We have often remarked that the talent for trafficking lies deep In the Russian blood. The merest children show an address and dexterity in commercial dealings such as are displayed only by long-practised traders with us. The German understanding ripens slowly, but then It arrives at a high state of maturity ; the Russian (mercantile) understanding does not seem to want ripening, it is born ripe and ready, but does not in tbe end go as far as the beginning promised. With some very able, there are also in Germany, some astomidingly stupid traders. This does not seem to be the case in Russia ; there, every one seems born with a like portion of wit. In Moscow I found this opinion many times confirmed. I went one day into a wax-chandler's shop on the invitation of a mannikin of seven years old. "With us at such an age, children are helpless, timid, childlike, and childish ; in Russia they are adroit, cunning, and too clever by half. Dressed in his little blue caftan of precisely the same cut as that worn by men, the infant merchant entreated me to enter his shop, bowing in the same obsequious fashion as his elders ; and when I told him that I was not going to buy but only wanted to look at his wares, he answered as complaisantly as his papa could have done. "Pray oblige me by looking at whatever you please." He showed me all his stock, opened every press with a dexterous willingness, which I could not but admire ; knew not only the price of every sort of candle, but the whole capital invested in the stock ; the yearly returns, the wholesale price, the profit, at so much per cent.: in a word, he had in every respect the demeanour of an experienced trader. Just such children as these are often found at the money -broker's table ; and at an age when with us they would hardly be trusted with a few pence, a considerable capital will be committed to their care. Many similar miUionaires in spe, are running about the streets with fruit, honeycakes, kwas, and so forth ; who jingle their money, and handle their reckoning-boards with so much address, that it is easy to comprehend how so many opulent individuals issue from their ranks. In Russia the greater number of wealthy merchants must look back to the streets and pedler's booth for their youthful reminiscences, when all their merchandise consisted of picture-books, kwas, or wax-tapers.
The streets of Moscow are as dark as those of St. Petersburg. There are few lamps except those suspended in the heavens, and when the Calendar does not promise moonlight, they look for long days in summer, and for aurora borealis and the reflection of the snow in winter, or for some other provision of kind mother Nature wherewith to lighten their darkness. Nothing is more striking to a traveller coming from the gas-lighted streets of English, German, and Netherlands cities, than the fact, that the Russian people have for the most part no other illumination in their streets than the wolves and bears have in their forests ; although, in many places, man has made his dwelling there for a thousand years. The extravagant extent of the Russian cities does indeed render the introduction of a regular system of lighting, or any improvement in the street police, a matter of extreme difficulty ; while in Germany, on the contrary, the very limited spaces are often found great obstacles to the same wholesome regidaiions. The denizen of a Russian city must pay at least ten times as much as a German, to have his house in equal order, and his streets equally well liglitcd.
During our stay in Moscow, there occurred some of the " zorskif/c dnC (imperial days), which are celebrated by street illuminations. The Russians divide their holidays into church hoUdays, and tlie so-called imperial days. These ordinary illuminations on extraordinary days, are yet more dismal affairs in Moscow than in St. Petersburg. A few tallow-candles flickering" in earthen-bowls on the trottoirs, by order of the poUce, seemed placed there for no other purpose than to make the darkness more visible, and have no better effect in muddy weather than a Will-o'-the-wisp on marshy ground. These tallow Jack-o'-lanterns are used for " illumination" in the capitals of all the governments on similar Occasions.