Russia are always heated during cold weather, so that one light blanket,
which may be also used as a railway rug, is quite sufficient, whilst
sheets, pillow-cases, and towels take up little space in a portmanteau.
The most cumbrous object is the pillow, for air-cushions, having a
disagreeable odour, are not well suited for the purpose. But Russians
are accustomed to this encumbrance. In former days--as at the present
time in those parts of the country where there are neither railways
nor macadamised roads--people travelled in carts or carriages without
springs and in these instruments of torture a huge pile of cushions
or pillows is necessary to avoid contusions and dislocations. On the
railways the jolts and shaking are not deadly enough to require such
an antidote; but, even in unconservative Russia, customs outlive the
conditions that created them; and at every railway-station you may see
men and women carrying about their pillows with them as we carry wraps.
A genuine Russian merchant who loves comfort and respects tradition
may travel without a portmanteau, but he considers his pillow as an
indispensable article de voyage.

To return to the old-fashioned hotel. When you have completed the
negotiations with the landlord, you will notice that, unless you have a
servant with you, the waiter prepares to perform the duties of valet de
chambre. Do not be surprised at his officiousness, which seems founded
on the assumption that you are three-fourths paralysed. Formerly, every
well-born Russian had a valet always in attendance, and never dreamed
of doing for himself anything which could by any possibility be done
for him. You notice that there is no bell in the room, and no mechanical
means of communicating with the world below stairs. That is because the
attendant is supposed to be always within call, and it is so much easier
to shout than to get up and ring the bell.