MAIL-DRIVER AND GUARD.
"I had fears of that before starting," was the reply, "but my friends assured me that thefts from vehicles on the post-roads were very rare. There were always several employés of the station moving about, or engaged in harnessing or unharnessing the teams, so that outsiders had little chance to pilfer without being discovered. The native Siberians have a good reputation for honesty, and the majority of those exiled for minor offences lead correct lives. According to my experience, the Siberians are more honest than the inhabitants of European Russia. After passing the Ural Mountains we always employed somebody to watch the sleigh while we were at meals in the station, which we did not do while in Siberia.
"The gentleman who rode with me was an officer in the Russian service; he, like myself, carried a second-class paderojnia, but the ladies had only a third-class one. On the second day of our journey, just as we had finished dinner and our teams were ready to start, it was announced that the post with five vehicles was approaching. We donned our furs very quickly, while our servants gathered up our part of the dinner equipment. Leaving enough money on the table to pay for what we had received from the station, we bundled into our vehicles and hastened away. There was no danger of our losing the two teams which had been secured on the second-class paderojnias, but we were not at all certain about the other. If there had not been sufficient horses at the station for the post, our third team would have been taken from us, and we might have waited for hours before obtaining horses. The best way of solving the problem was to be out of the way when it came up for solution. As the man said of a railway accident, 'Presence of mind is good, but absence of body is better.'
DISTANT VIEW OF A SIBERIAN VILLAGE.
"We obtained excellent speed from the horses where the roads were good, as we gave a fee to the drivers at the end of their routes, proportioning it according to the character of their service. My sleigh generally took the lead, and we always promised a liberal gratuity for extra rate of progress. The regulations require that vehicles not on Government service shall go at a pace of ten versts (six and two-third miles) an hour, provided the roads are in good condition. If a driver just came up to the regulations and no more, we gave him eight or ten copecks; if he was accommodating and energetic, we increased his gratuity accordingly. Fifteen copecks was a liberal reward, twenty munificent, twenty-five princely, and thirty imperial. We went at breakneck pace where the roads permitted, and often where they did not. Occasionally we stimulated the drivers to a race, and then our progress was exciting, as well as dangerous.
"The post was carried twice a week each way, and we frequently encountered it. The bags contained merchandise in addition to letters and newspapers, as the Government does a sort of express business through the post-office, to the great convenience of the public. This accounted for the large number of vehicles employed. Travellers may purchase tickets and have their carriages accompany the post, but in so doing they are liable to a good many extortions. Each convoy is accompanied by a postilion or guard, who is responsible for its security; he is usually a soldier, and must be armed to repel robbers. Sometimes these postilions were so stuck around with pistols that they resembled travelling arsenals, and must have been very dangerous to themselves."
Frank asked how many horses were required for the service of the post at each station.