m. On the right are seen numbers
of big iron petroleum-tanks similar to those in the oil regions of
Pennsylvania. Numbers of petroleum-schooners are riding at anchor in the
harbor, and two or three small steamers are moored to the dock.

Our steamer moves up alongside a stout wooden wharf, the gang-plank is
ran out, and the passengers permitted to file ashore. A cordon of police
prevents them passing down the wharf, while custom-house officers examine
their baggage. We are, of course, merely in transit through the country;
more than that, the Russian authorities seem anxious, for some reason, to
make a very favorable impression upon us two Central Asian travellers; so
a special officer comes aboard, takes our passports, and with an
excessive show of politeness refuses to take more than a mere formal
glance at our traps. A horde of ragamuffin porters struggle desperately
for the privilege of carrying the passengers' baggage. Poor, half-starved
wretches they seem, reminding me, in their rags and struggles, of
desperate curs quarrelling savagely over a bone. American porter's strive
for passengers' baggage for the sake of making money; with these
Russians, it seems more like a fierce resolve to obtain the wherewithal
to keep away starvation. Burly policemen, armed with swords, like the
gendarmerie of France, and in blue uniforms, assail the wretched porters
and strike them brutally in the face, or kick them in the stomach,
showing no more consideration than if they were maltreating the merest
curs. Such brutality on the one hand, and abject servility and human
degradation on the other is to be seen only in the land of the Czar.
Servility, it is true exists everywhere in Asia, but only in Russia does
one find the other extreme of coarse brutality constantly gloating over
it and abusing it.

Our stay in Baku is limited to a few hours. We are to take the train for
Tiflis the same afternoon, as we land at two o'clock so can spare no time
to see much of the city or of the oil-refineries.

Summoning one of the swarm of drosky-drivers that beset the exit from the
wharf, we are soon tearing over the Belgian blocks to the Hotel de
l'Europe. The Russian drosky-driver, whether in Baku or in Moscow, seems
incapable of driving at a moderate pace. Over rough streets or smooth he
plies the cruel whip, shouts vile epithets at his half-wild steed, and
rattles along at a furious pace.

Baku is the first Europeanized city either R------or