THE EASTER KISS—IN THE FAMILY.
"Well, it is one of the sights of Russia, with agreeable and disagreeable features. It is not literally the case that everybody kisses everybody else, but that statement is not so very far out of the way after all. I passed through one Easter, and it was quite enough for a lifetime. I was kissed by men and women almost innumerable. If the kissing could have been confined to the young and pretty women, or even to the comely ones of middle or advanced life, I should have borne the infliction patiently; but when I was obliged to receive the salutation from men, of all ages and all conditions of cleanliness, or its reverse, it was too much for comfort. All Russia kisses all the rest of Russia at Easter, and any foreigner who may be here at the time is treated like a subject of the Czar. The old adage that 'Kissing goes by favor' is entirely set aside; custom makes it well-nigh universal."
THE EASTER KISS—DIFFICULT.
"When does the ceremony begin, and how long is it kept up?" said one of the youths.
THE EASTER KISS—DISAGREEABLE.
"It begins at midnight, as the clock sounds the hour of twelve and ushers in the Easter day. A little before midnight the whole of Russia goes to church. The Emperor and all his family assemble in the Imperial chapel, and every church and chapel in the Empire is filled. As the clock begins striking the hour the whole congregation is wrapped in silence; at the last stroke of the bell the doors of the sanctuary of the church are thrown open and the waiting priests come forth.