Russian Rambles

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Houghton, Mifflin, 1895 - Russia - 369 pages

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Page 202 - The time is out of joint : — 0, cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right ! — Nay, come, let 's go together.
Page 44 - Street," as it has been called. Most fascinating of all the shops are those of the furriers and goldsmiths, with their surprises and fresh lessons for foreigners ; the treasures of Caucasian and Asian art in the Eastern bazaars; the " Colonialwares " establishments, with their delicious game cheeses, and odd studend [fishes in jelly], their pineapples at five and ten dollars, their tiny oysters from the Black Sea, at twelve and a half cents apiece. Enthralling as are the shop windows, the crowd on...
Page 35 - ... and where the ground still quakes at dawn, it may not contain the largest and best shops in town, and its merchants certainly are not " Guests " in the ancient acceptation of the word ; but we may claim, nevertheless, that it presents a compendium of most purchasable articles extant, from samovars, furs, and military goods, to books, sacred images, and Moscow imitations of Parisian novelties at remarkably low prices, as well as the originals. The nooks and spaces of the arcade, especially at...
Page 42 - ... and, if we are in such unseemly haste as to care for the news before the ten o'clock delivery — or the eleven o'clock, if the postman has not found it convenient otherwise — we must buy on the street, though we live but half a block from the newspaper office, which opens at ten. By noon, everyone is awake. The restaurants are full of breakfasters, and Dominique's, which chances to stand on the most crowded stretch of the street, on the sunny north side beloved of promenaders, is dense with...
Page 47 - His legs are too fat to enter the sledge, — that is to say, if his master truly respects his own dignity, — and his feet are accommodated in iron stirrups outside. He leans well back, with arms outstretched to accord with the racing speed at which he drives. In the tiny...
Page 16 - ... following Poor Richard's advice : " If you want a thing done, do it yourself ; if not, send ! " To sum up the passport question : If his passport is in order, the traveler need never entertain the slightest apprehension for a single moment, despite sensational tales to the contrary, and it will serve as a safeguard. If, for any good reason, his passport cannot be put in order, the traveler will do well to keep out of Russia, or any other country which requires such documents.
Page 24 - Petrovitch took the imperial crown from the altar, placed it on his own head, then laid it reverently on his father's coffin. When Peter III. was transferred immediately afterward, with magnificent ceremonial, to the Winter Palace, there to lie in state by the side of his wife, Katherine II., and to accompany her to his proper resting-place among the sovereigns of Russia, in the cathedral of the Peter-Paul fortress, Count Alexe"i...
Page 124 - ... brothers were in the habit of planting their pussy willows, received on Palm Sunday, on the bank of the stream, and these, duly labeled, have now grown into a hedge of trees. The screen is not perfect, however, and glimpses of the playground are open to the public across the narrow stream. On this summer afternoon, there was a party of royalties on the island, swinging on the Giant Steps. The Giant Steps, I must explain, consist of a tall, stout mast firmly planted in the earth, bound with iron...
Page 54 - The occasional temporary obscurations produced by the steam from relays of samovdri do not interfere materially with the neighbors' view of the card-parties and the final exchange of big bundles of bank-bills, which takes place at five o'clock or later the next morning.
Page 46 - ... for yourself !) will be heard from the first fashionable coachman who is impeded in his swift career, and he will be called to order promptly by the police. Ladies may not, unfortunately, drive in the smartest of the public carriages, but must content themselves with something more modest and more shabby. But Vanka is usually good-natured, patient, and quite unconscious of his shabbiness, at least in the light of a grievance or as affecting his dignity. It was one of these shabby, but democratic...

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