The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-12-25
SUMMER AND WINTER.
TIE PECULlARlTiES OF TIE GLEN
ATE OF ST. PETERSBURG.
a Kidsummer Night of Strange Beauty
A. Winter Season When Furs, Not
Men, Are Abroad -Out-IJoor
Amusements,
lAtlantic Monthly.l


the mental fermentation noticeable in ST.
Petersburg. For month summer RACES
With an almost tropical heat, driving tho
wealthy TO their cool country residences,
but leaving the poor afoot on the blstering
granite pavements Of the dust-swept, sun
tormented city. At midday when tho
streets seem to run with liquid fire, when
scarcely any pedestrians are abroad, and
even the policeman has retired to enjoy the
luxury of shade you may see the droshky
driver clinging to his post of duty, the
carer urging on his dirt-besmeare1 equip
age, the vender offering his wares with the
cry which is Shrek, and the beggars,
scxless by plentitude of rags, await
ing their copsk at the blazing doors
OF church and cathedral. What adds to
the intolerableneSs of a summer day in ST.
Petersburg is the abnormal amplitude of
the arc through which the solar rays
descend upon the capital Thoroughfares
long and broad give the sky an aspect of
unusual vastness, while the high buildings,
with their long tracks of sun and shade
prolong for the Imagination the duration
of light and heat. Thus, even to the
classes possessed OF wealth and leisure, the
St Petersburg day in summer-nearly
twenty hours intervening between sunrise
and sunsat-is white, glazing, sustained
WEAKNESS. To feel what 1t must be to those
who toll in street and field, stimulated for
tasks that begin ami end with the light by
scant allowance OF black bread and water
melon, one must go in fancy to soma Afric
slave kings metropolis, wherein the
torments OF nature ara added to tho cruel
ties Of men.
a MIDSUMMER NIGHT OF BEAUTY.
1t is, naturally, an inexpressibIe relief
that to the unbearable summer day OF the
eiY VII at al aa1- irbt pF hI.iaa
yet strange beauty. A cool moment comes
at last in which the atmosphere has just
tepid ebb and flow, healing and grateful TO
the senses. There is then, strictly speaking,
neither light nor dark II it is night at all,
it is night unachieved, incomplete; night
full of tho ohaste mystery of early morning.
The sky is SO luminous that one may read
small print in the open air without effort.
It is light with q hue of its own--seen, it Is
said, i'll no other part Of the world-a deli
cate green of marvellous tenderness, deepen
ing near the horizon into blue and in the
north expanding toward the sun in vivid
alterations ofrose and amber. To the ordin.
airy eye the heavens, though clear, are al
most starless; only bTiiliants like Vega and
Arcturus have power to make an impression
on the retina. Summer midnight in the
Russian capital is thus simple twilight
uniting day to day, separated from actual
morning only by a few brief moments. It's
social effect is remarkable. Native residents
ct ST. Petersburg are rarely in bed earlier
than IL O'Clock To issue forth an hour be-
fore midnight, with the park or public gar
den for ones destination, is a fashionable
habit, sanctioned by the highest precedent
To return from theatre or promenade at ] q.
~ is by no means unusual. The immediate
result is mSch loss Of sleep; the ultimate eff
EscG OF these late hours appears in g peculiar
form OF nervous irritability.
The cold begins its attack as early "a Au-
gust Day is then vulnerable in the narrov,
necl; OF twilight which the sun fails to
guarl and through this the winds blow
from the icefeIls. Frost quickly enters the
beach, ani ua1sr cover of growing darkness
a territory onco hsat-ridden in its entire
length is gradually won for winter Sep
tender evening", for, example, not only
bring back many of last years overcoats,
they empty the country residences. AMI open
a social season that is sura 80 last until
February, or even March. In October St
Petersburg is fairly beseged. The house.
holder, entrenehad behind double windows,
replies to tha atmo iph eric attack with
cracking logs of pino aud birch, until the
great Ru sian stove threatens to bring back
a mimic summer Of its own. But without
the enemy l. iAexpuguable.
PERILs AND PLEASURES OF WINTERS.
On the coolest days not men. but furs are
abroad. At forty degrees Reaumur the
human face becomes invisible-that is to
say, disappears in the twelve-inch collar of
a bear-skin turned upward Without pre-
cautions of this kind all accidents are some
times possible. 4 beard is a treacherou5
thing to lie in the way OF vapor exhalel
from the lungs Many man goes out fer
a harmless walk to return with his mouth
securely closed by clamp of solid ice. The
sun does not rise now until almost 10 o clock
Even at mn lday it is difficult to believe
that the large red ball you see swimming in
tremuloIS Vapor q few degrees above the
horizon. is the same orb as that which hung
high ever the city in summer. Diners at
meet each other by gaslight A long night
succeeds, full Of lethargic influences
heightened by the intensity of the cold. To
the poor ani badly clothed, it is night of
hard ship and suffering; to the wealthy, q
tima OF amusement AMI dissipation. In 10
capital in the w5rli are the pleasures Of
winter, indoor and outdoor, pursued with q
greater zss5 than il ST. terSburg.
The commoner outdoor amuse ments of
tho cold season ill the thoroughfares of tho
capital with sound aud movement during
the peripd OF frost. The first fall of snow
ensign, the low wheeled droshkys to their
" .nJer Qu2rterS ana t@eA appear hOat OF
aieIgeS NOT eqIaled for beauty and compact
ness anywhere in tns world. No industrial
art il Russia has reached the perfection
wiki waj'h the carriaga-maker produces
the,2 jsucats, fairy-lils Observation-Disclosures
when jt pleasure t. feast the eye upon,
a rare luxury e. be driven H. The tiniest
AM dGiatisst OF them, you think, was surely
not II lao Ter use by grown-up people. Il
must he toy sleIga. But on the driver
thru U.hs his legs into q narrow slit into its
front, Won sra lei to take courage and
mount fnera is jass room for a single pas
senssr nos an inch too little, not a finger
TOO muca-and, once seated, away you are
draw5, with speed AID safety at first be-
wl'ernS, tus in the end strangely enjOya-
ble. Not 10 $ complctly constructed are the
larger S,eises, ONE Of which arc capable Of
accommodating twenty or thirty pleasure
seeker; whlle below the "turn-0uy7 for o
riaGis lCrsoa the slei &c descenis IN G
rra.iltsf tliuf0nendO until ir !, ,,,i,re,