san class, which may be
called their middle lower class. Then there is a class that comes
between them and the common labourer. Nearly all the shopkeepers that
carry on business at Cronstadt, Riga, and other Northern Russian ports
during the summer have their real homes in Moscow, and mostly all
speak a little English. There are also the boatmen, who are a
well-behaved, well-dressed lot of men, whose homes are in Archangel.
They, as well as the tradesmen, come every spring, and leave when the
port closes in the autumn. In the sailing-ship days each of the
greengrocers--as they were called, though they sold all kinds of
stores besides--had their connection. Every afternoon, between four
and six, batches of captains were to be found seated in a
greengrocer's shop having a glass of tea with a piece of lemon in it.
It was then they spun their yarns in detail about their passages,
their owners, their mates, their crews, and their loading and
discharging. If their vessels were unchartered they discussed that
too, but whenever they got authority from their owners to charter on
the best possible terms they became reticent and sly with each other.
To exchange views as to the rate that should be accepted would have
been regarded as a decided token of business incapacity. Supposing two
captains had their vessels unchartered, each would give instructions
to be called early in the morning, that they might go in the first
boat to St. Petersburg, and neither would know what the other
intended. When they met aboard the passenger boat they would lie to
each other grotesquely about what was taking them to town. If they
were unsuccessful in fixing, they rarely disclosed what had been
offered; and this would go on for days, until they had to fix; then
they would draw closer to each other, and relate in the most minute
fashion the history of all the negotiations, and how cleverly they
had gained this or that advantage over the charterers; whereas, in
truth, their agents or brokers had great trouble in getting some of
them to understand the precise nature of the business that was being
negotiated. The following is an instance.

Mr. James Young, of South Shields, whose many vessels were
distinguished by having a frying-pan at the foretopgallant or royal
mast-head, had a brig at Cronstadt which had been waiting unloaded for
some days. Her master was one of the old illiterate class. His peace
of mind was much disturbed at Mr. Young's indiffere