AN ADVENTURE IN ST. PETERSBURG.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 2958, 6 May 1898, Page 3

AN ADVENTURE IN ST. PETERSBURG.

Some few winters ago I was in Sb. Peters« burg, there were four other Englishmen

besides myself, and we five bad a festive time.. -I believe either one or more of ua jwere oub every. nighb— balls, dinners, and operas, etc., etc. Just about thab time there was a great to-do aboub afre?b robberies, there are always plenty of them ab that timo of bhe year in St. Petersburg for bhab matter, bub that particular winter there seemed bo be quite an epidemic of robbery.

There was one thief in particular who seemed to have a regular system of bis own ; he used bo take an isooshtchix (cabman) and make him drive slowly about- the streets after dark till somebody came in sight wibh a particularly good fur cap on, and then while the cabman pub his horse to bbc gallop, bhe thief would lean forward, snatch ab bbc man's cap as he passed, and be out of sight in a moment. However, be caught a Tartar at lasb ; for a man who had heard of him went out one nighb with a new fur cap tied bightly on, and when the thief -matched ab it, be seized him by the wrist, whisked him oub of the drosky on to the pavement, and gave him a sound thrashing.

Bub this was not all, for now there began to get abroad tales oi people who had gone out to evening parties and had never come home again, of cabmen wibh rich lure in their possession which they couldn't) account for ; of bodies discovered under bhe ice of bhe canals, ami other tales of the kind, bill ab last there waa a regular panic, and no lady could stir out alone after dark.

Soon these things became the stock subject of talk throughout the town, most of oar party— and I myself among them I must confess— pooh-poohed the thing, and said ib was nothing but a bip hoax got up to take in people who knew no better, bub the two elcPer ones of our party, who had seen such things before, thought otherwise. They allowed that there might be a good deal of exaggeration, but nevertheless, they maintained that these rascalities weie going on. and that it was uo use eaying that they were not. One night the eldest of our party said to me very quietly : " Well, you will begin to believe in these things when yom get a taffce of them yourself." And so I did, ms you shall hear : —

Well, one night just after the New Year, there was a grand fancy ball at Princess P '8, aud some of our fellows were invited, I among the number. A famous evening we had of it, and it wasn't tifl two o'clock — the very deadliest and loneliest) time of the whole night, in fact — that I started to. go home. Now, I should tell you that, aa my luck would liave it, I had jußt bought a new fur coat bhe day before— a regular tirst-class Siberian, glossy as velvet, and covering mo light down to the heels ; so that, what with that, and my fur cap and collar, I was regularly rolled up, and proof against any frost in Russia. But, unluckily, other people have eyes for good fur as well as one'e self ; and the moment my cabman got his eyes upon this new fur coat of mi ite — worth a hundred and fifty roubles if ib was worth a kopeck — I saw them glitter like firo. Just for one moment — I can't deny it — my old friend's warning came back tome rather unpleasantly ; but I laughed it off, scrambled into the sledge, and away wo went. There were two ways to get to my quarters — one rather longj but passing through well-frequented streets ; the other somewhat shorter,but going past one of thegroab burial grounds, through the very loneliest part of the whole town. I took it for granted that my driver would go by tho frequented way ; and being rather tired with having been on my feet all night, I fell asleep before I could see whether ho did or not. Suddenly he stopped and awoke me.

" Whot do you mean ? " asked I, pre* bending to be very frightened.

"Get out," says he, " this minute ! " and She jumps off the box and catches hold ot me.

Now, before I go any far. ber, I must tell you the character I had assumed that night) was that of a demon — horns, tai , black face, fiery eyes and all ; and really I looked a very grisly object ! I got the idea from Captain Marry at's " Midshipman Easy."

Well, when the fellow caught hold of me, I scrambled out of the sledge in a he'plesa kind of way, as if I were frightened out of my wits. He seized my coat by the collar and threw it open, my cap falling off at the same time ; and there I stood revealed in all my terrors, as grim a demon a« ever breathed fire,with a face as black as ink, and eyes flaming like live coals. I've seen moa frightened in my time, but never anything like tbat fellow ! For a moment he stood like a statue, with his eyes staring out of his head ; and then he gave a yell that might hare been heard a mile off, and foil flat on his face as if he were killed ; and £ sat down on the rim of the pledge and laughed till every grave in the churchyard ha-ha'd in answer.

However, I had something more to do than sit there laughing ; so, as soon ai 1 gob my breath again, I bundled ihe fellow nock and crop into the sledge, got on the box myself, arid drove as hard as I could pelb to the nearest police station. When I go* there in my diabolical guise I created almosb as great a sensation as I had done with my friend the cabman ; but tho whole business was soon explained, and when thoy heard the story, there waa a good laugh.

The constable who took down my evidence could hardly write for laughing, and when tbe cubman himself began to come be again, the first thing he saw was my homed head and fiery eyes hanging over him in a glare of firelight, while roars of laughter made the air ring ; whereupon he fainted again, worse than before.

I didn't want to be bard upon the poor chap after tbe fright 1 had given him ; bub the iuspector said that now the thing had got to such a height an example mu?t be made, and he would see' tbat the fellow gob his deserts ; and so be did.