VISITING THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. PETERSBURG.—EDUCATION IN RUSSIA.—PRIMARY AND OTHER SCHOOLS.—THE SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION.—RECENT PROGRESS IN EDUCATIONAL MATTERS.—UNIVERSITIES IN THE EMPIRE; THEIR NUMBER AND LOCATION.—RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.—TREATMENT OF THE JEWS.—THE ISLANDS OF THE NEVA, AND WHAT WAS SEEN THERE.—IN A TRAKTIR.—BRIBERY AMONG RUSSIAN OFFICIALS.
 
Next morning the party was out in good season. It had an appointment with a professor attached to the University of St. Petersburg for a visit to that institution. He was to take breakfast with them, and afterwards would escort them through the library and other rooms of the establishment. While they were at breakfast the professor entertained the youths with an account of the educational condition of Russia, which we will endeavor to repeat as nearly as it was remembered by Frank and Fred.
"On behalf of my country," said the professor, "I am sorry to say that we are behind England, Germany, Austria, and most other nations of Europe in the matter of general education, but not nearly as backward as we were in past years. We have no system of common-schools such as you have in the United States, and the mass of the population is practically without instruction beyond what they receive from the village priests. Down to the time of Alexander II. the village schools were controlled by the priests, and no one else could be a teacher in them. That progressive monarch issued an order requiring the schools to be given to the most capable applicants, whether priests or not. This was a great step in advance, as the priests were not unfrequently nearly as illiterate as the people they were set to instruct.
"To show how we are progressing, let me say that in 1860 only two out of every hundred recruits levied for the army were able to read and write; in 1870 the proportion had increased to eleven in a hundred, and in 1882 to nineteen in a hundred. In 1880 there were 22,770 primary-schools in the villages, with 1,140,915 pupils: 904,918 boys and 235,997 girls. The teachers were 19,511 men and 4878 women. Some of the[Pg 151] primary-schools are entirely supported by the Government, and others partly by the Government and partly by a small tax upon the parents of each pupil. The latter plan is not satisfactory, as it discourages poor people with many children from sending them to school, and it is probable that in a few years all the schools will be free."
 LITTLE FOLKS AT SCHOOL.
One of the youths asked what was taught in the village schools of Russia.
"Reading and writing," the professor answered, "are the first things, as a matter of course; and then come arithmetic, grammar, and geography, in the order I have named them. Church and State are so closely connected in Russia that the primary education includes the form of prayer; it is a part of the daily exercise of the schools, except for those who profess other than the orthodox faith, and in former times children of dissenters were not allowed to attend the schools. Catholics, Lutherans, and others were instructed by their own teachers, and, failing this, they had no instruction whatever. At present children of any faith can attend the village schools, and where there is a mixed population the schools are divided.
"In 1850," the professor continued, "there were less than three thousand[Pg 152] village schools in the Empire; the increase to more than twenty-two thousand in thirty years shows how rapid has been our progress. We have great hopes for the future, and at the end of another thirty years I trust you will find us not much behind the other countries of Europe."
 LEARNING TO WEAVE.
Doctor Bronson asked about the higher instruction in Russia, and how it compared with that of other lands.
"One of the drawbacks to higher education in its broad sense," said the professor, "was the custom that prevailed, and still prevails to a great extent, for rich people to educate their children at home. Every nobleman who could afford it had a tutor for his boys and a governess for his girls. There is no country where tutors and governesses were more certain[Pg 153] of employment than in Russia, and I have the assurances from them, a hundred times repeated, that they were better treated here than anywhere else. A tutor or governess is almost invariably made a member of the family, sits with them at table, is presented to visitors, forms a part of their social circle, and is made to feel thoroughly at home. Governesses are usually English or French, while tutors are generally French or Germans. The education of these home taught children begins at a very early age, and they naturally speak with fluency the language of their instructors; hence it follows that the Russians of the higher classes have, justly, the reputation of being the best linguists of Europe."
As the professor paused, Frank remarked that he had observed how almost every Russian officer spoke French or German, and many of them spoke French, German, and English. "French seems to be almost universal among them," he added, "at least as far as I have been able to learn."
