Mr. T. is moreover a man quite comme il faut, with a shaven chin, French poUsh, and a due aUowaiice of stars, and stands, in fact, some steps too high to be interesting to an observer of Russian maimers. His wife dresses in the newest fashion, and keeps a French cook, and his daughters are betrothed to officers. I begged a friend of mine, therefore, to go a little lower down in the scale of society, and introduce me into the house ot a merchant of ordinary standing. Thus I made the acquaintance of the miUionalre, A., to whom my friend presented me in the Gostinnoi Dvor, and bv whom I was invited to dinner. I had already seen several streets in Moscow, which I had been told belonged to this gentleman. He lived, however, at Kharkoff, probably because it is a cheaper place. His dwelling-house is one of those extensive and desolate palaces so common in Russia, which seem formed after the pattern of a gigantic empire. The mansion has its courtyards and vestibules, as if it were the residence ot some great lord of the soil, instead of a simple citizen; portals and columns, like some Grecian temple, rather than a burgher's dwelhng. In the interior we found long ranges of lofty, spacious, gaily-painted rooms, of which the greater part seemed destined to no other purpose than to swell tlie number; in one were a dozen of chairs and one table, in another a divan, in a third nothing at aU, in a fom-th a press mth some old plate which the owner took out to show us as heir-looms inherited from his father; m every one there were pictures of saints in broad gilded frames. Mr. D. received us with a hundred obeisances and thousands of thanks for coming, and presented me to some ot his friends, to whom I was obliged to name myselt, Gregor Feodorowitsch. There were no ladies present ; but Mr. A. led me through the rooms to his own and his lady's sleeping-room, where no other furniture was to be seen than the richly curtained and gilded matrimonial couch. At one corner of it stood his wife, dressed m a large flowered
GrcjTor is Coorgc, Feodorowitsch may mean Frederick's, or Henry's, orEdwjml s son, for the Russians jjenerallv translate the German names they have not, by Fcx)- dor, and as on the wliole tliey believe the greater number of Germans lure named Jrcdcrick, a Fcodor Feodorowitsch means nearly the same as ii Gcrmiuu sarafan, and kakoshnik glittering Avith gokl and pearls. She was picking at the lace of the bed-curtains as we entered. It is usually in their bedchambers that Russian merchants introduce strangers to their wives. I apologized to the lady for my bad Russian, and she assured me that she knew not a syllable of German or French, but she had a " Niemetzki utshiteV (a German tutor) for her children, who knew every thing, and I might speak with him what language I chose. At dinner I encountered this marvellous " uishitcl^^ whose very indifferent German promised little for his other acquirements. There was no want of servants, and one heavy dish followed another in tedious succession ; but there was little salt to the conversation. Mr. A had generally his mouth too full of other things to permit himself more than an occasional friendly smile. His " supruga " (wife) was dumb according to Russian notions of female decorum, and the " utshitel^'' I believe, was ashamed of his bad German. After dinner we went into another room to the dessert, after old Russian fashion. On a round table stood a number of dishes with various preserved fruits from Kieff, which a servant carried round on a large waiter. For all this there was one gold spoon, and only one, with which every guest helped himself to what he liked, and after he had bathed his gums therewith, the spoon walked over to his neighbour. Fortunately for me, I was complimented with the first suck. After dinner my host told me that he was obliged to absent liimself on business, but that his coach-andfour was ready, if I chose to take a drive with the utshitel, which I did, and as nothing causes me ennui, even this served for a diversion. Mr. A is the representative of a whole class ; and among all the Russian merchants, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the same style of luxury is found, the same ready hospitality, and the same very peculiar mixture of superficial civilization, with the intensest barbarism.