Show Ike PostOffice and Railway Under the Emperor Nicholas Nicho-las In G gOlB Reeiaor lha postmaster in a email provincial town is represented repre-sented as habitually reading the letters let-ters before be sands thorn oat for delivery not in the way of espionage but amply for bid own amuaem at and that be may communicate their contents to bis tnend I made the acquaintance during my stay in Russia of A Moscow postmaster post-master who not only used to r ad or at least look at the English illustrated illus-trated journals l before dispatching them to the subscriber but was always al-ways willing to lend a copy to those who obliged him in return The subscribers received their papers rather late but that was their aflair and it would bave been perfectly useless to complain The postman in those dl > tent and facetious days expected a gratuity fir delivering ala a-la ter Ibo theory on tbo subject way from his point of view that be might have had eome trouble in finding find-ing the right man from that of the right man that if a email present were not given to the postman he would perhaps not bring the next lector at all At the principal Petersburg nnfitnffiin letters at the posit reztante were presented to inquirers in-quirers in a heap registered and unregistered un-registered alike fr them to choose from at will A foreigner taking another foreigners registered letter would probably bave been expected to hand a dcvceur to tbe official in charge A Moscow postman pressed me to accept u letter which was addressed ad-dressed to a foreigner apparently not to bs found and which he thought I being aho a foreigner might aa well have as any one else The laws in this country ore very severe and the regulations very tiresome tire-some Enid a Russian to me in reference to different vexations practices prac-tices of which we bad been speaking but they are easily evaded and there is no country in this world where R rich manif be will only keep clear of politics can so complet ly do as he likes n 1 On tbe St PetersburgMoscow Railway travellers rich and poor liked travelling without psjiug their fare Government officers email or military wearing uniforms refused tojpay on Jhe plea that they were engaged en-gaged on state service tr that in n general way they were privileged persons Others gave the conductor a rouble or two for informal permission permis-sion to travel without a ticket Others again avoided regular payment for journeying along the whole line by taking a ticket at tbe last elation but oneand Riving it up at the terminus Under these oircumeauces tbo railway rail-way naturally did not pay But that concerned the tate and meanwhile the conductors ol the train made large profits They were indeed accused in a phrase borrowed from Gogols celebrated comedy ol stealing steal-ing too much for their place an unpardonable un-pardonable eioa aiii against the Dpirit amongst Russian officiate Occasionally government inspector i was lent along the tine tu see who travelled with and without a ticket and wbdber tbe conductors were doing their duty The result was now and then a reprimand or a die mtBRal But the esiabliebed system was recommenced the neat day and it i was not until the St E Petersburg Moscow Railway passed into the hands ol a company that it was managed man-aged j in accoidanee with the simple principles observed in other countries H Sutherland Edwards Iu Harpers Kagccine |