Note 15 — Chapter LI · LAKE KHANKA TO THE COAST.

My travels in Russia have led me to the conclusion that in the interior of that country it is not always wise to be too modest about divulging one’s income. An English officer in plain clothes, passing lonely through Kiakhta, was asked by a merchant, who had shown him some attention, what was his income; whereupon the officer told him that of a captain of Royal Engineers in full pay on foreign service, which greatly astonished the Siberiak. He said he would mention it to the chief man of the town, who, he felt sure, would call upon him. And so he did, and the captain received a marked increase of attention. Again, before starting last year for the Caucasus, I was told of the potency there of wearing arms and insignia of office, and of the difference it makes at the post-stations in getting horses, whether the traveller wears a plain hat, or one adorned with gold, or bearing the tchinovnik cockade. Accordingly, I so far profited by this information as to put on certain splendid array which I possess as I approached the stations, and (I will not say therefore) I obtained my horses.

This is further illustrated by the treatment received by an able correspondent of the Times, who has recently been in the Caucasus. On arriving at a station, he was informed that he could not have horses because they were detained for an English general, whose arrival was expected every minute. Somewhat chafed, the correspondent took to his legs, being anxious to secure a certain view before nightfall; and it was not till he reached the next station, tired and enraged, that his vexation was turned into mirth by discovering that the horses had all the while been intended for himself. The préfet had politely telegraphed to the post-masters to have horses ready for “a distinguished” Englishman; and as the one idea of distinction in the mind of a Russian peasant is the rank of a general, the post-master was expecting an officer in uniform, and the correspondent in plain clothes not coming up to this, he refused him the horses.