In the infirmary we found 150 patients. Three of the little sufferers had that morning closed their eyes for ever. Their bodies were laid out in a separate room, on small beds which had been neatly decorated according to the prescribed form, but no mothers eye was there to shed a tear upon the deceased. For my own part, however, the dead bodies laid out in that room, produced a less melancholy effect upon me, than the cradles intended for the living in the receiving lodge.
We next proceeded to that part of the building which was set apart for the girls who had returned from the country. I do not recollect how many hundred girls, from six years old to eighteen, were, at the period of my visit, in that part of the establishment, but I was astonished at the order and cleanliness of the rooms, the excellent arrangement of the schoolrooms and donnitories, and the neat appearance of the pupils themselves. Every thing about the place, compared with all similar establishments that I had seen in other countries, was really magnificent. The expression is not too strong.
It was just dinner time when we entered the dining-room. Long tables in three rows were neatly laid out, and long rows of the elder girls marched in from different sides, in double files, led by their governesses and inspectresses. Hundreds, however, came running in from the o-arden, or skipping down the stairs ; they were differently clad, according to their several classes. Some were in red, others in blue, yellow, brown, Sec., but all were clean, and their hair either laid smoothly over the forehead, or prettily braided. There was an air of health and cheerfulness about
This refers only to the house in St. Petersburg. Including the boys' house and the children out in the country, the annual deaths average from 2400 to 3000
116 THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.
Ihem all, and the sight of so many pretty girls aU at once was quite bewitching. The director was standing by the side of me, and each of the children in passing saluted him in the most miconstrained manner with a " Good day, papa," in Russian, French, and German.
Gradually all had arranged themselves at their respective tables, and a moment of complete silence followed, after wliich there arose a hymn of praise to the Creator, who feeds the doves and the motherless. The singing in the Russian churches is at all times imposing ; but to hear a hymn sung to a Russian sacred melody, by at least a thousand female voices, had in it something so irresistibly affecting, that nothing remained for the wayward heart but to yield to the general movement, to join in the act of praise, and leave a free course to tears.
After this pious exercise aU sat down, and a lively buzz of conversation, accompanied by a brisk clattering of spoons, spread quickly through the hall. I was invited to taste the cheer. It happened to be a fast day, and the Russian viands on those occasions are little calculated to flatter a German palate ; still I found all as good and savoury as fish, oil, turnips, and kapusta oould well be made on such a day. Gigantic boilers and tureens rose by some invisible machinery from the kitchen below, and their contents were rapiKlly distributed among the plates, and found their way no less rapidly between the talkative lips for which they were intended.
After the spectacle of the wards for sucklings, the great dining-room was a relief and consolation. I felt thankful to God for those who were now old enough to help themselves to their food ; but it was melancholy to think that for each httle head in that room, three sisters reposed in the cold churchyard.
The Germans have corrupted a word of Latin origin into Borse ; the Russians have adopted it from the Germans, and russianized it into Birsha ; but this name is bestowed upon every place where persons regularly meet for any object — among others, to the places where the isvoshtshiks stand while waiting for employment. In St Petersbm-g it is, therefore, not enough to direct your sledge-driver to the " Birsha" (Exchange) ; you must say the Dutch Exchange, for so the magnificent building on Vassili Ostroif, where the merchants assemble, is called by the lower class of Russians, probably from the circumstance of the Dutch merchants, who were invited to St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, having had the first settlement, where now the representatives of every maritime nation are to be found.
The Exchange of St. Petersburg is more favourably situated than many great public buildings. It stands on the extreme point of Vassih Ostrott", with a noble open space before it, and is reared on elevated foundations.