The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-03-09
Moscow.
Something About the Old Capital of
Russia.

Something About the Old Capital of
Russia.
Moscow is tho best colored city I
know-the finest OF all cities when seen
in distant perspective, with her thou
sand and ono golden domes glittering
in tho sun against the sky. Cairo,
viewed from the citadel, and Constanti-
nople, from the tower OF Galata, are
comparatively gray and colorless. Mos
COW, when illuminated under sunset,
shines with Oriental splendor tho eye
is dazzled as by brilliant stage scene,
more like enchnntment than reality.
Not that the color is refined or in strict
harmony; often, indeed, all that can be
said is that tho painter has used his
paint-pot generously, thatyellow ochres,
reds, blues, and gold are laid on thick.
ly. But anything that may be wanting
on the part Of the artist is supplied by
the hand Of nature time brings the
harshest OF pigments into tone; atmos-
phero casts q delicate veil over the per.
spective vision; distance, in short,
lends enchantment. It often happens
in semi-barbaric structures that what
the artist intended may be common
place and coarse, but that what he did
not intend, that's, unforeseen accidents,
or combinations which fall out by the
happy chance Of circumstance, proves
most effective. Such are the pano.
ramas which arrest the travellers steps
as the eye sweeps over the house-tops,
chimneys, towers, trees, gilded and
mnny-colored domes which stretch from
foreground to horizon. There are
cities which the stranger should never
enter, thore are buildings which tho
critic can scarcely dare to approach.
But magnitude and multitude move the
imagination. :.
One minaret may be mean, one dome
insignificant, but the moment the unit
becomes n thousand, and as soon as
space sufficiently expands for atmos-
pherc to suggest magnitudeor mystery,
then literal facts give place to phan.
toms, and poems and pictures are
wrought out OF even commonest mate
rials. Yet these many.colored domes,
though they float as thing OF beauty
between earth aud sky, aro rather bulb.
ous in character; indeed, sometimes
they thrust themselves upward and on
ward as excrescences. The construc-
tion, too, is rather gimcrack; in the
Kremlin ! examined several cupolas
under repair when the outer covering
OF thin metal is removed, ribs, as OF an
umbrella or Of lady's crinoline, are
lnid bare. A makeup thus fimsy aud
slight admits OF more easy adaptation
than bricks or mortar to the many
varied forms which fancy may suggest.
The curves and outlines assumed are
sometimes graceful, often fantastic; in
some directions the eye seems to look
on a number Of giant gourds, in others
q group OF Turks turbans may be sug.
gested, while the smaller domes may be
mistaken for pepper.boxes, decanters,
or oastors familiar on dinner tables. In
short, the variety OF forms already in
existence is all but infinite, and others
might readily be invented. Specially
graceful,is common type, not larger
in diameter than minaret, bearing a
golden dome rs its crown. One pretty
effect 1 observed within the Kremlin.
The newly-wrought cupolas OF highly
FURNISHED surface serve rs Claude Lor.
raine mirrors 10 reflect the moving
clouds, the passing crowds, the trees
and encircling landscape. 1t may
easily be imagined how gay and gilt
tering city looks thus set with jewels
and shining with patens Of bright gold.
The colors, too, are scarcely less va
ried than the forms /; besides gold, there
is silver, often blue and green and red;
sometimes also 4 green ground is set
with gold stars; inscriptions in letters
Of gold may likewise be seen MS friezes
around towers. So much, indeed, is
Moscow city OF colors, that the walls
even OF ordinary dwellings are illumined
brightly with red and yellow, and the
roofs are green. The climax is, Of
course, reached by the Kremlin, which
dominates over the city lying beneath
as a church, a palace, and a citadel.
This stronghold, the aoropolis Of Mos
COW, is ASnked by massive and pic.
turesque towers, surmounted by rough,
steep roofs, marked and colored like
the scales OF serpents also over gate
ways and at angles arc many other tow.
ers, which group with domes and
pointed pinnacles and golden crosses
into ever-varying panoramas as the
spectator makes the circuit Of the walls,
or as the sun, travelling from east 10
west, alternates light and shade the
scale is sufficiently extended to gain
changeful play Of atmospheric effect.
Ono OF the towers, that OF the "Spaski"
gate, was erected by an Englishmau,
Christopher Galloway, in 1926. The
'aTroitski" tower was also built by him.
While the Easements are heavy and
gloomy, after the Oriental fashion, the
upper stories, or sky outlines in infinite
fantasy, play with cloudland and seem
so 10 hold themselves aloof from earth
as 10 become creatures OF the elements.
Tho Kremlin should be seen by sunset,
twilight, and moonlight.