The age-herald., 1897-10-24
EcstNtVtCtINtVtC3&0tVcVtINtHtl z THE CAREER OF ; 7 PETER THE GREAT. (
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companied by three ambassadors, one of whom was Lefort; the letters to him were to be addressed to Peter Mix hailof." The seal he took with him represented a young carpenter surround ed with his tools, with this inscriptions: My rank is that of a si-lhSolboy, and have need Of masters" Waliszewsld gives the most minute details concern ing the progfs ss of Peter in Germany, in Holland, and in England. Two hundred and fifty persons formsd his suite. Le- fort alone had eleven gentlemen, seven pages, fifteen valets, six musicians, four dwarfs. Officially, the amb lssadors were to solicit from all the sovereigns Of Flu rope "a renewal of the ancient ties of friendship, with a view to weakening the enemies of the Christian name" These terms imply already the opening of the eastern question. The ambassadors were bound to deny officially the pres ence of the young Tsar among them.
 Saardam and the house of the carpen- ter Tsar have become the objects of a sort of pilgrimage; but only since the end of the eighteenth century. "Histo- rically, most of the details consecrated by tradition in relation to the sojourn of Peter in the neighborhood of Amsterdam have no reality. It is not certain that he ever inhabited the house which has been picusly preserved to ou- time. All the houses which border the little canal that is a tributary of the resemble each other to a tile"
 Voltairs, and ais friends after him, haNs followed Peter hour by hour at Saerdam; they have seen him making hss bed. preparing his meals, construct ing with his own hands tine model Of a ship the model of a windmill; they have seen him working in the yards with car pentisT'S tools in his hand visiting all the manufacturers of the neighborhood. They have kept him in Saardam. to do all this, for two years. The truth is that he remained there eight days. He struck ths minds of the people by his eccentric ways and his costume. The legend was born and has superseded his tory. Even Napoleon visited the more or less authentic little house at Saardam; Alexander l. set up a marble memorial at this humble cradle of Russia's great- ness. At Amsterdam, the burgomaster Nicholas Witsen. who had once visited Russia and written book upon Tartary, and was a correspondent of Lefort, cpen- ed for Peter the great workshops of the East India company. Peter visited The Hague; his curiosity was insatiable; he entered every factory he met, and would handle the machinery; he studied arehi- lecture, printing, ana tony, learned to use every possible instrument; he con structed @ frigate, a bed, a Russian bath; he cooked his own food; he learned the art of engraving. There is evident ly in all this," says M. Waliszswski, "mcre fever than reflection, much cap rice, even little madness With the universalty of tnis genius, Napoleon never preterJsIsd to be great doctor or to maloJ etclhings; he specialized nis practical knowledge. However, in act ing as he did, Peter i. was pre- pairing himself admirably fer the true work which was waiting for him. and which was to be, not the construction Of ship, of a factory, or the palace, but the installation of whole civilZation.'
 In January, 1890, the young Tsar left for England He had already met Will liam IT. at Utrecht and at The Hague. Admiral Mitchell and Lord Caermarthen, a great brandy-d thinker, were attached to his person. He lived either in Bucking- ham street, in the Strand, CT in Norfolk He visited William at Kensington, had a long cony<rsation with him in the Dutch language, showed himself very atten- with her. He visited the mint, the ob
 not care for pictures, but allowed Krl:l- Ter to take h's portrait, which is kept at Hampton Court and is the best there Deptford, where he liveld as a carpenter, smoking this pipe and taking his glass of ale in a tavern which till 1908 kept it name of the Tsar's Tavern. He enlisted, while he was at Deptford, numb-r of concessions, made the plans fer a caral between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sl:a. He spent, in all three months in England. The legend will rave 1t ttat, before leaving, he gave William a rough | T liof, 1cf1 i'm 6ittxv