The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-09
So LONDONDERRY VT. THURSDAY DECEMBER 9.
MOSCOW'S CHURCHES.

MUSCUW y CHUKCHEO.
A Russian City or Spires,
Dones and Minarets.
Beauties of Their Architectural Oon.
struction Wonders Of the Kremlin.
am informed, writes Delnas Barnes
in the Brooklyn Eagle, that there arc
in Moscow about 1000 Greek churches.
They arc compost of Catholic, Moham-
mcdan, and Oriental architecture, and
probably the most beautiful churches in
the world. When the ornate ami,
wonderful st. Basil church was COM
pleted the architect was asked by his
MASTER Ivan the Terrible, if that effort
was his very best; if, under any cir
cumstances or for any consid with
any amount of money he could construct
more beautiful edifice. The reply was
that he could MOTTO make more
beautiful structure would be impossible.
Thereupon the architects eyes were put
out that even he should not copy this
sublimely beautiful creation. l think
that not one of those thousand churches
has less than three minarets and domes.
Most of them have five, some have 25-
always an odd number-for grand cen
tral effect-and some have in the neigh
borhood of fifty to one hundred. They
arc colored white, green, rcd or blue, or
are covered with silver or gold. Most
of them have chimes of bells, and l pre-
sumo there are in the city of Moscow
eight thousand bells. 1t was but yes
tcrday that l stood on the eminence-
about six miles west of the city-wherc
Napoleon stood that eventfnl day when
he first beheld those five thousand NINA
rets, spires and domes and the Kremlin's
golden roofs glistening in the sun, and
whence he surveyed the treasures which
he thought would soon be at his disposal.
l travcrsed the same road which he took
when he marched his 500, 900 men to an
expected victory, that proved to be the
most melancholy defeat recorded on the
pages of history. The immense treas
ures of the museum in the Krcmlin had
been removed and the sullen Muscovites
applied the torch to their own devoted
homes The sequel is we'll known.
Moscow has been rebuilt and its treas
ures and relics have been returned, sup
plemented by the emperor's cannon and
flags and numerous trophies taken from
the fleeing invaders.
To enumerate the wonders of those
Kremlin museums is impossible. To
describe any of them IS to select ere
jcwelcd crown out of many, one diamond
out of millions. Silver and gold, mala.
chitc, lapislazuli, jasper, rubies, dia-
monds and sapphires are not only
worked into crowns, thrones and vest
mcnts in almost endless profusion, but
they are even formed into furniture and
make fireplaces, walls ani ceilings. Just
there is the tocsin bell which sounded
the signal for plying the torch to the
city. Here are the red stairs upon
which Napoleon assembled to the throne
of the Romcloff kings. There is tho
sword with which the Terrible Ivan
behcadcd his own sons. Here are the
furs which once inveloped tho form of
Catherine the Noble. And here, again,
are the tools with which Peter the Great
worked when he builded ships and en-
pires-for it was his knowledge of the
wants of his people that gave them
the mighty impulse which yet jars two
continents.
Then we were shown through the
great throne-room, the silver rooms, the
gold rooms, the pink rooms, the white
rooms, the blue rooms, the jasper rooms,
and the crystal rooms, and then we
wound up intricate stair-cases, to the
secret-tral room-still higher TO the
dungeon and execution rooms, where
voices were stifed without remorsc and
where cries could not be heard by
sympathizing friends.
The far-famed bell exceeded my
school-boy expectation as to size, and moi
TO mislead in speaking of it l tried my
measuring tape around it. 1t at first
hung-if ever, it was hung on low
wooden frame within the Krcmlir
walls. The frame was accidently
burned, and when the bell fell to the
ground piece seven feet high wa,
broken from its disk. I was not there
when the event occurred, but I venture
the assertion that the bell, with down.
ward orifcc of twenty-six feet diameter
was not buried in tho ground, as histo
rians record was the case. The bel
measures seventy eight feet in circum
ference and is, l think, about twent!
feet high. l am aware that cyclopedist
give the measurement as sixty feet il
diameter and nineteen feet three inche
as the height. Against this
simply set my own measurement. The
iron clapper is about nine feet long, ant
is said to weigh 40 pools, or 1900
pounds. did not lift it. The state
ment is, l think, quite correct.