rge three-story houses, which are nothing less
than acknowledged dens of vice. From these houses, which are on the
four sides of the square, flags and streamers are all day gayly
flaunting, and fancy lanterns are grouped at night. Bands of
instrumental performers pour forth from their several piazzas noisy
refrains, while parading hither and thither upon the broad verandas,
or looking out from the windows, many a prematurely aged and saddened
face appears,--faces, alas! which assumed smiles and gayety of tone
cannot effectually disguise. The unfortunate girls who are attached
to these establishments are of varied nationalities. Many are
Russian, some are Poles, others are from far-off Cashmere and Nepaul;
even the Latin Quarter of Paris has its representatives here, as well
as the demi-monde of Vienna.

One dark-eyed, handsome, even refined appearing girl, who kept quite
by herself, was detected as being a quadroon. Observing that the
author was American, she acknowledged that she came from New Orleans.
The brief truthful history of this girl, who possessed all the fatal
beauty of her race, may be found instructive. She had been the
travelling companion of a heartless titled Englishman, who had
induced her to run away from her respectable Louisiana home, and had
finally deserted her at St. Petersburg after a year of travel in
various parts of the world and a considerable sojourn in India.
Without a guinea in her purse or the means of honestly earning money,
her fate seemed to be inevitable; and so she had drifted she hardly
knew how or where, until she was here in this maelstrom of vice,
Nijni-Novgorod. One must have possessed a heart of stone to be able
to look unmoved into the tearful eyes of this poor unhappy girl, who
had bought her bitter experience at such terrible cost. Quietly
closing her hand upon the gold that was offered her with some
earnest, well-meant advice, she said: "This shall be the nucleus of a
sum wherewith to return to my mother and my Louisiana home, or it
shall purchase that which will end for me all earthly misery!" Poor
Marie Fleur! We shall probably never know what fate has befallen her.

Interspersed about the lanes and streets were many gay eating and
drinking booths, cafes where gypsy dancers and singing girls appeared
in the evening. With the close of the day the business of the fair is
mostly laid aside, and each nationality amuses itself after its
native fashion. Rude musical instrumen