From the theatre our friends went straight to the hotel and to bed, tired enough with their day's exertions, but amply repaid for all their fatigue.
Next morning they were off in good season, or rather Frank and Fred were, as the Doctor decided to remain at the hotel, while the youths devoted the forenoon to sights that he did not especially care for. Having been in Moscow before, he was willing to leave some of the stock sights out of his programme.
Their first visit was to the bazaar, which bears the name of "Kitai Gorod" or "Chinese Town." The bazaar is often said to be so called because of the great number of Tartars doing business there—the descendants of the Mongols, who so long held Moscow in their hands.
According to some writers this belief is erroneous. They assert that, originally, all of Moscow was inside the Kremlin; but as the necessity came for extending the city, an order was given by Helena (mother of John the Terrible, and Regent during his minority) for enclosing a large space outside the Kremlin, which was to be named after her birthplace, Kitaigrod, in Podolia. Its walls were begun in 1535 by an Italian architect.
"We went," said Frank, "through the Gostinna Dvor of Moscow, which fills an enormous building in the Kitai Gorod, and is in some respects more interesting than that of St. Petersburg, though practically of the same character. The display of Russian goods is about like that in the capital city, though there is possibly a greater quantity of silver work, Circassian goods, and similar curiosities peculiar to the country. Much of the money-changing is in the hands of Tartars; where the changers are not of the Tartar race, they are generally Jews. Russian Tartars and Jews use the abacus in counting, and they work it with wonderful rapidity. We saw it in St. Petersburg, but it was not so much employed there as in Moscow. The abacus has undergone very little change in two or three thousand years. It was introduced by the Tartar conquerors of Russia, and promises to remain permanently in the Empire.
"What a quantity of silks, embroideries, silverware, and the like are piled in the bazaar! and what an array of clothing, household goods, furniture, and other practical and unpractical things of every name and kind! It was the Bazaar of St. Petersburg over again, with the absence of certain features, that suggested Western Europe and the addition of others belonging to the Orient. The second-hand market was encumbered with old clothes, pots, pans, boots, furniture, and odds and ends of everything, and we were so pestered by the peddlers that we went through the place pretty quickly.
"The guide took us to Romanoff House, which was built near the end of the sixteenth century, and was the birthplace of Michael, the first Czar of the present reigning family. Of the original house only the walls remain; the interior was destroyed by the French, who plundered the building and then set it on fire, and only the great thickness and solidity of the walls preserved them.
"Romanoff House, as we saw it to-day, is an excellent example of the Russian house of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in this respect it is very interesting. The last restoration was made in 1858-59, and the Government has spent quite an amount of money in putting it in order.
"It is four stories high, and built around a court-yard from which the rooms on the ground-floor are entered. In the basement are cellars for storing provisions, and on the floor above it are the kitchens, temporary store-rooms, and the like. In the next story are the rooms where the prince lived; they include a reception-room, rooms for servants, several smaller rooms, and also some secret recesses in the walls where silver plate and other valuables were kept. The rooms are adorned with utensils of former periods, together with many articles of silver and other metals that belonged to the Romanoff family long ago.
"The upper story is called the terem, a word which is equivalent to the Turkish harem. The terem was reserved to the women and children, but not so rigidly as is the harem among the Moslems. Beds, bedsteads, playthings, and articles of clothing are among the curiosities in the terem of Romanoff House. Among them are the slippers of the Czar and the night-gown of the Czarina, which are kept in a box at the foot of the bed according to the old custom.