OVER THE STEPPES TO ODESSA.

23 places the entire crop had been scorched off the ground. Huge dense clouds of black dust rose and enveloped the peasants as their waggons rumbled over the uneven roads, and even our train, jolting over the rotten sleepers on which the metals were loosely pinned, provoked powdery emanations from the soil that filled the carriage with motes, and clogged the pores of our skin. Long before the hour that we should have sat down to breakfast in England, we were experiencing the exhausting effects of the heat, and longing for a bath to remove the coating of dust that had collected since our evening ablutions at Jmerinka. The railway carriage was provided with a lavatory, but it was so filthy that it was impossible to perform one's toilette in the place. I was sorry I had not brought with me a portable indiarubber basin and ewer, which could have been easily strapped with the rugs. There was plenty of water at the various stations, and abundance of time for lavatory operations either in the train, or, undisturbed by oscillations, during the numerous halts.

The nearer we got to Odessa the larger the stations became, and the greater the number of passengers. The latter consisted of peasants, mostly Cossack or Little Russian, with a considerable sprinkling of Jews. At one of the stations, where we had an eight o'clock tumbler of tea, the peasants had brought several waggon-loads of water melons to a spot near the platform, and did a brisk trade with the passengers by selling them at the rate of about a penny a-piece. Still crawling along at a miserable speed, the scenery never varying, we reached Odessa at last at ten in the morning, hungry, dirty, hot, and tired.

CHAPTER II.

ODESSA AND THE CORN TRADE.

A Change for the Better-A Sunday Morning in Odessa-The Town no longer an Ink-bottle in Winter and a Sand-box in Summer-Growth of Odessa-Its Position as the Capital of South Russia-The Export of Corn-Changes in the Trade-Competition of America and India-Dearness of Transport-The Elevator Question-Necessity for Organizing the Trade-Slow Growth of Railways in Russia-Outrun by India, Canada, and other Colonies-Trade between Odessa and the East-The Suez Canal-An Odessa Country House-Departure from Odessa for Batoum-Steamboat Arrangements-Daily Life on Board a Black Sea Steamer-A German Preferable to a Russian as a Cabin Companion-Crossing over to the Crimea-Eupatoria.

COME, come, Mr. Marvin, if this is Russia, all I can say is, that it is a little bit more civilized than the Newcastle folk believe it to be," said C., an hour later, gazing with satisfaction at the breakfast table at the Hotel d'Europe. To this hotel we had driven direct from the station, and had enhanced the exhilaration produced by rattling along the leafy boulevards at a furious pace, breasting a glorious sea-breeze, by unlimited splashing and dabbling in cold water. Russians can wash themselves to their heart's content with a mere mugful of that liquid. Hence the quart-pot supply that stood in the bedrooms evidently represented what the Hotel d'Europe thought to be the extra allowance demanded by the more exacting nations of the West. However, this little defect was overcome by impressing all the servants we saw loitering about the spacious corridors, and ordering them to keep on bringing water in pans, pots, and ewers until further notice. By this means

A PLEASANT BREAKFAST.

25

we accumulated in a few minutes a plentiful supply, and went at it as only Englishmen can who have experienced the craving for water that accompanies a long journey across a dusty and arid plain.

There are a number of good hotels at Odessa, but few equal the Hotel d'Europe for cleanliness, comfort, and luxury; while as regards site it is unsurpassable, situated as it is in front of a square on a height overlooking the harbour and sea, and catching the refreshing salt breeze blowing from the water. One could hardly be more comfortable in an English seaside hotel than at the Hotel d'Europe, and if the charges are higher than those of the other Odessa establishments, they do not exceed the general run of prices in England. The manager speaks English, and from the numerous English travellers calling there, knows our ways tolerably well. To anyone arriving at Odessa from a journey to the East, it is an additional comfort to be able to get there the latest English newspapers.

Our breakfast was served up in a handsome spacious room, with a highly polished cool parquet floor, and windows and doorways decorated with palms and evergreens. Through the windows could be seen people passing to and fro in flat caps or helmets, and loose white summer clothing. The day was hot, and there was not a cloud in the intensely blue sky to intercept the heat of the southern sun; but as they passed the windows they evidently enjoyed as much as we did the cooling breeze from the sea. This, entering by doorway and window, ruffled pleasantly the cool clear white damask table-cloth, spread on a little table near a grove of evergreens, whereon were disposed delicious coffee and rolls, and a huge dish of ham and eggs, set off with handsome electro-plated ware and china, and a fresh uncut copy of the Times received by the last post from

London. One might have searched a long while that pleasant Sunday morning to have found in any English town more agreeable arrangements for a breakfast, and, coming to it as we did, hungry from the Kherson plains, we thoroughly appreciated every feature of it.

Odessa has greatly improved since the primitive time of alternate mud and dust, which caused the poet Pushkin to compare it to an ink-bottle in winter and a sandbox in summer. Its broad quadrangular streets are well paved, and planted like boulevards with acacia; the lofty white houses, built of shell concrete obtained from neighbouring quarries, are enlivened by handsome shops. As a town it is better built and better paved than either St. Petersburg or Moscow, and in many other respects is more advanced than either of those capitals. When the poet Pushkin-the contemporary and admirer of Byron-dwelt in it, the city was still in its infancy, like Novorossisk, Poti, Batoum, and other points on the Caucasian coast to-day. There are yet persons living in South Russia who remember when Odessa had no existence. It is only ninety-five years ago since General de Ribas and the Russians stormed the insignificant fortress of Hadji Bey, and secured for the Empress Catherine the Great the port of Odessa, and it was not until several years after that assault that the conquerors began to develop the place. Once a start was made, however, the city grew amazingly; acquiring in its career Gallic characteristics, from the fact of its successive early governors, De Ribas, Richelieu, and Langeron being Frenchmen. At the beginning of the present century its population was 2,000; it is now 190,000, and in point of size it ranks as fourth city in the Russian Empire, St. Petersburg coming first with 840,000 people, Moscow next with 625,000, Warsaw third with 340,000, and then Odessa. If I add

GROWTH OF ODESSA.

27

that it is distant 1,137 miles from St. Petersburg and 933 from Moscow, it will be seen that Odessa has very good reason to regard itself as the capital of South Russia.

Odessa has derived its rapid growth and prosperity largely from its export of corn. So long as the Turks held the whole of the coast of the Black Sea, agriculture in the provinces south of Moscow was cramped for want of an outlet. Directly Catherine the Great, however, secured the Black Sea littoral, the population began to spread over the southern plains, and their produce, added to that which filtered from the middle provinces down to the coast, gave plenty of lucrative trade to Odessa. Twenty years ago the total exports were valued at £4,000,000 sterling, of which the value of the grain was £3,000,000. In 1882, the grain export alone exceeded in value 100,000,000 roubles, or £10,000,000 sterling. This expansion in trade has been maintained in spite of the competition of Nicolaieff, Sevastopol, Rostoff, and other Azoff ports; to say nothing of the rivalry of America and India.

To deal satisfactorily with the Russian corn trade would require more space than I have at my disposal; yet the subject is an important one, for a corn crisis is more calculated to bring about a revolution in Russia than any sentimental desire for a constitution. Corn is still, as it has been for many generations, the staple product of the country. Until a few years ago Russia was really the granary of Europe. Forty per cent. of the corn consumed in England and on the Continent was supplied by Russia. Of this forty per cent., the larger proportion passed through the Black Sea ports. Those ports were closed during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, and it was only with partial success that