Note 13 — Chapter XLVII · NIKOLAEFSK.

These and similar practices are not confined to merchants, but go down even to the isvostchiks, who come to Petersburg from the country and hire themselves to their masters by the month, having to bring in 5s. a day. At the end of their term the master is said to do his best to swindle the cabmen, whilst they, taking their food and scanty wages, do their best to make a picking from their fares. Sometimes, however, the biter is bitten; for driving in the capital one day my isvostchik pointed to a large building, and said that he had just brought there a well-dressed woman, who had asked him to drive at the side of the pavement, because the road was better there, she said; and then, when opposite the door, she had sprung off the low vehicle, and run in without paying.