Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-08-31
THE WINTER PALACE.
Tragic Memories OF the Cars Most Cor
geous Dwelling.

AEhEio memOrteS OI bHo CAhr'S mObC OOE-
Geous Dwelling.
There can no longer be any frank
gayety in this Winter Palace, haunted
as it must be by one of those formid-
able souvenirs which impose upon
royal dwellings lugubrious physi-
ognomy. In entering this palace un-
DER the new reign, on the days when
Alexander I'LL is holding court, the
servitors OF his father can not forget
the last receptions Of Alexander H.,
which were darlened by so many
tragedies. One in particular we can
see before our eyes as if it were yes.
terday. On March 2, $780, was cele-
brated the twenty-ffth anniversary
OF the accession to the throne of the
Emancipation, who at that memorable
date was to receive the tribute of
gratitude from his people. Mag
nifcent fetes had been arranged but
two weeks before the anniversary day.
the 18th of February; the explosion at
the Winter Palace occurred, ruined all
those projects, and spread mourning
and terror around the sover-
eign. A repetition OF the at
tempt was announced for the
I'd of March, and in the capital,
smitten with unreasonable panic, the
precautions of the police caused peo-
pie to believe that twas day of riot
rather than of festivity. When we en-.
! tered these sumptuous halls, where the
imagination saw nothing but mines
and ambuscades, alarm was betrayed
Oh many face. Alexander H. APP
peared; his visible fatigue and emotion
scarcely allowed him to address few
words to his guests Prince Gort-
chakoff, who had been absent from
Russia for several years, was seen
there for the last time. The old COM
panions of the Emperor, witnesses
twenty-five years previously of the
prodigal hopes that had greeted his
accession to the throne looked with
out courage through the vail OF the
present sadness uupon their master,
grown old, smitten physically and
morally by so many blows, a prisoner
in this palace which threatened to fall
in ruins over his head. The illustri-
Gus Chancellor, in the decline OF age
and success, betrayed by his strength
as we'll as by his plans, leaned pain
fully on console in the salon of Peter
the Great, in the midst OF that court
where absence had made him for so
long time stranger A PRESENT.
ment of an inevitable misfortune OPP
pressed all hearts and lowered over
all this august pomp and circum-
stance
One year after, March 10, 1881,
there was fresh meeting in this pal
ace, in presence of the bleeding body
that had been brought in from neigh
boring street The unforgettable vi
sion of that afternoon is still present
in the minds of the youngest of the
dancers when ball calls them to the
palace. They see once more the ter
ror and desolation of these vast rooms;
the courtiers watching for the doctors
to give them news of the agony; the
immense square all black with people;
the stupor of the crowd waiting with
eyes fixed on the imperial standard;
finally the sign of the cross which
passed over all these fearful visages
when the standard fell down the flag
staff, announcing that the drama was
over. The habitual guests of the pal
ace who passed there the winter
months of 1881, and heard on two oc-
casions the dull explosion of dyna-
mite, retain in their ears that be-
setting anguish, and more than one
catch themselves listening for it be-
tween two bars of waltz, -Vicomt e
Eugene Melchior de Vogue, in Har-
per's Magazine.
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