Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-16

Of wide streets, of big three, four and ave-story
fats; Of vast palaces, many Of which cover
acres; Of . multitude Of gorgeous churchss, Of
great schoolst Of art galleries, Of factories and
the thousand and one othsr features which
the Globe. You have heard he story Of IT. 4.
building. I stood yesterday in the log hut that
Peter the Great built ON the swamp here when
he decided that hs would make this point his
capital AL this IVES forest, massh and .
Russis Of this, ives In The interior, but
Peter decided he wanted to have hh
capital where he could look ont upon
Europe, and he called st. Petersburg his win
dow, and, ike Aladdin, he made II rise upon
the mud In almost . night He made every
boat on the Baltic and the Russian rivers had 10
draw load Of stone to the city, and 4. 900 men
worked year In and year out till the great
capital rose. Fully Q generatiou after New
York was founded the wolves howled in the
wilderness on the site Of st. Petersburg;
now q city Of stone and brick twenty-five
miles IN circumference floats here, as 1t were,
almost upon the waters and 100, 000, 900 heads
bow down to this as the seat Of their ruler.
Piles by the millions have been driven down to
make foundations. The great River Neva il
walled for miles with granite docks and all the
Warrington are large, but those Of Russia cover
far greater areas. The only things that compare
with them are the mammoth structures Of the
Chicago exposition, and as to the churches here,
one Of them, st. Isaac's Cathedral, has cost
nearly e20 900 900, or a. much as viii 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. II
Is almost . Sabbath days journey to 60 through
some Of these palaces. The winter palace, on
the banks Of the Neva, would spoil the area ofa
ten-acre field, and its corridors If stretched out
would reach miles. There is . tradition that
some Of the unused rooms were turned into .
barn yard by the servants in years past, and
that when the palace once burned Q COW was
hauled out with the furniture. It Il the same
with private houses. The people live in fats,
and these flats make up in area what they lack
in height. 1t takes nearly q square for the
ordinary house, and the Hotel de Europe, where
am stopping, has halls which seem to be o mile
long, and lose myself again and again going to
my room. The business blocks are big, and
there is a great bazaar here, whore hundreds Of
merchants have stores facing q vaulted arcade,
which covers a vast area, and which is thronged
from morning till midnight with Thousands Of
shoppers.
THE NEvsKI AND IT'S HORSES.
The finest street Of st. Petersburg is the
Nevsh prospect, which runs from the river at
the Navy Department or Admiralty buildings
back through the city. This street Is over
tnTec HiiicS long III 6trdlBut lilo. buQ ~ 10
walled with magnificent stores. It is paved
with cobblestones, flags and wooden blocks.
The pavements or sidewalks are of fagstones..
The center Of the street, where the double
deckers Of street cars go Of cobblestones, and
on either side of this there is wide strip of wood
for driving. The wooden pavement is made of
octagonal blocks Of pine about six inches thick
and five inches in diameter set fat on a base Of
plaaks, which rest on great logs sunken into
the street. These blocks are cemented together
with pitch and they make a driveway equal
almost to q dirt road. The same character Of
pavement exists in all the chief streets of the
city, and the sights Of these thoroughfares are
such Is you will see nowhere else in the world.
1 have been in all Of the great capitals of the
world from Paris to Pekin and have nowhere
seen such horses and such driving as in st.
Petersburg. Every other man owns a fast
team and all drive as though the
devil was after them. A great many
Of the horses are Of the Orloff breed, big, tall,
well-made blacks, all Of whom are high step
pers. They have a touch Of Arabian blood in
them and they are trained 30 that they step in
time and 60 very fast. The average speed Of
these carriage horses on the street
cannot be less than four minutes
to the mile and even the droschkiss or
cabs Of the cities race along at a breakneck
pace. l have been in st. Petersburg over o
week and 1 have not seen horse walk yet. and
one Of the exciting incidents of life here is the
narrow escapes which you seem to be constantly