returned; but as the chamber was in painful proximity
to a billiard-room, from the noise of which it seemed
likely disturbances might come, we returned to the
previous hotel, and took the room with the promise
that we should very shortly move upstairs when the
occupant of the best room departed. The establishment
had, however, one good feature about it— a
Russian bath, of which we availed ourselves immediately,
and then proceeded to see the town and make
some calls.
We hired a droshky at the very moderate tariff of
7id . an hour, and found that the town straggles over
a wide area. There is the station Almatinka, forming
the old part of the town, the settlement of Almatinka,
the Tatar suburb, and new Vierny, the last built since
1870, and to which we drove through straight, wide,
and fairly level streets, bordered thickly on either side
of the footway with double rows of poplars. The older
portions of the town, regularly laid out, are entirely
built of red fir wood, whilst in the new town are
several houses of brick, including the Governor’s and
the Archbishop’s palaces, and the adjacent gymnase, all
of them designed, if I mistake not, by M. Gourdet, a
French architect in the Russian service, to whom I
have alluded. The Governor’s house, with its offices
and gardens, occupies a whole “ quartal,” or square.
There is also outside the town a public garden, with
greenhouses and flowers, also a pavilion for music and
dancing, supper and cards.*
* According to Kostenko, there were in Vierny, in 18 6 3 , only 1 stone
or brick house, and 76 6 wooden ones, whereas, in 1 8 7 1 , there were 239
brick and 1 ,4 5 6 wooden houses, of which, however, only 4 brick and
9 wooden domiciles were of two stories. Thus, during 8 years, the
number of houses doubled,, and in similar proportion the number of
inhabitants increased.
The great diversity of the population is more strik
ing than its numbers, and gives the streets a curious
appearance, as one sees Russian women driving in
carts full of melons, side by side with Kalmuks riding
on bullocks, or Kirghese on camels, and bringing
raspberries, gathered from the surrounding hills, to
sell, for as much sometimes as 6s. a day. I think I
never met in a public square so many types of coun-
A STREET IN VIERNY.
icuduce. v^ossacKs predominated— me original settlers;
then followed Little Russians, recent arrivals, who
occupy a suburb in the south of the city, and among
the colonists are also a few Chuvashi, Mordvins,
Cheremises, and other peoples from the Volga. In
addition to these were T a ta r s ; Sarts from various
towns in Turkistan and Kashgaria ; Kirghege who have
adopted a half-settled rnode of life; Kalmuks, Dungans,
and Taranchis, who came from Kuldja after the
v o l . 1. l 8