The houses are built of wood or brick, generally one-storied, and separated from each other by spacious yards.
Many of them do not condescend to turn their facades to the street.

The general impression produced is that the majority of the burghers have come from the country, and have brought their country-houses with them.
There are few or no shops with merchandise tastefully arranged in the window to tempt the passer-by.

If you wish to make purchases you must go to the Gostinny Dvor,* or Bazaar, which consists of long, symmetrical rows of low-roofed, dimly-lighted stores, with a colonnade in front.
This is the place where merchants most do congregate, but it presents nothing of that bustle and activity which we are accustomed to associate with commercial life.

The shopkeepers stand at their doors or loiter about in the immediate vicinity waiting for customers.

From the scarcity of these latter I should say that when sales are effected the profits must be enormous.
* These words mean literally the Guests' Court or Yard.