rated with frescos from
Biblical and Russian history, and is dazzling in its vast richness of
detail. The interior of St. Isaac's at St. Petersburg has been
closely imitated in some important particulars. The entire floor is
of marble, and the walls are lined with exquisite varieties of the
same. Here on the 25th of December is annually celebrated, with great
pomp and ceremony, the retreat of the French invaders from Russian
soil. "God with us," is the motto sculptured over the grand entrance
of this magnificent temple, the aggregate cost of which was over
twelve millions of dollars.

Lying on the east side of the Kremlin and adjoining its walls is a
section of the city also enclosed within high walls, known as the
Chinese City. It is a queer division of the metropolis, with towers
and buttresses like a fortification, called by the Russians "Kitai
Gorod." Herein assemble the thieves, pickpockets, and rogues
generally, who are to be seen throughout the day crowded together in
one of the largest squares, holding a sort of rag fair to exchange
their ill-gotten goods with one another. To the stranger they present
the aspect of a reckless mob, composed of the very dregs of the
population, and ready to engage in any overt act. Unmolested by the
police they busy themselves exchanging old boots and shoes, half-worn
clothing, stolen trifles, and various articles of domestic use, all
amid a deafening hubbub. The entire district is not however given up
to this "racket," but contains some fine shops, comfortable
dwellings, and two excellent hotels, as Russian hotels are rated. One
passes through this section in approaching the Redeemer's Gate from
the east side, but will wisely avoid all personal contact with the
doubtful denizens of Rag Fair.

It was a source of surprise to the author to find Moscow so great a
manufacturing centre, more than fifty thousand of the population
being regularly employed in manufacturing establishments. There are
over a hundred cotton mills within the limits of the city, and
between fifty and sixty woollen mills; also thirty-three silk mills,
and a score of kindred establishments in the manufacturing line. It
appeared, however, that enterprise in this direction was confined
almost entirely to textile fabrics. The city is fast becoming the
centre of a grand railroad system, affording the means of rapid and
easy distribution for the several products of these mills, and there
is reason to anticipate the