The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1874-01-30
WHAT ALEXIS THINKS OF US.
The Grand Dukes Book on America.

""<AA <tAI0<AA0 AAk&NnkJ VA CGs
The Grand Dukes Book on America.
The st. Petersburg correspondent of
the Baltic ssGazette'' has seen advanced
sheets of the first volume Of the Grand
Duke Alexis account of his voyage
around the world. This first volume
is exclusively devoted to a description
of the Grand Dukes adventures in the
United States. The aforementioned
correspondent writes as follows about
it:
"This is certainly a very curious
work. To judge from what 1 have
read of it-whether his Imperial High
ness wrote it himself, or whether an
ADLER pen did it for him-the book is
Intensely interesting. The Grand Duke
says his reception in New York almost
stupefed him. Up to the last moment
he had no thought that so brilliant a
reception would be rendered in Repub-
Iican America to the son of q monarch.
He was very weak when he landed in
New York, and during his progress up
Broadway frequently felt like fainting.
But everybody was so kind to him that
he tried hard to look pleased, as he
was in his heart of hearts. Broadway,
~ 10y AAA AAAo opAAAOiI, 1S llS AIlSol
thorough!are in the world, because
everything therc-houses, shops and
the people-look not monotonous, but
gay, lively and bright. What amused
him perhaps more than anything else
was that the bands, upon catching
sight of him, struck up, not the regu-
lar Russian anthem, but the so-caIled
'Dirge of st. Catherine which is play
ed in Russia only at the funeral of
member of the imperial family. The
cheers of the people We're more deafen-
ing than any he had heard in Europe,
from which he playfully concludes
that lung diseases cannot be very pre-
valent in tho New World. AS to the
soiuiery, the variety of uniforms struck
him as extremely odd. He says he
saw, peacefully, side by side, hol1ncted
Russians and tkapied' Frenchmen,
relocated Engiishmen and Irish troops
bearing the banner of the Green Isle.
ssThe Grand Duke cannot praise too
highly American hotels. American
fare, he thinks, however, is too rich.
'Ihere is at the tables he exclaims,
naivcly, always too much of a good
thing. l asked for tho peculiar dishes
OF America, and at the hotel they
could not give me any. Their cooks
were Italian and French. The land
lord shrugged his shoulders when I
asked him about it. Out West, how.
ever, my desire was at once gratificd.
I diued one day on baked pork and
beans, a very palatabIe dish, which
would certainly bear transplanting to
Russia
"Amerlcan manners, the Grand
Duke thinks, are a little awkward and
angular, but decidedly pleasant on ac-
count Of everybody's frankness. He
tells 81 number of curious anecdotes on
his experiences with tho aborigines.
In Washington he was told that the
Irish servant girls at the residence of
M. Catacazy were dying to see him.
He put on cap and an old travelling
cloak, and went unheralded down into
the kitchen among them. He was not
recognized by the Biddies, and chattcd
with them for half an hour. He found
out that one Of them had an ide:, of
where Russia WAS situated, and one of
the girls even asked him if the Car
always wore crown ON his head,
adding that she knew the Queen of
England always did. Equally anus
ing is the account Of his reception at
Omaha, in Nebraska, where a member
of the Legislature congratulated him
on the successes Of his father in the war
With France! Another legislator of
that Stale wanted to know if il was
always cold in Russia.
tsThesc funny episodes in the West,
however, were amply made up for by
the extreme kindness and considcr:e-
ton with which the army officers there
treated the Grand Duke. For General
Custar and his subordinate officers the
Grand Dul>c has words of the warmcSt
gratitudc. General Custar's photograph
| is published i'll the volume, which is
most sumptuously printed and pro-
! fusely illustrated. Only 81 few hun
drcd copies of the book will be issued.''
THE NEW CHIEF JUSTICE.