The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-25
A Frivolous and Dissipated Capital.


A Frivolous and Dissipated Capital.
st. Petersburg Letter.
This is a capital of the country known as the
Holy Russia. 1t is in the state of lesser siege.
1t is ruled by ministry in which jealous church
members decidedly preponderate. 1t is believed
that under several of it's streets there are mines
charged with dynamite. Though being a CAPT
tai, it rarely sees its august master Now, one
hardly would believe that under such circum-
stances this town could be a merry one, and yet
that's what it is. Nay, it is not simply merry;
it is mady merry and for that it has the full
sanction and announcement of the government.
In the very center of the capital there are five
great institutions for the public amusement,
which cannot be classified either with the thea
ters or hotels or saloons, though they have
some traits of each Here is, for instance, the
Orpheum. a magnificent house, Its entrance
is brilliantly lighted. A gorgeous liyeried
footman shows the public in. You enter
an immense hall containing stage Next room
is the buffet, and there are also number of
private rooms The entrance fee is rouble for
a man, and half rouble for The
assemblage at the Orpheum is mixed. There
are Russian merchants, foreign clerks, young
military and civil officers, and women Of doubt
full reputation. Many of the men are jolly, and
some are tipsy. Full freedom reigns. They
talk, sing exchange amorous compliments, quar-
rel. and even fight without any interference
from the police. On the stage they perform in
variably light operettas, consisting of immoral
songs and can-can darcing. Between the acts
audience and performers rush TO the buffet, and
vodka, beer, wine and sandwiches are attended
to with perhaps iVelier interest than is evinced
toward the play itself. The ballet dancers in
their scanty dress particularly command the at
tention of the cavaliers What conversations
are conducted there and what scenes take placei
About 2 o'clock in the morning the amuse-
furn int Tha
proprietor of the Orpheum spends over 100, 900
roubles a year Each month he brings new
ballet dancers, paying each from 100 to 600
roubles month, and yet he makes money.
Here is another institution of the kind, the
Golden Palace, occupying an old princey man
sion. Its former aristocratic occupants never
dreamed that servants, shop girls and clerks
would ever assemble there for indescribable
orgies, wasting their hard earned money and
lives. On the stage of the palace they give
pieces in which mockery is made of the purest
and most sacred things
Here s also the Palace Of Pleasure, fre-
quented by unmarried people. OF the pleasure
offered and INDUCED in here it is better not to
say word. Then there is the DancrS(Room
of Aexandroff. On the stage the balletdancers
perform such pieces as "A Wife to Hire" and on
the floor the public, sometimes as many as a
hundred pairs at time, engage in the most out
rageous dances. When, between the acts the
performers and the public mix up, one can hard
ly tell who belongs to the stage and who to the
auulence, TO Sucn an extent 90 the ballet cos
TUNES and manners predominant. Here too,
vodka, beer, wine and obscene conversation
freely flow.
Thus tens of thousands of the poorer people of
the Cars capital pass all their evenings and
nights Besides the places 1 have mentioned
there are scores of others which infect the out
skirts of this city. In all of them the public are
allowed to stay through the night It is known
here that the government favors this kind of in
stitutions. 1t is the men and women of the type
Brutus that the imperial ministers fear, hate,
and persecute; they fear nothing from the Jolly
men and frivolous women who frequent Orphe-
ums. Golden Palaces, Palaces of Pleasure, dane.
ng-fOoms, and other places of the kind. And
this state of things exists throughout Russia, in
all towns and villages 1t is a kind of internal
policy of the present ministry. What delu-
sion! AS if ever government could be strength
ened by systematic immortality.
If we look up from below we find things only
apparently cleaner. On the stage of the inn
peria theaters great dramas and noble operas
are replaced by operettes and light pieces of
French make. In the fashionable clubs and
hotels the aristocratic and rich public pass their
evenings in dancing, drinking wine and playing
cards Even the ladies Of high birth are ad
dicted to card playing. Well, by using up the
cards they increase the funds of the charitable
and educational institutions under her Majesty's
protection. 1t is an imperial privilege to make
and sell cards here.
Russian newspapers though in an iron grasp.
protest against the systematic demoralizing of
the people. Thus the Noyoe Vremia said:
We are told that Vienna and Paris are known for
the light morals of their residents But in capital
there things unknown to either of those cities In