"That is true," said the professor, "and there are many Russians who speak French better than they do their own language. With French nurses in their infancy, French governesses or tutors as their years advance, and with their parents speaking French, it is not to be wondered at.
"The system of home education discouraged the education of the schools among the nobility, and it was only during the reign of Nicholas[Pg 154] that a change was made. Count Ouvaroff, Minister of Public Instruction under the Iron Czar, set the example by sending his own son to the University of St. Petersburg. The example was followed, and the attendance at the universities and normal schools increased rapidly. Nicholas gave the system a military character by decreeing that the students should wear cocked hats and swords, but this was abandoned by Alexander II. The policy of Nicholas was shown in the words of his instruction to Count Ouvaroff, 'Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality.'"
Fred asked how many universities and high-schools there were in the Empire.
 MINERAL CABINET IN THE UNIVERSITY.
"There are nine universities," the professor answered, "situated at St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kief, Kazan, Wilna, Dorpat, Kharkov, Odessa, and Warsaw.[2] The professors are paid by the Government, and the poor students have an allowance for their support. To be admitted to the universities, they must pass an examination in the course of instruction in the gymnasia or high-schools, which are in the provincial towns, about four hundred in all, or must have received equivalent instruction at home. The high-schools or gymnasia correspond to your academies or high-schools in America, and hold the same relation to the universities.
"Besides the universities, which confer degrees in law, medicine, mathematics, natural history, philology, and the Oriental languages, there are distinct schools of medicine and law, like the medical and law schools of other countries. There are four free high-schools for the education of women, and the applicants for admission are constantly in excess of the facilities for their instruction. There was a medical school for women, but it was closed in 1884 on account of its use as a means of disseminating revolutionary ideas."
Frank and Fred wished to obtain further information about the reason for closing this medical school, but they remembered that the professor would probably dislike to discuss the subject, as it had a political bearing, and so no question about it was asked.
Breakfast was over, and the party entered the carriage, which was waiting at the door, and were driven to the university.
"One thing I forgot to say," said the professor, as soon as they were seated in the vehicle, "and that was about education in Finland. The[Pg 155] grand-duchy has a system of public instruction distinct from that of the rest of the Empire. It has a university at Helsingfors, high-schools in all principal towns, and elementary schools in the villages. Almost the entire population can read, and nearly every youth can write during his school-days, though he often forgets this accomplishment in later years.
 PARLOR IN A HIGH-SCHOOL FOR WOMEN.
"To return to Russia, all through the Empire there are agricultural, mining, engineering, and other industrial schools, and there are also numerous military schools, which have a separate system of instruction. The cadets are transferred from the military gymnasia to the 'military schools,' in which they are educated to qualify them for commissions as officers. There are three academies—for the staff, engineers, and artillery—and in these academies the higher branches of military science are taught. The religious schools are attached to the Church, and the instruction is managed by the clergy. Here we are at the university just as my impromptu lecture upon education in Russia has reached its end."
Our friends were introduced by their companion to several others of the faculty, and passed an hour at the university very pleasantly. They learned that the usual attendance was about four hundred, and the professors and lecturers numbered nearly thirty. In addition to what is usually[Pg 156] taught in universities there were lecturers upon the Oriental languages. A goodly number of students give their attention to the Asiatic tongues, with a view to qualifying themselves for future usefulness in that direction. The Professor of Chinese was among those to whom our friends were introduced.
"He is an accomplished gentleman," said Frank in his note-book; "he speaks French and Russian as fluently as he does his native language, and his questions about America showed that he was well acquainted with the history of our country. The rest of the Oriental professors were in European dress, but the Chinese one was not. He was in the same garments he would wear at Shanghai or Peking, and his hair was plaited into an irreproachable pigtail.
 PRIVATE ROOM OF A WEALTHY STUDENT.
"The halls were pleasant and spacious," continued Frank, "and the students that we saw had intelligent faces; they appeared much like the students at an English university, but we thought there was an expression of more earnestness in their faces. The professor told us that the young men who attended the university gave very little trouble in the matter of discipline, and the disgraceful pranks of students at Oxford and Cambridge[Pg 157] were practically unknown in Russia. It is so recently that education has been in the reach of everybody in this country that its value is more appreciated than elsewhere.
