in certain directions, that they allow
too much personal independence in certain things.

If I succeed in dispelling some of the absurd ideas which are now
current about Russia, I shall be content. If I win a little
comprehension and kindly sympathy for them, I shall be more than
content.

ISABEL F. HAPGOOD. New York, January 1, 1895.

CONTENTS

I. PASSPORTS, POLICE, AND POST-OFFICE IN RUSSIA.

II. THE NEVSKY PROSPEKT

III. MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE RUSSIAN CENSOR

IV. BARGAINING IN RUSSIA

V. EXPERIENCES

VI. A RUSSIAN SUMMER RESORT

VII. A STROLL IN MOSCOW WITH COUNT TOLSTOY

VIII. COUNT TOLSTOY AT HOME

IX. A RUSSIAN HOLY CITY

X. A JOURNEY ON THE VOLGA

XI. THE RUSSIAN KUMYS CURE

XII. MOSCOW MEMORIES

XIII. THE NIZHNI-NOVGOROD FAIR AND THE VOLGA

RUSSIAN RAMBLES.

I.

PASSPORTS, POLICE, AND POST-OFFICE IN RUSSIA.

We imported into Russia, untaxed, undiscovered by the custom-house
officials, a goodly stock of misadvice, misinformation, apprehensions,
and prejudices, like most foreigners, albeit we were unusually well
informed, and confident that we were correctly posted on the grand
outlines of Russian life, at least. We were forced to begin very
promptly the involuntary process of getting rid of them. Our anxiety
began in Berlin. We visited the Russian consul-general there to get our
passports _vised_. He said, "You should have got the signature of the
American consul. Do that, and return here."

At that moment, the door leading from his office to his drawing-room
opened, and his wife made her appearance on the threshold, with the
emphatic query, "_When_ are you coming?"

"Immediately, my dear," he replied. "Just wait a moment, until I get rid
of these Americans."

Then he decided to rid himself of us for good. "I will assume the
responsibility for you," he said, affixed his signature on the spot, to
spare himself a second visit, and, collecting his fees, bowed us out. I
suppose he argued that we should have known the ropes and attended to
all details accurately, in order to ward off suspicion, had we been
suspicious characters. How