m Moscow to
Nijni and in returning, the journey both ways being made by the
night-express. On the platform of this station a line of peasant
women stand behind a series of basins placed temporarily upon a long
bench. One of these women pours a small stream of water from a
pitcher upon the traveller's hands, and he is thus enabled to make a
partial toilet, wiping his face upon a very suspicious-looking towel,
also furnished by the woman who supplies the water. For this service
she expects ten kopecks, the smallest current silver coin. However,
water upon the face and temples even in limited quantity, after a
long dusty night-ride in the cars, is grateful and refreshing,
incomplete though the ablution may seem, and one felt duly thankful.
It was quite as ample accommodation in that line as the average
Russian citizen required.

Before closing this chapter, and apropos of the subject of Siberia,
let us say a few words more. It should be remembered as regards the
severity of punishment for crime in Russia, and particularly as to
banishment to Siberia, that the sentence of death is now rarely
inflicted in this country. Persons who are condemned to expiate their
crimes by deportation to this penal resort, would in other European
countries be publicly executed. Nearly all other nations punish
undoubted treason with death. Russia inflicts only banishment, where
the convicted party has at least air and light, his punishment being
also mitigated by obedience and good behavior. This is paradise
compared to Austrian, Spanish, German, and Italian prisons, where the
wretched dungeon existence is only a living death. It is a fact that
of late years, and especially since the accession of Alexander III.
to the throne, so mild has the punishment of banishment to Siberia
come to be considered that it has lost its terror to the average
culprit. We were assured that not one third of the convicts sent
thither for a limited term elect to return to their former homes, but
end by becoming free settlers in the country, and responsible
citizens.

CHAPTER XVIII.

On the Road to Poland. -- Extensive Grain-Fields. -- Polish
Peasantry. -- A Russian General. -- No Evidence of Oppression. --
Warsaw and its Surroundings. -- Mingled Squalor and Elegance. --
Monuments of the City. -- Polish Nobility. -- Circassian Troops.
-- Polish Language. -- The Jews of Warsaw. -- Political Condition
of Poland. -- Public Parks. -- The Famous Saxo