some perfectly wonderful and
artistic specimens which had been given to me when I first went to
Siberia, said, "That's because they have the best iron in the world."
The stone or gem-cutting industry is an important one. Furs, from sheep
and wolf-skins up to bears, as well as those of foxes, sables, elk, and
reindeer, and other animals, are perfectly dressed by the peasants for
their own use, as well as for sale. I have some exquisite work in
coloured silks upon hand-woven cloth which had never been out of the
tents where they were made till given to me, and above all I cherish a
silver box which had been made in a Kirghese _uerta_ or tent, far away
upon the steppes, and was given to me when I had had services there
after my long drive in the _tarantass_. It would hold about a hundred
cigarettes, and was given to me for that purpose, is oblong in shape,
with a lid of sloping sides, and is made from silver roubles hammered
out and ornamented with that beautiful damascening that is said to be a
lost art except for the peasants of the steppes. It is such a beautiful
bit of workmanship that any one looking at it would think it had come
out of a Bond Street silversmith's, until he turned it over and saw that
the bottom is a plain piece of iron, rough and unornamented. Let no one
think the Russian peasant unintelligent or unskilful or wanting in
dexterity or resource. The wonder to me is that, with the few advantages
and opportunities he has had, he is so capable, intelligent, and quick
to learn as he is. And what is important for us to remember is that he
loves to learn from an Englishman.

Then, again, we are told that he is brutish in temperament and of low
ideals, and never seems to rise above his squalid surroundings. I don't
agree that his surroundings _are_ squalid. Simple they are, without a
doubt, as the Canadian shack of three brothers I know is simple, and has
nothing in it but beds and tables and chairs, their boxes and
saddle-trees, etc., and all is bed and work, but it is not squalid. They
have been brought up in a good and refined home, and yet find nothing
incongruous in their present abode amongst the pine-woods.

That's what a Russian peasant's home is also, simple and yet attractive.
It is built of logs, the interstices well plastered up with moss and
clay to keep out all cold air, cool in summer and warm in winter by
reason of the thickness of these outer walls; and it usually has an
inner entrance or sm