I slept two nights in a room ceiled with red-wood and pine from San Francisco.
On my second evening in Asia I passed several hours at the governor's house.

The party talked, smoked, and drank tea until midnight, and then closed the entertainment with a substantial supper.

An interesting and novel feature of the affair was the Russian manner of making tea.

The infusion had a better flavor than any I had previously drank.

This is due partly to the superior quality of the leaf, and partly to the manner of its preparation.
The "samovar" or tea-urn is an indispensable article in a Russian household, and is found in nearly every dwelling from the Baltic to Bering's Sea.