St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1874-05-22
Life at st. Petersburg.

INTERESTING LETTER FROM MINISTER
JEWELL TO \ LADY AT ROCHESTER,. y. Y.
ST. PETERSBURG, March 5, lH7I.
Ny Dear Mrs. -: | wonder wheth
cr Nou don't think | am lost sometimes.
] am not. hut am quite firmly anchored
up in this so-called cold climate. 1t
has not been cold all this winter. though
] understand il is exceptional. We
have had about ten days of zero wealth
er. not more. and thos" run five or ten
below only. few days and nights down
to ten above zero. but most of the time
twenty or thirty above, cloudy. sour
weather: but now it is bright and
sunny, Il foot or two of snow only. No
trouble of sleeping warm at all. Wood
is burned mostly and costs about eight
dollars per cord; plenty of coal. hut all
from England and costs about ten dol
lars per toB-soit coal. Houses are
perfectly comfortable. all with double
windows and fitted in close and tight.
81 we suffer most from ventilation.
housekeeping is both troublesome and
expensive. We have Il Russian foot
man who speaks English. French and
German Il German butler who speaks
English and French; 4 German cook
speaking Russian and German Rus
sian chamhermaid speaking nothing
else. besides those seris OF ''Alugiks.
or servants of the lower order. who do
most of the work in fact. oh YES. and
a ''lampiSte or man to attend the door,
look after the fires and trim lamps-a
Russian who speaks Il little English and
French. Besides these. we have one
or two cOachmen. Il man part of the
time to bring up wood and coal, man
once week to brush and polish the
waxed floors. and man every other
dav to come in aud water the flowers,
of which every fine house must have n
lot Isn't this Il crew. besides Il French
lady's maid whom we always have.
The houses are heated by stoves and
CRATES. We have fifteen fires all told
in cold weather and twelve. or ten al
WAYS in winter. For two months be-
fore Lent. we did little but attend balls.
parties. dinners. receptions routs and
presentations. not going to bed till next
dav most of the time. get up about
10 and the balance of the family about
noon. In December the sun rose at 9
and set at 2 50-not much of day at
best. At one ball at the palace there
/ were ~ODo SufSlS, isoo VI
down to supper at o'clock Ill the
morning, and 600 took their lunch stand
ing. 1t takes $4,000 candles to light
this palace for such a ball. At this ball
there were royal persons more than
ever saw together before, the Empress
of Russia. crown Prince and Princess OF
Prussia, Prince and Princess of Wales,
crown Prince of Denmark-the above
are all of imperial rank of royal rank
there were the Duke and Duchess OF
Edinburg, all the Russian grand dukes
and duchesses. Prince Arthur of England
and fifteen or twenty princes from Asia
and Europe besides. We had had
seperate presentation to them all pre-
viously. They had all danced and
mingled with the crowd. The new
married Duchess of Edinburg, in whose
honor this ball was given, wore the
celebrated Russian necklace estimated
to he worth $20,000,000. The En-
press's dress was trimmed with solitaire
diamond buttons, each one of which
was worth $50,0OO or 100000. All the
imperial ladies wore diamond crowns
1t is thought there were more diamonds
worn that night than ever before at
one time, as they came from the thrsf