“2. In the figures of profits of liquor monopoly are included (_a_) debts recovered; (_b_) sums brought in after the winding-up of big shops where the accounts were not simple; (_c_) sale of vodka in Russian Central Asia and Transcaucasia (lately prohibited in both these districts also); (_d_) sale abroad; (_e_) the sale in Government shops of Caucasian mineral waters, now very extensive. “3. Under the heading Liquor Excise is included the tax on mineral waters, grape-juice, etc., tax on real wine in Central Asia and Transcaucasia, on wine specially supplied for foreign consumption, on wines allotted to chemists for medical purposes, etc. “4. The great increase in the returns is due to the tax on non-alcoholic drinks and Government sales. “5. In these revenue returns the classification and nomenclature is not scientific, and the primary intention is to give a rough guide to the figures of the Budget. “I hope these remarks do something to clear away the doubt in the minds of students of figures and papers. For the rest I can only reiterate the evidence of my eyes--Russia is without spirits, beer, or wine, and, if I may add it, she does not feel in any way persecuted or tyrannised over because of it. “Your obedient servant, “STEPHEN GRAHAM.” XII GAY LIFE I WAS at Petrograd and also at Kislovodsk, which is a sort of Petrograd set in the midst of the Caucasus, Russia’s greatest watering-place, a resort of the rich. As is commonly said, you leave your children behind when you go to Kislovodsk; they would only be in the way. Here turn up in these war years many who would otherwise be at Nauheim and Carlsbad or on the Riviera. It is a place of few conveniences, but it has an army of doctors, it has the springs, and it has “society.” It was so crowded this summer of 1916 that people slept in passages, in outhouses, in ramshackle cupboards and bathhouse, and paid fancy prices for the privilege. Return seats in the trains were all booked for two months ahead, and but for “the loop-holes of escape” I should have been forced to stay in the Caucasus until the end of September. Petrograd and Moscow being so desperately serious in tone, many pleasure-lovers decided to extend the summer season, and even to try Kislovodsk as a winter resort. There was lively speculation in rooms and _datchas_ with a view to high prices reigning throughout the winter.