The isvoshtshiks of St. Petersburg appear to be a race of Hamaxobites, leading a sort of nomadic life among the palaces of the capital. They encamp by day in the streets, and so do many of them during the night, their sledge serving them at once as house and bed. Like the Bedouin Arabs, they carry the oat-bag constantly with them, and fasten it, during their intervals of leisure, to the noses of their steeds. In every street arrangements have been made for the convenience of the isvoshtshiks. Every here and there mangers are erected for their use ; to water their horses, there are in all parts of the town convenient descents to the canals or to the river ; and hay is sold at a number of shops in small bundles, just sufficient for one or two horses. To still the thirst and hunger of the charioteers themselves, there are peripatetic dealers in quass, tea, and bread, who are constantly wandering about the streets for the charitable purpose of feeding the hungry. The animals are as hardy as their masters. Neither care for cold or rain, both eat as opportunity serves, and are content to take their sleep when it comes. Yet they are always cheerful, the horses ever ready to start off at a smart trot, the diivers at all times disposed for a song, a joke, or a gossip. When they are neither eating, nor engaged in any other serious occupation, they lounge about their sledges, singing some simple melody that they have probably brought with them from their native forests. Where several of them happen to be together at the corner of a street, they are sure to be engaged in some game or other, pelting with snow-balls, wrestling, or bantering each other, till the " Davai, isvoshtshik !" of some chance passenger makes them all grasp their whips in a moment, and converts them into eager com )eti tors for the expected gain.
The poorest isvoshtsliiks in St. Petersburg are the Finlanders. Their droshky is often little more than a board naUed over the axles of their wheels, and their little sliaggy, ragged, bony horses look like the very emblems of hunger and misery. Scarcely covered by their tattered caftans, they station themselves in the remote quarters of the town, and themselves poor, afford the use of their four wheels to poverty for a moderate fee. In the more fashionable and central quarters, on the other hand, equipages of first-rate elegance offer their service to the public, with every thing about them a quatre epingles. A fine black steed, with a coat shining like satin, the harness glittering like a lady's ball dress ; a light delicate sledge, with a cloth richly lined with fur, and an isvoshtshik in a magnificent beard, and a caftan fit for a Turkish pasha. Such vehicles are not to be put in motion for any thing less than a blue note, and are intended to impress a credulous public with the belief that they are private and not hired carriages ; for in St. Petersburg it is thought tres mauvais genre for a lady to allow herself to be driven by an isvoshtshik ; and a woman above the rank of a chambermaid or a tradesman's wife would scarcely venture to make use of such a conveyance. The men are less particular. Even those of the highest station do not refuse, on an emergency, to avail themselves of the services of an isvoshtshik.
It is not customary for a Russian noble to put a livery on his coachman, who is almost always clad in the old national costume. If, therefore, you hire one of these smart isvoshtshiks, all you have to do is to order him to slip his number under his caftan, and nobody can tell whether the driver and his steed are not, bodies and soul of them, your undisputed freehold property. Indeed, these handsome equipages on the public stands are said sometimes to be the private carriages of individuals, who, during their absence from the capital, convert their coachmen into isvoshtshiks. St. Petersburg is at all times crowded with civil and military officers, who are liable without any previous notice to be sent away suddenly to a distant part of the empire, and who are willing that their horses should earn their oats in the public service while their masters are away.
As there are no fixed fares, you must each time bargain with your driver when you hire him ; but the fellows are, in general, moderate enough, and v/ill take you a tolerably long way for a few pence. Their demands indeed are apt to rise in proportion as the weather becomes less inviting to pedestrianism, or as the calendar announces the recurrence of a public holiday. There are days when they will not bate a copek of their demands ; and in the busy part of the day they will not take less than two rubles for a course, which in the morning or the evening they are ready to go for half a one. On ordinary occasions they are reasonable and obliging enough, and will often carry you for nothing from one side to tlie other of a muddy street.