ODESSA, _July 6, 1858_.
At this season of the year Odessa is only livable and visible after a
rain storm, such as we have just had. It then appears to advantage, as
the houses are of stone, well built, with metal roofs painted green.
The soil is clayey, and the streets broad and unpaved, so that the
hundreds of ox carts loaded with grain and the immense numbers of
droskies produce a perfect cloud of dust, exceeding anything of the
kind in the world. In winter it is very muddy, but at this period of
heat without rain, it is a sort of purgatory. In twenty-four hours it
will be dusty again, notwithstanding the heavy fall of rain we have
just had, rendering the streets extremely difficult to cross. There are
magazines or stores in the city for fifteen million bushels of grain.
A great annoyance to travellers leaving Russia is the procuring of
passports. All the necessary measures must be taken at the police in
person, and the intention of departure must be advertised three times
in the Russian Journal, which appears only every other day, making a
delay of a week, if fortunately no holiday or festival intervenes. At
every point you are taxed for stamp paper, advertising fees, and other
items, to sustain the hordes of officers. Your pass for interior travel
is taken from you, and a new one has to be made out. Your original
pass must be visé by the minister or consul of the country you design
visiting, and another is not forthcoming until the chief of the police
certifies there are no civil or criminal charges alleged, and then,
perhaps, it is too late for the weekly steamer, thereby detaining the
stranger against his will for perhaps a fortnight. I am now only in
possession of my books and maps, which were seized by the Censor when
I entered Russia. The obstacles thrown in the way of travellers should
be noticed by enlightened Governments. Through the assistance of the
Governor, to whom I went in person, I shall get through with less
difficulty. The last act signed is by the Quarantine Officer, without
whose visé one cannot get on board of the steamer. Is it any wonder
that the progress of this great nation should be retarded? Where would
the United States be if our system was as contracted as the European?
I came from Taganrog to Kertch, stopping at Esck, a new town just
growing up, at Mariopol, and at Berdiansk, the latter a little city of
commercial importance, but whose trade may now fall off, its privileges
having expired.
In order to build up a new city, as is the case with Esck, which
reminds me of one of our new towns in the West, the commercial tax upon
a merchant is taken off for ten years, if he will erect a store at a
certain cost in the new city. Large dealers in Moscow, or other cities,
find it to their advantage to make the outlay, without ever seeing the
property. The system strikes me as a forced one, and after the term
expires the town may decline.
The ex-governor of Kertch and myself were the only persons landed at
Esck, and the governor drove us around in his drosky, and to his house
for refreshments.
I passed a day at Kertch, where I met the newly appointed consul for
Soukum Kale, whose family I knew at Tripoli. We visited the governor
actual of the city, and dined with the English consul, where were
present Spanish, Neapolitan, Sardinian, French, English, and Tuscan
ministers and consuls, and I found myself the only non-official at the
table, which, however, did not prevent our great nation from having a
representative.
I next embarked for Odessa, touching at Theodosie, Yalta, Sebastopol,
and Eupatoria, all of which places I had visited before. A telegraphic
dispatch had been received announcing the plague on the Barbary coast,
where I was last winter, and to which I gave little credence. The
alarm, however, was great, and it looked as if we should have to make a
quarantine of fifteen days, as the steamer had come from Trebisond, in
Turkey. The whole thing was ridiculous; but the passengers at Theodosie
were not allowed to land at first, and the excitement among the ladies
was quite intense. Having made two quarantines formerly, after crossing
the desert to Jerusalem, and from Egypt to Malta, I was also glad to
escape.
At Sebastopol I found our countrymen had recently raised a Turkish
steamer taken by the Russians during the war. I examined her hull,
and found it sound. The engines and boilers were in good order. The
upper wood-work of pine was much eaten by the worms, but the painted
work was not touched. They have heretofore had every difficulty to
contend with, and have divided the property raised, or exploded and
fished up, equally with the government; but the crown is now disposed
to be more liberal, and the company are to have all they save, giving
half the chains and anchors to the government, and are to raise the
frigate Vladimir gratis. The wharves are covered with old copper, iron
bolts, fragments of wood, water tanks, &c., &c.; altogether, it is a
curious collection. It is to be hoped they will succeed, particularly
as the English Times has indulged in a side thrust at both Americans
and Russians, by announcing the failure of the Americans, and that the
harbor must remain blocked up until the worms destroy the wrecks.
Our anniversary was not forgotten by our consul, Mr. Ralli, a wealthy
Greek merchant, who has had the honor and little pay for the last
twenty-four years. He drove me to his country-seat, where a sumptuous
dinner and fine old wines were provided, and toasts heartily drank to
the memory of the father of our great country. As the writer was the
only native born present, of course a few words were expected from him.
Whether it was by accident or design I know not, but a later invitation
was offered from Mr. Matthew, the late English consul at Philadelphia,
now consul general here, to dine the same day, but deferred for a
subsequent one.
He protests his innocence in the affair of the recruits, which caused
his removal, and looks back with pleasure upon his sojourn in the
States, where he left many warm friends.
The terminus of a railway in all countries awakes a spirit of
speculation, which I was struck with at Theodosie, the projected
terminus of a railroad from Moscow, which may be a long time yet in
construction. The people were brushing up and making repairs in the
dull-looking town, and property was already out of the reach of buyers.
In the suburbs is a Tartar village of mud huts and thatched roofs.
While strolling through the Musselman district with my map in my hand,
and tourist glass directed to the chain of hills, with their line
of windmills, I was surrounded by men, women, and children, whose
curiosity was excited to know, either from motives of interest, or
dread of having their houses torn down, where the iron horse was to
come in, they having of course an indefinite idea of a railroad.
The Russian steamers on the Azof and Black Seas are of English or
French construction, and are now manned by Russian officers. Three of
the steamers among the number I have sailed in had none but Russian
servants, speaking their language only, which is awkward for such
strangers as have no knowledge of the same, particularly as the passage
tickets include dinner only, and all other meals and refreshments are
extra, so that at the end of the voyage the items for the traveller
increase the expense from a third to a half. The English and American
system is the best for sea steamers, where all is included and payable
in advance. For the information of those who desire, it may be remarked
that Russia is one of the most expensive countries in Europe to obtain
the comforts and luxuries of life in.