"My own experience of the excellence of tea in Russia arose out of a curious incident, which occurred to me during a hasty visit I made to that highly-interesting country. Previous to this adventure, I had been in the habit of taking coffee as my ordinary beverage, and was by no means satisfied with it. I had no idea of the prevailing habit of tea-drinking, previous to my arrival, at Moscow. In the course of the afternoon I left my hotel alone, obtaining from my servant a card, with the name of the street, La Rue de Demetrius, written upon it. I wandered about that magnificent citadel, the Kremlin, until dark, and I found myself at some distance from the point from which I started, and I endeavoured to return to it, and asked several persons the way to my street, of which they all appeared ignorant. I therefore got into one of the drotzskies, and intimated to my Cossack driver that I should be enabled to point out my own street. Although we could not understand each other, we did our mutual signs; and with the greatest cheerfulness and good-nature this man drove me through every street, but I could nowhere recognize my hotel. He therefore drove me to his humble abode in the environs; he infused the finest tea that I had ever seen in a peculiarly-shaped saucepan, set it on a stove, and this, when nearly boiled, he poured out; and a more delicious beverage, nor one more acceptable after a hard day's fatigue and anxiety, I have not tasted." Other travellers refer to the excellence of tea in Russia. If we could have an improvement in the quality of tea made in England, we feel sure that a decrease in the consumption of intoxicating drinks would result. Some reform has already taken place at railway-stations. For the reduction of the price of a cup of tea from sixpence to fourpence on the Great Northern Railway the public are indebted to the Hon. Reginald Capel, Chairman of the Refreshment-Rooms and Hotels' Committee of that company. On the Midland Railway, also, a reduction in the price of non-intoxicating beverages has been made. At the present time the coffee taverns stand most in need of reform.