Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/170

164 exceedingly rare of a Jew being convicted of offences of a political character. In the army they make the best of soldiers, both for discipline and on the battle-field, where they are noted for their bravery. They are more numerous in Poland than in any other part of the Empire, but there is not a province of the whole country ruled by the Czar where they cannot be found. In their financial transactions they are not behind their brethren in other parts of the world; and wherever they are permitted to engage in mechanical pursuits they distance all their competitors."

Just as the sun was setting, our friends took a carriage and drove to the Islands of the Neva, a favorite resort of the people in the warm months of the year. Great numbers of fashionable carriages were on the road, troikas being more numerous than any other variety. A troika is so called from the number of its horses, rather than from the form of the vehicle. Three horses are harnessed abreast, the central one having above his head the inevitable duga, or yoke. In a well-trained troika the central horse trots, while the two others gallop, with their heads turned outward. It is a dashing and attractive team, and has already made its way into other countries than Russia.

The first part of the drive carried Doctor Bronson and his young companions through streets occupied by the poorer classes, but farther on they passed great numbers of pretty villas, which are the summer homes of the well-to-do inhabitants of the city.

There is an Imperial villa on one of the islands, and occasionally the Emperor gives a fête in honor of some event, or for the entertainment of a foreign guest. At such times the trees are filled with Chinese lanterns, and the entire building is a blaze of light. The people on the line of the road follow the Imperial example, and illuminate their houses, and the traveller who drives there might easily imagine that he had dropped into