Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-11-29

After fifteen years | spent II second winter
in 1901, in the Russian capital. 1t was at first,
as now city of paaces-brOad and well paved
streets, imposing public buildings, fine cathe-
drals and churches, mansions of great archi-
tectural merit standing in their own Enclosures,
handsome shops, capacious and well-ordered
market buildings, squares and Enclosures admir-
ably kept, gardens filed with conservatories
and green houses, piazzas half a mile in length,
rooted over the sidewalks and presenting from
the street lines of graceful elegance, and round
ed corners, imposing tdcddeS, and stately colo
nades-al these and more making St. Peters
burg, TO stranger who judges from the out
side unsurpassed in show by any city in Eu-
rope. Everything is constructed for effect CAS-
sumo virtue if YOU have it not' ought to be
the motto of the great metropolis. The streets,
for example, are full of shamS. A house Of one
story is raised to the dignity Of two by painted
wooden facade, with false windows, bolted TO
the real tenement by iron bars. Brick buildings
are masked with painted boards TO initiate
Grecian temples. Gateways of wood succeed
to resemble stone pine doors grained to the APP
pealance of mahogany; deal corniceS, piasters,
entablatureS and pedtments colored to look like
marble or slate or granite, meet the eye every
where. Even the boarding round house under
repair is sometimes painted with doors and win
dows, in order to seem like habitatiOn. The
same spirit shows itself in the uneasy haste with
which large edfces are run up. A Russian,
more even than an American, no sooner begins
than he is impatient to see the result. Palaces
are put together without regard TO expense, pro-
yided time can be saved. Twenty millions Of
roubles were expended on the Winter
Palace in a single year-the workmen holding
blazing fires to the walls to dry them foot by
foot as they proceeded. This impotence, COM
bined with the instability of the soil, and a Sc
verify of frost that nips and shiVers the finest
granite, will effectually prevent st. Petersburg
from ever being an old city. Within the houses
M * Sparp6 DrOlUpp M
fort. Brick walls, five and six feet in thickness,
are pierced by large windows Of double plate
glass; stove constructed of bricks and made by
aid of stucCo to resemble furniture, are found in
every room; tiues run beneath the floors and be-
hind the wainScofng, and every appliance of
science to art is called into requisitiOn to cause
a genial warmth to peryade every part OF the
mansion This mild atmosphere is periumed
with flowers. Luxurious furniture, splendid
mirrors, costly chandeliers, statuary, articles of
UjFtU, with draperies of velvet satin and lace vie
with all the plants of the tropics to make the
jewellers of the great mansions of st. Petersburg
forget the rigors of the climate. No expense is
spared to impart the comforts of other ATTITUDES
to Russian homes. Apartments are large, wrap
pings of fur and wool are left in the hall, and
guests at dinners aud balls accost one another
in the lighteSt of summer costumes.
To look from this artificial life out on the
street, is like peep through camera at some
magic phantaSmagory. There is the gray,
dreary atmosphere; there are the entertainments
OF snow and ice, forming ramparts higher than
the heads of the paSsers-Oy between the tr0ttofS
and streets; the huge icicles, making a cave of
stalagmiteS and StallctitieS out of the playing
fountains; the tirm-trOdden way OF snow, along
which the runners of the sledgeS aud sei9hs
slide and creak; the shrubs and trees,
encaSed with silver Sheathing; and the wraps
of furs and woods in which all wayfarers are en-
veoped. The variety of costumes that pass I'M
der your eyes suggests the vastness of the en-
pire. The CoSsack trotting along, his lance at
rest in its socket; the CircasSan cavalier clad
in his coat Of mail, on the keen gallop through
the streets; the Kamschatdale soldier in white
bear skin uniform, shooting his gun into the
air; the grave, bearded Moslem street merchant
from Kazan; the squads of Fins guarding the
public offices; the Tartar guards, Polish infant
ry, Mongol scouts, with hundred other yaTie-
ties of nations and their attire, make st. Peters
burg seem more like a rendezvous for the host
ages of an enemy than quarters for soldiers of a
| single country. Uniform of one kind or anOth-
er invests half the population. Then the paciflc
| denzens, comprising Germans and spaniaFdS,
| Italians and Greeks, French and Arabs, Chinese
| and Persians East Indians and Jews, each race
| and class clad in its own peculiar costume, and
| all, whether owing allegiance 10 the car, Or
claiming the benefit of his commercial policy
| toward strangers, aliens in the city. Every
| thing, peeCh, dress manner of sautatiOn,
methods OF doing business habits OF life, as
| well as complexion, hair, eyes and stature
show that all is foreign. The bearded Russians
are Outnumbered in the capital oftheir own EN-
| pire, not by foreigners only in the usual ac-
| ceptation of that word, but by their enforced
cOmpatriots, Fins, LetteS Poles Jews, M0ngos
| and KamSchatdales.