The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-05-03 00:00:00

IMPERIAL MARRIAGE IN ST.
PETERSBURG.

Writing on Sunday, the St. Petersburg correspon-
dent of the Standard says: The marriage of the
Grand Duke Constantine and the Princess Elizabeth
of Saxe-Altenburg was celebrated to-day with Imperial
splendour, and gave the capital a foretaste of what
may be expected on the 15th of June, when the Em-
peror's brother, the Grand Duke Sergius, will be united
to the Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, Queen Victoria's
grandchild. The ceremony took place in the Winter
Palace, where the Diplomatic Corps and the Court
assembled at half-past twelve o'clock, the Russian
ladies wearing the picturesque national dress, and the
gentlemen the brilliant uniforms for which the Rus-
sian Court is famous. When all had assembled, the
Diplomatic Corps filed off into the church. A salvo
of twenty-one guns- from the opposite fortress an-
nounced that their Imperial Majesties had left their
private apartments, and that the ceremony was about
to begin.
The procession through the last saloons of the
Palace was dazzling in the extreme, the Emperor
and Empress being followed by no fewer
than thirty-nine Princes and Princesses, members
or connections of the Romanoff family, in-
cluding the Queen of Greece and the august
couple about to be married. As in the case
of the Grand Duchess Marie, the wife of the Grand
Duke Vladimir, the marriage was celebrated first
according to the rites of the Greek Orthodox Church,
and then after the Lutherian ritual When their
Majesties and the rest of the cortege had been blessed
with the cross and holy water by the Archbishop of
Nowgorod, the Emperor led the happy pair up to the
altar, and then took his usual place. His Majesty's
Confessor placed the ring on the fingers of the bride
and bridegroom, and the marriage service com-
menced, the symbolic crowns being held over their
heads by members of the Imperial family, who
relieved each other in turn.
When the service was' over, the Grand Duke led
his wife, who had on a rich white dress with a train
af crimson velvet bordered with ermine, and a
'diamond crown on her head, to make their acknow-
ledgments to their Majesties, and to his august
parents; while the full choir intoned a Te Deum, and
the cannon thundered a Royal salute across the river.
The cortege was re-formed, and passed into the
Alexandra Hall, where an altar hafl been raised, and
the Lutheran ceremony took place, flle pastor of the
German Church of St. Petersburg officiating..
The company then dispersed, tht, Imperial family
retiring to their private apartments until half-past
five o'clock, when a ms,gnificent banquet was served.
Toasts were drunk to the Emperor-and Empress, the
newly-married couple, the rest of the family, and
finally to the clergy and all loyal subjects. Each
toast was heralded by a flourish of trumpets and
followed by salutes from the fortress.

A READY ANSWER.—When Clarke, the traveller,
asked, in Sweden, what became of a woman who fell
into the shaft of an iron mine that he visited--
"Became of her !" said the man to whom he put
the question, striking .his hand forcibly upon his
thigh; "she became a pimca.kel"
CURIOSITIES or SLEEr.—A distinguished lawyer
was consulted upon an important and difficult case,
which he studied for several days with anxious care.
His wife then saw him rise in the night, and go to a
desk in the bedroom. He sat down and wrote a long
paper, which he carefully placed in the desk. Ho
then returned to bed, and in the morning told his
wife that he had dreamt of delivering a clear and
luminous opinion about a case which had greatly per-
plexed him, and that he wished he could remember
the train of thought of his dream. She directed him
to the desk, and there he found the opinion clearly
copied out, which nrnv.a to be correat-