purpose of examining some pictures. The
old lady rose and followed her, watching
her movements so closely that she returned
to her seat greatly amazed. "You must not
be surprised at it, my dear," said a friend,
after she got home again; "for really you do not
know how many things are lost in such parties
from the too great admiration of the visitors."

The officers just mentioned were men hold-
ing employments under government. So much
has been made notorious during the present
war of the extent to which the Russian
government suffers from the peculation and
falsehood of officials in all grades that one
illustration in this place will be sufficient, and
we will choose one that illustrates at the same
time another topic. The railway to Warsaw is
dropped, because the money needed for it is
absorbed by war; the only Russian railway
line is that between the two capitals, St.
Petersburg and Moscow. When it was
nearly finished, the Czar ordered it to be
ready for his own use on a certain day. It
was not really finished; but over several
miles of the road, since the Czar must be
obeyed, rails were laid upon whatever
contrivance could be patched up for the
occasion. The Imperial neck was risked
by the Russian system. While this railway
was in course of construction, the fortunes
made by engineers and government officials
on the line of road was quite astonishing:
men of straw rapidly acquired estates.
Government suffered and- the serfs. Our
countrywoman living once in a province
through which the railway runs, went by
train to a picnic. At the station, four-hundred
workmen were assembled, who
asked eagerly whether the governor was of
the party. No, they were told, but his wife
was. Her, then, they begged to see. To
her they pleaded with their miserable tale
for interference in their behalf. For six
weeks they had been paid no wages, their
rations were bad, and a fever like a plague
had broken out among them, of which their
companions perished by scores, to be buried,
like so many dogs, in morasses along the
line. Their looks confirmed their tale. The
criminal employers were upon the spot, and
acted ignorance and sympathy, making at
the same time humane speeches and promises,
which the poor men received by exchanging
looks of profound despair with
each other.

Then there is the system of espial. In
addition to the secret police- the accredited
spies- there is said to be a staff of eighty
thousand paid agents, persons moving in
society; generals, tradesmen, dressmakers,
people of all ranks; who are secretly engaged
in watching and betraying those with whom
they live. The consequence is, that nobody
dares speak his earnest thoughts, even to his
familiar friend. Men say what they do not
think, affect credit of government reports
which they know to be audacious lies, and
take pains to exhibit themselves as obedient
subjects. When the Englishwoman lived at
Archangel, a deaf and dumb gentleman
arrived, with letters of introduction to the
leading people, and was received with cordiality
and sympathy; he was a clever man,
read several languages, and displayed pretty
drawings of his own execution. He was
made everywhere welcome. More than once
our quick-eyed countrywoman fancied that
he looked over-attentive to words spoken
behind his back. It soon afterwards was
made only too certain that this man was a
government spy, playing a difficult part for
a base purpose.

Of the Greek form of religion we say
nothing. Let the Russians bow before the
pictures of their saints. We will quote only
an anecdote told in this book, of a poor wandering
Samoyede, a fish-eating savage from
the borders of the Arctic Ocean. He asked
whether his visitor was Russian, and being
answered No, lifted up some skins in his tent
which covered pictures of saints, and pointing
to them with disdain, said,- "See! there are
Russian gods, but ours," raising his hand
heavenwards, "is greater. He lives- up
there!"

CHIP.

TEASLE.

As a tall, stout weed, producing prickly
thistle heads, teasle is well known to everyone
familiar with English hedge-rows. It is
almost as generally known that teasle-heads
are used for producing the nap on broad-cloth,
and that it is also called for that reason
Fuller's-herb. Of course, the teasle used
for such a purpose must be cultivated for the
market: and we doubt whether teasle growing,
ias a branch of agriculture, is familiar to
many English readers. It is curious enough
to be worth a short description.

Common and hardy as this sort of thistle
seems to be, there are not many more capricious
plants in nature. The cultivation of it
is a speculation. The produce of a hop field
is not more uncertain than the produce of a
field of teasle. For this reason farmers commonly
decline having their tempers or their
purses tried with such a plant; and teasle-growing
has been left to men of capital who
could afford to take excessive profit in one
year as a set-off for total failure in another.
Yet we are assured by the most practical
man in the district where teasles are most
grown that care in the choice of seed, and in
the management of the ground, very much
lessons the chance of misadventure.

Teasle is grown extensively in Yorkshire
and in some western counties, chiefly Somersetshire
and Gloucestershire; a little is
grown also in Wilts. The crop is important
enough to deserve greater attention than the
farmers of England hitherto have cared to