Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-07-23
fronr abrnah.
NOTES FROM NORTHERN LANDS.
REV. JOHN LEYBURN, d. d.
ST, PETERSBURG.

] and the frst announcement was that
such good progress had been made that
We would reach st. Petersburg an
hour or two in advance of our time.
The Gulf of Finland had certainly
been behaving most beautifully, and
this morning was as serene and smiling
rs the most fastidious voyager could
desire. ''Getting towards st. Peters
burg" Certainly; don't you see
Cronstadt," says one. And sure e.
nough, there was the great fortress,
guarding the approah to the Imperial
capital; and guarding it so sternly
that that enemy would be daring and
reckless, indeed, who would provoke
her thunders. England and France
are great nations, and when allied a.
gainst Russia in the Crimean war, were
able to storm and carry the apparent
ly impregnable fortress CT Sebastapol; /;
but they deemed it prudent not to I'M
dertake Cronstadt. Their fleets were
up in these seas, frowning and formi-
dable, but they made no attempt to
crack this hard nut. They preferred
rather to batter down the Notifications
of Helsinfors, although not being on
the way to any place in particular, it
was rather poor substitute for bat
tering down the gateway TO the Capital
of all the Russias.
Yes. yonder is Cronstadt, sitting
quite down in the waters, and, from
our present point, looking like an islet
covered with heavy frost. The for
tress does stand on small island.
which Peter the Great had the saga
city to see held the KEY to his new
capital. Threatened AS he was, BY his
neighbor. the King of Sweden. he set
to work to defend himself, and this he
did so etfectually that when the King
of Sweden came in high confidence
that he would bring TO speedy end
Peters would-be great city, said King
found he had run into hornets nest,
and was glad to run out as quickly a
might be; albeit, he found getting out
grievously more difficult than getting
III. From that time To this the great
fortress has kept the world at bay.
But Cronstadt is not fortress and
town only, here lies the Russian navy;
and 1t Is the masts of these numerous
war-ships which made the forest We
saw on our first outlook from the
steamer. On drawing near. We see
that there ia mulch mischief laia mp
there. vast power sleeping. which If
walked up, might do frightful cxecu-
tYnp Ynnn ~.
the slumbering monsters. We observe
several monitors. grim and gloomy
one Of them double-turretted, appar-
emily in commission.
And yonder is ST. Petersburg:-at
least. there radiant rises the gilded
dome Of the Church of 81. lsaacs,
specially resplendent under these clear
July skies and cloudless sun. But the
approach to st. Petersburg, upon the
whole, is not imposing. 1t is too low
and fiat, and lies too much on level
with the wafer. Nobody but Peter
the Great, indeed, would ever have
thought of such site for u great city;
IA site not only low and fiat. but wet
and soft-apparently without any
solid foundation, veritable, and, rs
IT proved for time, pestiferous marsh.
But one OF the peculiarities of Peter
was, that he had will Of his own, and
when that will said thing must be,
neither man nor nature, nor both COM
blned. not even when backed up by
starvation and disease, must dare say
No. A hard fight had the great Peter
against such foes, but he won the dav.
Not willing to occupy capital SO iso-
lated rs that at Moscow, four hundred
miles inland, and finding that the
worlds great powers all welded fleets
as well rs armies, and all carried on
commerce by sea, and having i'm his
domain no convenient point for reach
ing water, except by the Neva, he de-
termIned, swamp or no swamp, that
here he would build the capital for that
empire which he determined should
hold its head as high rs the other king
ly powers. And on the Neva stands
the city we are now approaching.
have already described drosky,
but not a drosky-driver; and as it so
happens that one Of the latter is the
first man to give us welcome to the
Cars capital, | must introduce him
to the reader; especially, too, as no
tourist can leave st. Petersburg with
ont thinking of droskies and their
drivers as among the most noticeable
objects of the city. No sooner have
We come alongside the wharf than a
drosky-driver boards our craft. But
how unlike his brotherhood of Hiber-
nian or African type who welcome
strangers to our own cities. This
Russian wears pelisse, long frock
of blue cloth reaching from his neck
to his feet, plated heavily at the waist,
and girded with purple belt, and his
head adorned with black beaver hat,
with a crown not over four inches high,
excessively belled, and tiny, narrow
brim, turned UP tight at the sides. !
may safely say this hat has not its like
in any other land. And this dress is
the universal costume of coachmen in
Russia, from the charioteer of the no
BILE to that of the hackney drosky.
With the former the material is finer,
but the cut and shape the same, with
the exception of the Imperial livery.
| do not remember that We saw
livery in Russia. THE drosky man
who boarded our steamer, finding long
skirts in his way, was holding up his
frocks above his knees, disclosing a
very dirty petticoat of coarse bagging,
and Il pair of long, heavy boots-the
tout-ensemble being quite unique. In
common with all drosky drivers, he
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