xtensive suburbs. The best known to foreigners, Praga,
on the opposite bank of the Vistula, is connected with Warsaw by two iron
bridges. Warsaw itself is built on terraces, one above another, along the
bank of the river, but the main portion of the city stands on a high
undulating plain above. There are over a hundred Catholic, several Greek
churches, and a number of synagogues; a university, schools of art,
academies, fourteen monasteries, and two nunneries.

There are few places in the world where the artisan or the common workman
is more intelligent and artistic, and where the upper classes are more
refined and soundly cultured, than in Warsaw. With a certain reflex of
the neighbouring German commercial influence, the place has become a
thriving manufacturing and trading centre. Machinery, excellent pianos
and other musical instruments, carriages, silver and electro-plate, boots
and leather goods are manufactured and exported on a large scale. The
tanneries of Warsaw are renowned the world over, and the Warsaw boots are
much sought after all over the Russian Empire for their softness,
lightness and durability. Then there are great exports of wheat, flax,
sugar, beer, spirits, and tobacco.

But time is short, and we must drive to the station. Say what you will
about the Russian, there is a thing that he certainly knows how to do. He
knows how to travel by rail. One has a great many preconceived ideas of
the Russian and his ways. One is always reminded that he is a barbarian,
that he is ignorant, that he is dirty. He is possibly a barbarian in one
way, that he can differentiate good from bad, real comfort from "optical
illusions" or illusions of any other kind, a thing highly civilised
people seem generally unable to do. This is particularly noticeable in
Russian railway travelling,--probably the best and cheapest in the world.

To begin with, when you take a first-class ticket it entitles you to a
seat numbered and reserved that nobody can appropriate. No more tickets
are sold than correspond with the accommodation provided in the train.
This does away entirely with the "leaving one's umbrella" business, to
secure a seat, or scattering one's belongings all over the carriage to
ensure the whole compartment to one's self, to the inconvenience of other
travellers. Then first, second and third-class passengers are provided
with sleeping accommodation. The sleeping accommodation, especially for
first and second-class pas