CHAPTER VI.
"BEFORE I describe the Gostinna Dvor of St. Petersburg," said Fred in his note-book, "let me premise by saying that every Russian city or town has an establishment of the same kind. It is a good deal more than the market-place with us, and seems to combine the bazaars of the East with the shops of the West. In an ordinary town the Gostinna Dvor occupies a single large building at or near the centre of population; the larger the town or city the greater will be the commercial needs of the people, and consequently a city like Moscow or St. Petersburg will have a Gostinna Dvor that dwarfs all ordinary markets into insignificance.
"The one at St. Petersburg occupies an enormous building, which might almost be called a series of buildings, fronting on the Nevski Prospect, but entered also from other streets. There are said to be ten thousand merchants and their employés in the building, and certainly the number is little if any exaggerated. We walked among the rows of shops till our feet ached with weariness, and still there were many other rows of shops to be visited. Sometimes the shopmen were importunate, but usually they did not disturb us unless we stopped to look at something. The building is two stories high, the lower floor being used for retail purposes and the upper for the storage of goods. Owing to the danger of a conflagration and the great destruction that would ensue, we were told that no fire is allowed here in winter. Then the merchants and their clerks wear furs and thick clothing when at their business, and shoppers are not expected to lay aside their wraps while making purchases.
"'What do you buy in the Gostinna Dvor?' I hear some one asking.
"'Everything that one could wear or use in Russia,' I should reply, 'together with a great many things whose use it would be impossible to imagine.' Some one writing on this subject says you may come naked
