The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-21


| and novel suggestion was made.
''Let us set winter at defiance J" exclaimed
| the noble Alexis Danielowitch Tatischchew.
LET frost and snow and ice combine to build
a magic palace for the autocrat of the
| North :"
The suggestion was received with acclama-
| ton. The plan was laid before the Empress.
| She graciously smiled and declared herself
charmed with the idea. Lucky Alexis The
| Imperial Exchequer was ordered to provide
| the necessary funds, and the work began.
Some years earlier, in the year 1882,
| grand military spectacle. on an imposing
scale, had been held, during the severest
| frosts of the year, on the Neva, then covered
| with ice several feet in thickness. The En-
| press Anne had held o review Of military
| corps of many thousands of men on the river,
| On that occasion large fortress of snow
and ice had been built attacked, and de-
| Tended, according to regular military tactics;
| artillery had been drawn over the ice, cannon
and mortars of heavy ealibre had been dis
| charged, and the vast icy field held firm under
| all this mockery of war. It was now pro-
posed to build the Magic Palace of Alexis
! Danielowitch in the same way, over the
| frozen waters of the Neva
The site was chosen, and the workmen
| began their labors. The purest and most
| transparent ice of the Neva was chosen for
the quarry large blocks we're then cut and
| squared by rule and compass, then carved
with ornamental designs, as carefully and as
slilfully as if they had been so much mar
| BILE. Ere the walls had been raised many
feet, however, the alarm was given: the ice
beneath had cracked, the foundation
| was breaking away The noble Alexis
| Tatischchew threw on his robes of fur,
and drove to the spot in his sledge. He found
the report correct; the Neva refused to bear
the weight of his palace. The fortress of 1872
had probably been built chiefly of snow. The
difficulty was laid before the Empress. She
ordered her new palace to be built on the
land, and pointed out spot between her
winter palace and the admiralty, sufficiently
near the Neva to facilitate the transportation
of the novel building material.
On this more favorable ground the work
began anew. Still greater care was taken in
preparing the blocks of ice, which, as in the
first instance, were all quarried from the
Neva. After they had been cut and carved,
with the greatest accuracy, each block was
raised by crane and pulley. At the very
moment of lowering it to its destined
position, small quantity of water
was thrown on the block below. The
precise quantity of water was regulated as
if it had been so much mortar; if too much
were used, the symmetry of the work would
be injured. AS the water froze, the different
rows of blocks became so closely connected
building became one compact mass, looking
as if it were chiseiled entire from one icy
mound. The dimensions of this palace were
not large; it was, indeed, sort of petit Iri-
| anon. The front was fifty feet in length
| simple in character, and divided into seven
compartments by pilasters. In six of these
compartments were large windows, the frame
| work of which was painted to initiate green
marble The ice took the paint perfectly
| Of
tifully smooth and transparent as the most
costly glass. The central division projected,
| to represent a doorway, surmounted by
Roman arch and appropriate architectural
| orname ents On either side of the door stood
statue of ice, on a high pedestal, and in
| front was an approach of several steps. This
apparent door was in reality, however, but
another and larger window, level with the
floor. An ornamental balustrade surmounted
the front, with an architectural ornament
rising in the centre, above the doorway and
the window on either side of it. The roof
was sloping, and marked in lines, to reprs-
sent tiles; there we're also chimneys, all in ice.
The height of the building was twenty-one
feet; its depth was eighteen feet.
But the palace itself was not the only Won
der: the accessories were very complete, and
| all so much frost-work. A handsome balus-
trade, apparently of MARBLE with statues and
architectural ornaments, completely sur
rounded the palace, being eighty-seven feet
in length and thirty-six in width, enclosing O
sort of garden or court with two handsome
gateways in the rear. 1t was through these
gateways that the building was approached
Orange-trees, nearly as high as the building,
bearing fruit and flower, with birds on the
branches, also adorned this court or garden
tree, flower, fruit, leaf, and bird being all
delicately chiselled out of the same magic
marble as the palace itself.
The front approach was guarded by six
cannons, regularly turned and bored; they
stood before the balustrade, three on either
side of the doorway. These were also of ice.
They were of the calibre which usually re-
ceives a charge of three pounds of powder
In addition to these cannons there was also a
large mortar on each side of the entrance, of
size prepared for shells of eighty pounds.
| In advance of these mortars stood two neatly
carved dolphins on pedestals. Stll farther in
advance two pyramids, nearly as high as the
chimneys, had been erected on carved pedes-
tails. Each was surmounted by an orna-
mental globe, and had an oval window in the
| centre.
To the left of the palace stood an elephant,
large as life; on his back was man in Per-
sian dress, while two similar icy figures, one
bearing lance, stood near the animal. Thus
it was that the approach to the Magic Palace
was guarded by other magic wonders.
Such was the aspect of the famous palace of
ice, when, early in the winter, the Empress
and her court came to admire the work of that
enchanter, the noble Alexis Tatischehew.
The court itself must have been very curious
spectacle to foreign eyes, so quaint and
so gorgeous were the peculiar costumes
collected there from different regions of
| the Empire. In no other country of