New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-07-26
Terrible Achievement.

The church of St. Peter and st.
Paul is remarkable for its spire, the
loftiest of st. Petersburg. An anec-
dote connected with the church, and
not known, l believe, out of Russia,
is too remarkable to be omitted. The
spire which rises
Lofty, light, and small
and is probably represented in the
engraving as fading away almost into
a point in the sky, is, in reality, term
mated by globe of considerable di-
mansions, ON which an angel stands,
supporting large cross. This angel
fell into disrepair; and some suspicious
were entertained that he designed Wis
iting, uninvoked, the surface of the
earth. The affair caused some uneas-
mess, and the government at length
became perplexed. Toraise scafold.
ing to such height would cost more
money than all the angels out of heav-
en- were worth; and in meditating
fruitlessly on these circumstances,
without being able to resolve how to
act, considerable time was suffered
to elapse.
Among the crowd of gazers below
who daily turned their eyes and their
thoughts toward the angel was a milk
called Telouchkine. This man was
roofer of houses "a slater as he would
be called in countries where states
were used), and his speculations by
degrees assumed q more practical
character than the idle wonders and
| coniectures of the rest of the crowd.
The spire was entirely covered with
sheets of gilded copper, and presented
to the eye a surface as smooth as if it
had been one mass of FURNISHED gold.
But Telouchine knew that the sheets
of copper were not even uniformly
closed upon each other; and, above
all, that there were large nails used TO
fasten them, which projected from the
side Of the spire.
Having meditated upon these cir
cumstances until his mind was made
up, the milk went to the government
and offered to repair the angel with
out scatfolding and without assistance,
on condition of being reasonably paid
for the time expended in the labor.
The offer was accepted, for it was
made in Russia, and by Russian.
On the day fixed for the adventure
Telouchkine provided with nothing
more than a coil of ropes assembled the
spire in the interior to the last win
dow. Here he looked down at the
ooncourse of people below, and at the
glittering needle" as it is called. ia
pering far above his head. But his
heart did not fail him, and stepping
gravely out upon the window, he set
about his task.
He cut portion Of the cord in the
form of two large stirrups, with loop
at each end. The upper loops he fas-
tened upon two of the projecting nails
above his head, and placed his foot in
the others. Then digging the fingers
of one hand into the interstices of the
sheets of copper, he raised up one of
the stirrups with the other hand, so as
to make it catch nail higher up. The
same operation he performed on behalf
of the other leg, and so on alternately.
And thus he climbed nail by nail, step
by step, and stirrup by stirrup, until
his starting point was undistinguished
from the golden surface, and the spire
had dwindled in his embrace till he
could clasp it all round.
So far so we'll. But he now reached
the ball-a globe of between nine and
ten feet in circumference. The angel,
the object of this visit, was above this
ball, and concealed from his view by
its smooth, round, and glittering ex-
panse. Only fancy the wretch at that
moment, turning up his grave eyes
and graver beard to an obstacle that
seemed to defy the daring and intre'
pidity of man
But Telouchkine was not dismayed
He was prepared for the dificultys and
the means by which he essayed to sur
mount it exhibited the same prodigiou'
simplicity as the rest of the feat.
Suspending himself in his stirrups
he girded the needle with cord, thu
ends of which he fastened around hi
/. waist; and, so supported, he leaned
, gradually back, till the soles of hi
; feet were planted against the spire