ind no disguise to cover the
horrible deformities of their bruised and crushed life; there you see
the full measure of their civilization. In the huts of these poor
people there is little or no comfort. Many of them have neither beds
nor chairs, and the occupants spend a sort of camp life within doors,
cooking their food like Indians, and huddling round the earthen stove
or fireplace in winter, where they lie down on the bare ground and
sleep in a mass, like a nest of animals, to keep each other warm.
Their clothing is of the coarsest material, but reasonably good, and
well suited to the climate. The men are a much finer-looking race,
physically, than their masters. I saw some serfs in Moscow who, in
stature, strong athletic forms, and bold and manly features, would
compare favorably with the best specimens of men in any country. It
was almost incredible that such noble-looking fellows, with their
blue, piercing eyes and manly air, should be reduced to such a state
of abject servitude as to kiss the tails of their master's coats! Many
of them had features as bold and forms as brawny as our own California
miners; and more than once, when I saw them lounging about in their
big boots, with their easy, reckless air, and looked at their
weather-beaten faces and vigorous, sunburnt beards, I could almost
imagine that they were genuine Californians. But here the resemblance
ceased. No sooner did an officer of high standing pass, than they
manifested some abject sign of their degraded condition.

[Illustration: HAY GATHERERS.]

Some of the agricultural implements that one sees in this country
would astonish a Californian. The plows are patterned very much after
those that were used by Boaz and other large farmers in the days of
the Patriarchs; the scythes are the exact originals of the old
pictures in which Death is represented as mowing down mankind; the
hoes, rakes, and shovels would be an ornament to any museum, but are
entirely indescribable; and as for the wagons and harnesses--herein
lies the superior genius of the Russians over all the races of earth,
ancient or modern, for never were such wagons and such harnesses seen
on any other part of the globe. To be accurate and methodical, each
wagon has four wheels, and each wheel is roughly put together of rough
wood, and then roughly bound up in an iron band about four inches
wide, and thick in proportion. Logs of wood, skillfully hewed with
broad-axes, answer for the axle