 LOWER RECITATION-ROOM.
"The library contains more than sixty thousand volumes, and there is a good scientific collection in the museum. The students have the privilege of visiting the Academy of Sciences, under certain restrictions, where they have access to a library of one hundred and fifty thousand volumes and an extensive museum. The latter has an Asiatic department, which contains many objects of great interest to students of matters pertaining to Asia. We went to the museum after seeing the university and looked at the remains of the Siberian mammoths, which were found embedded in the ice where they had lain for thousands of years.
 ONE OF THE PROFESSORS.
"Another educational institution of St. Petersburg is the School of Mines, which is supported by the Government and has about three hundred students. Its collection of minerals is said to be the finest in the world. There are single nuggets of gold worth thousands of dollars, great masses of solid silver, platinum, copper, and other metals, together with topaz, beryl, aquamarine, quartz, and other crystals in great variety and of unusual size and beauty. One crystal of beryl weighs five pounds and is valued at twenty-five thousand dollars.
[Pg 158]
 DESCENDING A SHAFT.
"In the halls devoted to instruction there are models of mines, with the veins of ore, and the machinery for working them; the workmen are represented by little figures like dolls, and the whole is admirably executed. After looking at these models we were taken to the garden, where there is a section of a mine, through which we were guided by means of candles and torches. It required very little imagination for us to believe we were actually in a mine far below the surface of the earth, and that the veins of ore were real rather than fictitious. It must be of great advantage for the education of the students, and certainly we found it very instructive in the little time we were in it.
 GALLERIES IN A MINE.
"What would you say if I told you that the richest public library of Europe is in St. Petersburg? Well, the Imperial Library may not be superior to all others, but those who ought to know say it is not inferior in any respect. It occupies a very large building on the Nevsky Prospect, and is open to the public like the great libraries of London, Paris, Vienna, and other cities. The custodian who accompanied us through the building said it contained nearly a million printed volumes, in all the languages of the world, and about thirty thousand manuscripts, some of them very old.
 IN THE LIBRARY.
The foundation of this immense library was one of the spoils of war between Russia and Poland. It belonged to Count Zalewski, a Polish bishop, and contained three hundred thousand volumes. After the capture of Warsaw, in 1796, the library was removed to St. Petersburg, and since that time yearly additions have been made, until it has reached its present condition. Among other things there is a collection of books relating to Russia in other languages than Russian. They number forty thousand, and cover all dates from the invention of the art of printing[Pg 159] down to the present time. Then there are nearly one hundred thousand books in the Russian language, beginning with a volume of the 'Acts of the Apostles,' printed at Moscow in 1538.
"There is a prayer-book which belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, and which contains many notes in her handwriting. There are autographs of kings, queens, emperors, princes, and other persons of blue blood—so many that I can't begin to enumerate them. In fact there are so many things here that one might spend weeks in the library, and find something new and interesting every few minutes. The reading-room is well arranged, and has all the leading papers of Europe. To show its growth in popularity, let me say that it was visited by twenty thousand persons in 1854, and by seventy-three thousand in 1864. In more recent times as many as one hundred and fifty thousand persons have visited the reading-room in a single year.
 A COLLEGE DORMITORY.
"Well, we have had enough for one day of schools, libraries, museums, and the like—so many of them that our heads are fairly swimming. Let us go home and think over what we have seen; if we remember a tenth part of it we shall be fortunate."
Naturally the conversation, after their return, related to what they had seen; and in this connection the Doctor gave the youths some interesting information.
"The university we have seen to-day," said he, "is not by any means the oldest in Russia, nor is it the largest. The honor of age and extent belongs to the University of Moscow, which was founded in 1755, while that of St. Petersburg was founded in 1818. The Moscow University has one thousand eight hundred students, and seventy-two professors and lecturers, and there are one hundred and fifty thousand volumes in its library. The Government gives about three hundred thousand dollars annually in aid of the Moscow University, and many of Russia's most celebrated men have been educated there.
"The oldest university in the Empire was at Abo, in Finland, but the buildings were destroyed in a great fire in 1827, and afterwards the university was established ............