Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1874-04-27

Housekeeping is both troublesome and
expensive. We have Russian foot
man who speaks English, French and
German; German butler who speaks
English and French German cook
speaking Russian and German; Russian
chambermaid speaking nothing else, be-
sides those scrfs or 'Alugiks," or SER
wants of the lower order, who do most
of the work in fact Oh yes, and
"lampiste, or to attend the door, look
after the fires and trim the lamps-a
Russian who speaks little English and
French. Besides these. we have one or
two coachmen, man part of the time
to bring up wood and coal, a man once
a week to brush and polish the waxed
floors and man every other day to
come in and water the flowers, of which
every fine house must have lot Isn't
this a crew, besides a 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 always in
Winter For two months before Lent
we did little but attend balls, parties,
dinners, receptions, routs and presenta-
tions, not going to bed till next day
most of the time. | get up at ten and
the balance of the family about noon.
In December the sun rose at 8 and set
2.50-not much of a day at best. At
one ball at the palace there were 26O0
guests, 1900 of whom sat down to sup
per at 2 o'clock in the morning and 600
took their lunch standing. 1t takes
$4,000 candles to light this palace for
such ball. At this ball there were
royal persons more than | ever saw TO-
gether 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 duch-
esses, Prince Arthur of England and
fifteen or twenty princes from Asia and
1 L.,ro,ao hocIloe W. bal bo1
presentation to them all previously
They had all danced and mingled with
the crowd The new married Duchess
of Edinburg, in whose honor the ball
was given wore the celebrated diamond
necklace estimated to be worth S20,O0O,-
900. The Empress dress was trimmed
with solitaire diamond buttons, each
one of which was worth SOC, 900 or S1OO,
900. All the imperial ladies wore dia-
mond crowns. 1t is thought there were
more diamonds worn that night than
ever before at one time, as they came
from the three empires of Germany,
England and Russia. 1t is of no use
to describe the scene. A week after
wards there was small and select ball
given there to 100 guests. At this time
the supper was laid in the hall, which
is about 100 K $50 feet and forty feet
high. Forty palm trees, tweaty to thir-
ty feet high, had been brought from
the green house; around each was built
table for ten to twenty guests; 500
candles lighted this room. SO we sat
down to supper in a real palm grove.
1t was magnificent beyond description.
This is latitude sixty, the same as that
of Greenland.
Speaking of green houses, We visited
one the other day for trees and shrubs,
ferns and cacti only, not flowers, which
has 10000 varieties in it and 10000
pots or specimens. All the 'corps d.
plomatique' are invited every winter,
there appears to be no end to the money
this court spend on such an occasion
This, of course, is seldom done. The
Emperor is splendid man, very polite
and for that matter so are they all to US
There is little or no middle class in
Russia. The few live like princes
The many work and live like slaves
Very fine and handsome people are the
nobility; very low and degraded are
the working classes. But it's vastly
improved under this Emperor, who il
really just and good man. Russis
has its own code of morals l suppose
which the people live up to. From our
point of view there are no morals here
They all cross themselvs on going pas
church or shrine. There is a shrine
in every house, in the presence cf which
no one can wear his hat, not even tht
Emperor. So, inside Russian door
hats of-a carpenters shop, saloon Of
palace, it's all the same. They keel
Lent rigidly. Circuses and theatres are
full, Sundays, except in Lent.
There are over sixty ''proswicks" o.
fete days in the year on which no ont
will work. Sunday is less cared for
though generally no work is done OIL
that day. Drunkenness is more common
than in any country in the world. Com
mon people drink all the "bodka" they
can get Their food is a black, SOU
rye bread, and cabbage soup mostly.
But they are good natured, laugh
ing race of beings. There is but little
. social life here. though In fact not mucl