A true Russian _restaurant_, or _traktir_ (probably from the French _traiteur_), is not to be found in St. Petersburg, whose _cafes_ and _restaurants_ are either German or French, or imitated from German or French models. One of the large Moscow _traktirs_ is not only very much larger, but at least twelve times larger than an ordinary French _cafe_. The best of them is the Troitzkoi _traktir_, where the merchants meet to complete the bargains they have commenced on the Exchange--that is to say--in the street beneath, where all business is carried on, summer and winter, in the open air. St. Petersburg is more fortunate, and has a regular bourse, with a chapel attached to it. The merchants always enter this chapel before commencing their regular afternoon's work ('Change is held at four o'clock in St. Petersburg), and remain for several minutes at their devotions, occasionally offering a candle to the Virgin or some saint. Now and then it must happen that a speculator for the rise and a speculator for the fall enter the chapel and commence their orisons at the same time. Probably they pray that they may not be tempted to cheat one another. There is no special chapel for the Moscow merchants, nor is there one attached to the Troitzkoi _traktir_, which I am inclined to look upon after all as the real Moscow Exchange. But in each of the rooms, of which the entrances as usual are arched, and which together form an apparently interminable suite, the indispensable holy picture is to be seen; and no Russian goes in or out without making the sign of the cross. No Russian, to whatever class he may belong, remains for a moment with his hat on in any inhabited place; whether out of compliment to those who inhabit it, or from respect to the holy pictures, or from mixed reasons. The waiters, of whom there are said to be a hundred and fifty at the Troitzkoi _traktir_, are all dressed in white, and it is facetiously asserted that they are forbidden to sit down during the day for fear of disturbing the harmony and destroying the purity of their spotless linen. The service is excellent. The waiters watch and divine the wishes of the guests, instead of the guests having to watch, seek, and sometimes scream for the waiters, as is too often the case in England. Here the attendants do everything for the visitor; cut up his _pirog_ (meat, or fish patty), so that he may eat it with his fork; pour out his tea, fill his _chibouk_, and even bring it to him ready lighted. The reader perceives that there is a certain Oriental style about the Russian _traktirs_. The great article of consumption in them is tea. Every one orders tea, either by itself, or to follow the dinner; and the majority of those who come into the place take nothing else. You can have a tumbler of tea, or a pot of tea; but in ordering it you do not ask for tea at all, but for so many portions of sugar. The origin of this curious custom it is scarcely worth while to consider; but it apparently