We western Europeans cleave to our rocks and mountains; but the pulses of Russian life beat on immeasurable plains around the whole circumference of the globe, for between the Russian American possessions and the islands of the icy sea, there remains but a small space to complete the circle. Whilst we Germans sometimes feel ourselves strange a few miles from our native soil, the Russian is at home every where in his vast native land, and it is all one to him whether he earn his bread under the parallel of Constantinople, or on the shores of the Polar sea. It would be a great mistake to suppose the numerous street population of the Russian cities all natives of the place. I hey come together from all parts of the north and south, to disperse again to the east and west.
In no city is this more the case than in St. Petersburg, in whose streets all the governments find representatives, and whither dealers and artisans of all kinds flock in multitudes.
In every household there are a multitude of breakable com.modities standing in constant need of repair. In all Russian towns artisans of all kinds are roaming about to supply this constantly recurring necessity; which is the easier done, because their manual dexterity enables them to do nearly as much with a mere hatchet as can be accomplished elsewhere with hammer, plane., knife, and cliisel. Wandering coopers, smiths, tailors, and shoemakers are ready at a call to hoop, hanmier, and patch ; even glaziers risk their fragile materials in the streets for the chance of a trifling profit.
The loudest scream is that of the flower-merchants, who carry their wares about in pots placed slantingly on a board upon their heads ; dealers in singing-birds traverse the streets, hung with cages from head to foot ; while others are perfectly laden with boots, stockings, and gloves. Almost every cry announces some branch of industry from distant parts of the mighty empire, v/hereas our street calls have reference only to the neighbourhood. " Sfapogi Kasanskiyi" (boots from Casan), " Kartini Moskovskiya" (pictures from Moscow), " Khalati Bukhorskiyi" (Tartar t1resslng-gowns)"» The Mongolians and Tartars are distinguished for their skill in the preparation of leather, and almost every branch of manufacture connected with this article in Russia has had its origin from them ; as the gold and silver embroidered caps and girdles of Moscow ; the richly-adorned morocco boots for morning wear of Casan, which are in use throughout Russia, and are also exported. Dressing-gowns are almost the only things that do not come through Russian hands, but from those of the Tartar makers. Their " khalati" are generally their only merchandise, and fin them alone they come to St. Peteisburg, where they are often called " dressing-gown Tartars." Certainly the Tartar, or Bokharian gowns, are the most perfect things of the kind. The price is moderate, the pattern of the silk extremely beautiful, the cut very elegant, and the colours lasting ; they are of the few articles of dress that are always in fashion. The dressing-gown Tartars may be distinguished at a glance from the rest of the street population of St. Petersburg by their cleanliness of apparel, carefully trimmed beards, shorn heads, and serious anxious physioLinomy.
None of the Rasnoshtshiks deal in a more current article than the picture-dealers of Moscow. The Russian delights to decorate his dwelling with all sorts of gaily-coloured pictures. The Kabaks (spirit-shops), the sitting-rooms of the lower classes, the little cabins of the river barges, often even the inside of the sledges and kibitkis are plastered over with pictures, coloured paper, and patches of gay-looking carpet. The chief manufactory of these articles is Moscow, whence they issue to all parts of the empire. These pictures may be divided into three classes, religious, political, and esthetic. The religious are the oldest, the most peculiarly Russian, and the most universally favoured. They represent all the scenes and subjects that constantly busy the fancy of a Russian, — Heaven with its happiness, Hell with its torments, the seven universal churches, with their hundred sacred cupolas and towers, the twelve most celebrated convents of Russia, all on one sheet ; Moscow the Holy with its thousand churches ; then the moral satiric pictures, such as the " gold devil" scattering money among the people, and dazzling and seducing all classes ; the devil of love, and the devil of vanity, mocking and leading by the nose men and women of all ages ; then the holy martyrs assisting the poor and sick, and bearing with patience the greatest torments in their own persons. All these objects are depicted with great liveliness of fancy and colouring, and in the greatest detail.