Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-10-03
OUR EUROPEAN LETTER.
Regular Correspondence.

1
The capital Of the Gar IS not like Mad
rid and like Pera, a city almost inhabita-
bic for Europeans. The neeessarieS Of life
are abundant and cheap enough; ;lits luxur-
les, albeit exceedingly costly, are equally
plentiful Withsupplies of money in your
pocket everything that the most polished
Sybarite could desire may be procured in
Petropolis., House-rent of a superior kind
is enormously dear, but you. get proper
tionately splendid accommodations for
your roubIes. Succulent dinners, dressed
by French cooks, ball dresses and bonnets
constructed by French milliners and. dress
makers, an iDexhaustible supply Of Jouyin
gloves, eau de Cologne, artificial flowers
and articles de Paris; one of the grandest
opera houses in Europe, with Patti or
Albani as gprime donne;' French plays
and opera-bouffes with all the brightest
stars of the Gate, the Vaudeville, and the
Ambigue; dazzling succession during
he winter season Of Court balls, banquets
and receptions, splendid reviews, frst-rate
horse-hesh, and any amount of skating,
sledging and z Montague Russo " descend
ing in winter time-all these are constitu
ents of upper-elass existence in the metrop-
oils of Russia. The lower classes are illit-
crate, superstitious and filthy, but you do
not come in contact with them. You
rarely ever hear their language. Well
educated Russians speak nothing but
French in society, even among themselves
and when no foreigners are present. As it
has long been the practice among the Courts
of Europe to send the very eleverest am
bassadors, ministers and secretaries of le-
CATION obtainabletO a Court where intrigue
is chronic and aloable-dealing a custom of
the country, thsdi plomatic saloons of st,
Petersburg arefrequented by exceptionally
polished, cultured and astute guests, while
general society is redolent with accom-
plished 'enchantresses,, who combine the
grace and refinement Of the Faubourg ST.
Gerlnain with the mirthful morals of Monte
Carlo. What. more could be. desired
There IS an academy Of sciences, there are
splendid museums Of pictures and sculpture
and antiquities; and artists and sayants go
into society. The only drawback to all
this luxury and culture is that st, Peters
burg is virtually prison, and that the
highest degree of freedom which can be
enjoyed by any person, however highly he
may be placed, who is. doomed to lnhabit
the Muscovite capital, does not extend
much beyond an uneasy impression that
he is only out on bail, and that some day
or another he win be called upon to sur
render to his recognisances. With this
uncomfortable sensation the asperity of
the climaterha ittleqto do; A winter in
Montreal or Quebec will we in the way of
intense cold with 3 winter in St. Peters
burg, The St. Lawrence freezes as hard
and as long as the Reya; aud making up
your mind for the worst, with we'll heated
rooms, and plenty Of furs, moccasins, and
buffalo robes to keep you warm, the frost
and snow are soon forgotten, even it,. in
deed they are not found rather enjoyable
than otherwise. 1t is the moral not. the
physical man who feels that he is in goal.
Not the limbs but the mind requires free
dom of action !, it may be that government
itself is ,powerless to relax the tension
which is the offspring Of a meciless system
of repression. 1t has been said of. the
Sphynx that she is SO old as to have forgot
ten the solutions Of her own riddles; and
OF. the Russian Government it may be said
almost without the risk Of paradox that it
has lost the key of the prison in which not
only its subjects and the strangers within
its gates, but its own self, are confined;
and that it has grown so accustomed to a
regime of espionage and delation as to be-
gin confusedly to contemplate the expedi-
ehcy of denouncing and taking itself into
custody. ' I
ST. PErERsBURa, Russia, Sept. 13, 1879.
The Republican vote in Maine in 1877