Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-12-28

Then there are 80 churches at Moscow,
and as each church has habitually one large
dome in the centre and four smaller ones ut
the corners. and oftentimes several domes or
b fries beside. the number of these domes
aid belfries, including towers. spires and
spirelets, seculnr and sacred. lifting them
selves unto the sky in various parts of the
city, is probably 10 less than two thousand,
and all of them are very peculiar Some
times you will come upon building, say in
bright red brick, with glaring white trim
mings. 1t has a very broad foundation. but
each successive story is smaller than the last
and so it mounts upward, gradually dwind-
ling to point. until at last it terminates in a
cross globe, an eagle or an angel. fiecked
against the blue sky. Probably the church
of st. Basil is familiar by picture or descrip-
ton to most readers. 1t is huge hulk that
bursts skyward in an unexampled rivalry of
sipres and minarets. the whole overspread
with thick coating of paint laid on with
barbaric touch like the ochre and vermilion
with which an Indians cheeks might be dec
GRATED on some great occasion. The colors
swear at each other, as the French say, but
the whole effect is broken up into such minute
Odths that the edifce is one carnival of archi-
tecture-a pleasing mosaic of decoration.
Moscow does not look like an old city or n
city devoted to business. You would say the
people had come here to worship God, edu-
cate their children, or consecrate themselves
TO pleasure. 1t wears holiday aspect. The
roofs are nearly all green, and the walls, if
not whitewashed, are rose color, pea green,
sky blue yellow or brown You would say it
had recently been fitted up for some gala oc-
casion-as if it had said to itself, as some
paterfamilias might say, my son graduates
to-day, my daughter is Yarried; l will wear
bouuuet in my button-hoIe and nut on my
white kids" The domes of the churches are
bulb-shaped, some glittering in silver or gold,
others painted green or blue, and perhaps
spangled with stars. There are two or three
churches here, perfect huddle of Ornamen-
tation, surmounted by domes that look pre-
cisely like pineapples! As you go about the
streets you will come upon black cottage in
a field for Moscow is full of empty spaces),
then perhaps a colossal public institution in
yellow cement, with white pillars and carv-
ings and the inevitable green roof; next per-
haps church with portraits of the saints set
into the white-washed walls, gilt frames and
ALL and, it may be. the ornate crosses upon
its fantastic domes, hung with golden chains
like the yard-arm of n ship. Now you will
pass through n quiet lane, now emerge upon
an open square, for Moscow is an enormous
village. 1t is twenty-five miles in circumfer-
ence, and seemingly frightened lest it become
a town. Loosely branching outward, as it
does, it reminds you of an enormous spider
web. Here in the centre is the great black
kreInln or spider himself while all around
is a network of streets, dark at first, but light
er and lighter until only few highways (or
spider threads) attach it TO the country.
Here and there bazar or little collection of
houses denser than the rest has caught, IKE
fly, in the meshes.-Russida Cor. of Boston
al