rs, put in an appearance,
followed by the "_Pyefche_," or choristers, all of whom share in
the bounty and hospitality of those on whom they call. The priests,
of course, come in for the largest share, and, generally speaking,
they know the value of the adage, "First come first served."

At mid-day of Easter Sunday a salute is fired from the fortress,
and carnival begins again. It is a repetition of the same amusements
as in carnival before Lent, and continues until the following Sunday
evening.

_RUSSIAN TEA AND TEA-HOUSES_

_H. SUTHERLAND EDWARDS_

A true Russian _restaurant_, or _traktir_ (probably from the French
_traiteur_), is not to be found in St. Petersburg, whose _cafes_
and _restaurants_ are either German or French, or imitated from
German or French models. One of the large Moscow _traktirs_ is not
only very much larger, but at least twelve times larger than an
ordinary French _cafe_. The best of them is the Troitzkoi _traktir_,
where the merchants meet to complete the bargains they have commenced
on the Exchange--that is to say--in the street beneath, where all
business is carried on, summer and winter, in the open air. St.
Petersburg is more fortunate, and has a regular bourse, with a
chapel attached to it. The merchants always enter this chapel before
commencing their regular afternoon's work ('Change is held at four
o'clock in St. Petersburg), and remain for several minutes at their
devotions, occasionally offering a candle to the Virgin or some
saint. Now and then it must happen that a speculator for the rise
and a speculator for the fall enter the chapel and commence their
orisons at the same time. Probably they pray that they may not
be tempted to cheat one another.

There is no special chapel for the Moscow merchants, nor is there
one attached to the Troitzkoi _traktir_, which I am inclined to
look upon after all as the real Moscow Exchange. But in each of
the rooms, of which the entrances as usual are arched, and which
together form an apparently interminable suite, the indispensable
holy picture is to be seen; and no Russian goes in or out without
making the sign of the cross. No Russian, to whatever class he
may belong, remains for a moment with his hat on in any inhabited
place; whether out of compliment to those who inhabit it, or from
respect to the holy pictures, or from mixed reasons. The waiters,
of whom there are said to be a hundred and fifty at the Troitzkoi
_traktir_, are all