The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-12-30
= VIEW OF ST. PETERSBURG.
Some Peculiarfties of a Great and
gniau- city.

/ AntfHF my
wish could give you a stereopticon
view OF st. Petersburg. 1t is one OF the
queerest, one OF the fastest, one OF the
gayest, and by all odds the most unique
capital of the world, writes Frank q.
Carpenter to the Chicago Herald. Lying
as it does on the great gulf Of Finland,
river as wide as the Mississippi
at st. Louis runs through it and great
canals cut 1t up so that 1t looks like
second Venice. II Is city of wide streets,
of big three four and five-story flats; OF
vast palaces, many OF which cover acres;
of a multitude of gorgeous churches, OF
great schools, OF art galleries, OF factories
and the thousand and one other features
which make up the capital Of the greatest
empire on the globe. You have heard the
story OF its building.
stood yesterday in the log hut that
Peter the Great built on the swamp here
when he decided that ne would make this
point his capital. All this was forest,
marsh and a wilderness. The Russia OF
that day, as the Russia OF this, was in the
interior, but Peter decided he wanted to
have his capital where he could look out
upon Europe, and he called st. Peters,
burg his window, and, like Alnddin, he
made il rise upon the mud in almost
night. He made every noble in the en-
pire build a house here. Every boat on
the Baltic and the Russian rivers bad to
draw load OF stone to the city, and 49,
coo men worked year in and year out till
the great capital rose.
Fully a generation after New York
was founded the wolves howled in the
wilderness on the site OF st. Petersburg;
now city of stone and brick twenty five
miles in circumference floats here, as it
were, almost upon the waters, and l0O,-
000,00 heads bow down to this az the
seat Of their ruler. Piles by the millions
have been driven dcwn to make founda-
tions. The great River Neva is walled for
miles with granite docks and all the
streets are paved. Our public buildings
at Washington are large, but those of
Russia cover far greater areas. The only
things that compare with them are the
mammoth structures of the Chicago ex-
position, and as to the churches here, one
OF them, st. Isaac's cathedral, has cost
nearly S20, 600, 000 or as much as will be
the total outlay OF the exposition. There
are other churches nearly as expensive,
and the whole city has been built without
regard to cost. 1t is almost a Sabbath
days journey to gothrough some of these
palaces.
The winter palace, on the banks of the
Neva, would spoil the ares OF a ten-acre
field, and its corridors II stretched cut
would reach miles. There is a tradition
that some of the unused rooms were
turned into a barnyard by the servants
in years past, and that when the palace
once burned a COW was hauled out with
the furniture. 1t is the same with private
houses. The people live in flats, and
these flats make up in area what they
lack In height. 1t takes nearly square
for the ordinary house, and the Hotel
d'Europe, where l am stopping, has halls
which seem to be a mile long, and lose
myself again and again going to my room.
The business blocks are big, and there is
a great bazaar here, where hundreds of
merchants have stores facing a vGulted
arcade which covers a vast area, and
which is thronged from morning till
midnight with thousands of shoppers.