Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-09-15
wore E 5 Err:
TUESDAY. SEPT. lS, 1893,



beaten into shape by the most tremendous
despotism the world knows, is still land of
wonder, of mystery, of romance. 1t stretch
es its mighty threatening arms across the
length and breadth of two continents; one
hand is bathed in the waters Of the Pacific,
with the other it grasps the Atlantic waves as
they flow through the Baltic Sea and the Gulf
of Bothnia; its crown and sceptre OF ever
lasting ice lie along the shores OF the Arcuc
Ocean, while the Black Sea and the Caspian
ripple at its feet and whisper strange, intoXi-
eating dreams of conquest in Turkey, and in
Asia's fair, rich southern lands. ltembraces,
and gathers into a wonderful unity, the most
varied races and tribes and nations; from the
symmetrical, stately beauty of the Circassian,
to the stunted, gnome-like grotesqueness Of
the Laps; from the wild, lawless Cossucks, to
the formal, etiquette-loving Pole; from the
Calmucks and Tartars, those strange dwell
ers-in-tents, to the palace-loving, power
grasping European, scheming in Moscow or
St. Petersburg; from the Jews, old as histo-
ry, to those wandering Bohemian tribes, flow
ing in westward-moving wave from the far
east, whose origin is lost in the dim twilight
of the worlds morning. Its awful prison.
house of Siberia threatens prince and peasant
alike; yesterday the serf went thither, to day
the naughty noble,-the serf -master,-folows
him, and both are lost in those realms Of
snow, where the moan of the immeasurable
pine-forests drives men mad where all names
are laid aside, the proudest titles vanish;
where each prisoner is known only by his
number, and an equality, memorable as the
grave, brushes lord and slave to common
level of suffering, prison-house, relent-
less as death, whence there is return.
In Russia, too, lies the grave of dead Po-
land, buried for her sins, truly, but none the
less terrible, in the hour of her resurrection,
to the power that scourged and spat upon her.
"Ofences must come, but wo to him by
whom tho offence cometh!" The mills
of God grind slowly, but down the future
comes the steady tread of Nemesis, and Russia
shall not escape retribution for her sin. Along
her barrier of snow the wave of French ambi-
ton spent itself. Napoleon the invincible,
yielded at last before the powers of Nature,
and that terrible retreat of 1912, when brok-
en- army retired from burning Moscow, and
tracked the snowy fields of Europe with
corpses, will never be forgotten. And what
did Russia do in the Crimea, that little penin-
sula that no one had ever heard of or thought
about till the cannon of Sebastopol Numbered
its name round the world? United Europe
strove to catch the extreme hem of her gar
pun her down, and for months she
held the nations at bay; she sent desolaton
through England and proved her scarce a
second-rate power; she struck blow at the
new French dynasty, from which it will never
recover, but in spite of Italian victories for
freedom, will sink and crumble when Louis
goes to his acc0unt and she frightened
brute Austria till the vascillating policy
of Francis Joseph drove the allies mad
And finally, with a stroke of the pen she flung
them all off, and stands. haughtily as ever,
behind her impregnabe ramparts, waiting
more convenient season to take the "Sick
Man" to her bosom, and heal him with the
anodyne that the consulting doctors longed
to give, but dared not, through their jealousy
Sof each other.
Peter the Great built St. Petersburg in
swamp. Out of a miserable bog, flat desc
lation of marsh mud, grew the fairest city of
Europe under the inspiration of this mans in
domitable will. In the swamp of Russian bar
barism stood this Peter, like some Great God
Pan, hacking and slashing about him, till he
dragged Russia out of her slough and set her
on high among the nations. He wanted
navy, so he put on workman's dress and
went down among the Dutch sailors and ship
builders, and worked in the ship-yard at Sar-
dam till he had learned his trade; he gathered
up skilltul workmen from all countries, Eng
land, Germany, Switzerland, France, and
sent them into Russia he observed the man
ners and customs of othernations and hastened
TO introduce them among his own people, and
through all his strange adventures the Sardam
carpenter was every inch king. H wanted
an army, and his genius Immediately organ
lied one out of the strange, conflicting ele-
ments of his empire; and when long after
the allies occupied Paris, and the gay Parisians
lauSheu at tHe CossackS Tor drinking the oil
out Of the street lamps, and eating the can
dies In the theatres, 50 leaving theatres and
city in darkness, it was in fact the hand of
the great Peter, stretching out from the dark
ness of Russian barbarsm over the magnif-
cent, polished city, holding in its grasp the
liberty of Europe, and sending Napoleon to
the exile and prison of ST. Helena.
Unlimited as the despotism of Russia
seems, it allows to the people growth and
development which the aristocracies of Eu-
rope deny them. 81 am the State p SAID
Nicholas; and this naughty declaration sums
up the power of the car. When his acts be-
come too oppressive the people find deliver
ance from an intolerable burden through
poison or the dagger but there is no terrible
oppressive, hereditary power between them
and the head of the empire. the czar is
''their father" to whom they look for protec-
ton; and he is also the spiritual head of the
church, and so demands their reverence and
devotion. At this day, when the emperor
makes progress through the cities and viii
lagos OF his empire, the people fling them
selves down before him, and trample each
other for the privilege of kissing the steps of
re