Wichita daily eagle., 1886-04-16
THE CITY OF MOSCOW.
A TRAVELLERS IMPRESSIONS OF THE
CARS souTHERN CAPITAL.
Marrow, Dirty Streets aAd One-Seosy,
stuecoed Rouses-Countless Towers sad
High Walls - Bad Rosds and Fine
Hor,es-No Wsli-Drssssd People.

etuocoOd Aouees-C0untleoo Towers ood
High Walls - Bad Rosds and Fine
Hor,es-No WslI-Drsssed People.
Our first impressions Of the cxar's southern
capital were not very inspiring. The street3
are short, NARROW, in-paved and dirty; ths
buildings, low, succeed and shabby. The
shops, as rule are cramped, dingy, hardly
more than blind holes through the wall A
few Of ths better streets have besn European
lid, but there Is really nowhere any approach
to street architecture, and . large per cent
Of the dwelling houses are low, one-story
succeed boxes, looking much - il they had
been transported with yard and stable from
the country The smells are-very pro-
nounced, and not such as, according to
Shakespeare, hcated from Cleopatra's barge
when she came out to meet Marc Antony.
Indeed, our English doctor, who came on
with his family day befors yesterday, has al
ready got his fill of them, and says they shall
be of tonight. But he d making mistake
He SHOULD see tie city, as we have done, from
the Sparrow hills-the point from which Ne
poieoa rot his first view Of the city-and he
would have carried away o very different
impression from that with which be Is now
leaving it.
The Russians say-and suppose believe
that when Napoleon from this spot caught
his first glimpse of their holy city, he was
overcome BY its grandeur and beauty, and
fell helpless to the ground. It is just possible
that something Of this story may be ascribed
TO national pride, and We are permitted, I
suppose, to make modest abatement from it.
But no one who gets his impressions Of Mos
COW from the Sparrow hills will soon lose
them, or wish to. Certainly it Is one Of the
beautiful sights Of the earth; and the en-
thusiasm of the Muscovite is readily ex-
planned, IL not justified The city's counties
towers, its thousands Of domes, blue, red,
silver, green and gold, standing thick like
gaudy flowers in a garden, the great fortress
of the Kremlin with its places and churches,
and the cleaning Moskva running at the base
Of its high old walls, all make picture most
unique and impressive; and seen, as we saw
1t yesterday, in the mellow light Of setting
sun, it stirs the emotions too deeply to be
ever forgotten.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
But. per contra, the road from the city
gates to the hamlet where one ia offered this
glorious view is about the most execrable /
ever saw. One marvels that the autocrat
should leave it so. for II he would but sell one,
almost any one, Of 81, 900 diamonds he owns,
be could macadamize the whole distance, and
win the everlasting gratitude and benediction
of all the horses in Moscow. A blessing, by
the way. by no means to be contemned for
horses in Russia, like gra8 in England, are
an institution. They arc splendid fellows,
and an old hack among them Is about as rare
a thing rs a white crow The carriage that
brought US from the station to our hotel was
drawn by splendid greys, spirited, well-fed,
faultlessly groomed fellows. and driven at q
dashing rate four abreast. The Russian
loves q good horse, and even that garbage
cart over yonier, like every other in the city
is drawn by a horse a Boston lady would
willingly promote to the dignity Of her
carriage. You see none, anywhere, TO
remind you Of the aspiring New York swill-
carter, who had got tired Of buying cheap
half fdollar horses, and who said he
meant TO make . raise In his next
purchase and got up to IS cents These
fine horses hare a very easy and
natural connection with one Of tho ma
tional traits of the people; for the Russian is
a lazy fellow, who will never run when he
can walk, never walk when he can ride. and
never sit up when be can lie down. / have
been three days in the city, one Of which was
Sunday. and have yet to see the first well
dressed Russian, man or woman, on foot T.
the streets.
OF course ,-e have been to tho Kremlin.
The morning We arrived I strolled up there
and passed in through the St Nicholas gate
like my great predecessor, Napoleon, who
wen. first into the Kremlin through this gate.
and, as the Russians take good care you shall
remember. went out Of it again, some weeks
later, with q very big ica in his ear. There
Is speaking reminder Of this pleasant little
inciden: that confronts the visitor immedi-
ateiy on his right us he enters For here
stands the old arsenal, and along its walls, In
the open court, in a double Ter, no fewer than
s'5 brass cannon, that Napoleon somehow or
other thought best to leave behind him when
he set out to revisit Paris after his pleasure
trip to Russia in lSl2.-Cor. lions Herald.