Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/118

112 seller will ask no questions. The purchaser wears them at his peril if he does not possess the proper diplomas, since the unauthorized wearing of decorations is as serious a matter in Russia as in other Continental countries. The Emperor Nicholas was fond of visiting the Gostinna Dvor accompanied by a single orderly. One day he saw a young officer wistfully eying a decoration in one of the windows, and told the orderly to ascertain his name. Inquiry showed that the officer stood well with his superiors, was faithful in the performance of his duties, and the result was he received the coveted bauble directly from the hand of the Emperor.

"Perhaps you wonder why the Russian market is so extensive, and what must be the habits of the people to sustain such a commerce. This is the way it is explained:

"A Russian rarely buys anything till just as he wants it, and then he cannot wait to have it made. In England or America a man desiring to furnish a fine house would be weeks or months collecting his furniture, ordering some to be made, and buying the rest from time to time when he found what suited him. Under similar circumstances, a Russian drives to the Gostinna Dvor, and makes his selections from what he finds there.

"The Russians are said to be more capricious than people of other nationalities in the matter of their movements from place to place. A wealthy Russian will fit up a house at great expense, buying his furniture in the manner described. In a few months he decides to travel for his health, or go to the country, and the whole equipment is sent to the Gostinna Dvor and sold for what it will bring. It may be so little used that it can be sold again by the dealer as new, and of course the dealer makes a large profit on the transaction. When the man comes back to the city he furnishes anew, and thus the business of the bazaar is maintained. Fortunes come and go very quickly in Russia, and so the work of fitting and dismantling is continuous.

"The best goods are in the Gostinna Dvor proper, while the inferior ones are in the annexes. Some of the shops have fixed prices, but in most of them there is a system of bargaining which is not agreeable to the traveller from the Occident. He is never certain that he has paid the proper price, even when he has brought the merchant down to what appears to be his lowest figure.

"We bought a few articles of Russian manufacture to send home to our friends. Among them were samovars, inlaid goods from Tula, embroidered slippers and sashes from the Tartar provinces, malachite and lapis-lazuli jewellery, and some Circassian ornaments of silver. Many of the articles sold in the Gostinna Dvor are of English, German, and French