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Sketches of Russian Life Before and During the Emancipation of the Serfs, Ed. by H. Morley
Sketches of Russian Life Before and During the Emancipation of the Serfs Ed by H Morley Author:Henry Morley General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1866 Original Publisher: Chapman and Hall Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you ca... more »n select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. THROUGH SNOW, BY DILIGENCE, TO MOSCOW. In ordinary weather the road to Moscow from Ja- roslav is one of the best and busiest in the empire. In both summer and winter it can be travelled over in twenty-eight or thirty hours. There are post stations every sixteen or twenty versts, where horses are changed, and a fresh driver is put on to every fresh team. These drivers are the most reckless and determined whips I have seen. No weather scares them, no obstacles stop them; the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would put every man and boy of them in jail. The knout or whip is used without mercy; the men take especial delight in beginning at the top of a steep hill a fierce gallop, that grows to racing speed as they get near the bottom ; so that the cattle and passengers find themselves up the next acclivity before the momentum is lost. They don't know the meaning of patent drag, but drive determinedly on at full stretch to the end of the station. The Russians cross themselves when a start is made, lie back in the most convenient manner possible, and amid jolting, bumping, cries, and lashing, go to sleep as composedly as if they were THROUGH SNOW TO MOSCOW. 15 in a railway carriage. Wheels will come off, poles break, and other casualties occur; but as spare ropes, hammer, axe, nails, and even spare wheels, are always carried, a break-down seldom causes a delay of ten minutes. This is summer travelling; the vehicle used being a " tarantas," a large double caleche without seats, placed on and tied to the centre of horizontal poles, for springs...« less