From Easter and its kisses the conversation wandered to other subjects. Fred asked how the houses were kept warm in the intense cold of a Russian winter.
[Illustration: PEASANT GIRL IN WINTER DRESS.]
"Some of the more modern buildings of St. Petersburg and Moscow," said the Doctor, "are warmed by furnaces not unlike those used in America. But the true _peitchka_, or Russian stove, is of brick, and is generally built so as to form the common centre of three or four rooms and warm them all at once. In the huts of the peasants the top of the stove is utilized as a bed, and it is usually large enough for three or four persons to lie there with comparative comfort."
"Do they keep the fire going there all the time during the winter?"
"Not exactly," was the reply, "though in a certain sense they do. Every morning the fire is kindled in the stove, which resembles an enormous oven, and is kept burning for several hours. When it has burned down to a bed of coals, so that no more carbonic gas can be evolved, the chimney is closed, and port-holes near the top of the stove are opened into the room or rooms. The hot air comes out and warms the apartments, and there is enough of it to keep a good heat for twelve or fifteen hours.
"The port-holes must be carefully closed during the combustion of the wood, in order to prevent the escape of poisonous gas. Sometimes they are opened when there is still some flame burning. A Russian will instantly detect the presence of this gas, and open a window or rush into the open air, but strangers, in their ignorance, are occasionally overpowered by it.
"Several instances are on record of strangers losing their lives by _ougar_, as the Russians call this poisonous gas from the stove. Among them, some twenty years ago, was the son of a Persian ambassador, who was smothered in one of the principal hotels of Moscow. When a person is overpowered by _ougar_, and found insensible, he is carried out-of-doors and rolled in the snow--a severe but efficacious remedy.
"Then, too, the cold is excluded by means of double or triple windows, little cones of paper filled with salt being placed between the windows to absorb whatever moisture collects there. Russian houses are very poorly ventilated, and frequently, on entering from the open air, you are almost stifled by the foul atmosphere that seems to strike you in the face like a pugilist.