, though he does not enjoy any
of the corresponding privileges. Once I remember asking a rich man of
this kind, the proprietor of several large houses in St. Petersburg,
why he did not free himself from all connection with his native Commune,
with which he had no longer any interests in common. His answer was, "It
is all very well to be free, and I don't want anything from the Commune
now; but my old father lives there, my mother is buried there, and I
like to go back to the old place sometimes. Besides, I have children,
and our affairs are commercial (nashe dyelo torgovoe). Who knows but my
children may be very glad some day to have a share of the Commune land?"

In respect to these non-agricultural occupations, each district has its
specialty. The province of Yaroslavl, for instance, supplies the large
towns with waiters for the traktirs, or lower class of restaurants,
whilst the best hotels in Petersburg are supplied by the Tartars of
Kasimof, celebrated for their sobriety and honesty. One part of the
province of Kostroma has a special reputation for producing carpenters
and stove-builders, whilst another part, as I once discovered to
my surprise, sends yearly to Siberia--not as convicts, but as free
laborours--a large contingent of tailors and workers in felt! On
questioning some youngsters who were accompanying as apprentices one of
these bands, I was informed by a bright-eyed youth of about sixteen that
he had already made the journey twice, and intended to go every winter.
"And you always bring home a big pile of money with you?" I inquired.
"Nitchevo!" replied the little fellow, gaily, with an air of pride and
self-confidence; "last year I brought home three roubles!" This
answer was, at the moment, not altogether welcome, for I had just been
discussing with a Russian fellow-traveller as to whether the peasantry
can fairly be called industrious, and the boy's reply enabled my
antagonist to score a point against me. "You hear that!" he said,
triumphantly. "A Russian peasant goes all the way to Siberia and back
for three roubles! Could you get an Englishman to work at that rate?"
"Perhaps not," I replied, evasively, thinking at the same time that if a
youth were sent several times from Land's End to John o' Groat's House,
and obliged to make the greater part of the journey in carts or on foot,
he would probably expect, by way of remuneration for the time and labour
expended, rather more than seven and sixpence!