Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-05-18

seat seat on which he sat at his door and
dreamed Of the future capital, or rayed
fa,,a ahose who carried out his orders OF
a sa'.eu TO DO SO. In this room he tran
s' ~, and received foreign ambassadors
me ne very greatness of the man forces
iseiI upon one by this act alone. He
me me ear ear, with all the jewelled group OF
.ue Nremlin to enshroud himself with
~ LING on this bench. or in his timber
~, ana creating a power that in less
man Two centuries was to rule half the
' Morld. The other room of the cottage is
aieeping ana dining room: now it is a
oi ,ttp' ana picture of our Saviour
t Wn,en Peter took with him upon all his
raves, ana which he bore with him at
1 ~ famous battle of Poltava, hangs here.
IL Is IN gilt frame with jeweIled
crown that, as is usual in Russian towns.
quite oVershadows the picture.
NOT long ago | vert out to this cot
.ase on a Russian saints day and SER
wee was being performed in the chapel
small choir of men in ordinary dress
were squeezed in behind the little altar.
and priest in robes was chanting The
service. The people were packed fIatlv
toSetner III the room and outside around
tne door, and under the passage of the
outer building that protects the cottage.
oohlU urea 10 get Others to pass in lighted
candles to place before the picture and
othefs crushed and squeezed until some
moving on gave a chance to get in. All
deVoutly blessed the picture and crossed
themselves continuously. and when they
got out Went with reverential air and
looked at Peters room and the boat he
built, this latter placed between his cot
tase ana the outer building. The heat in
the httle chapel. with the lighted candles
and the packed little mass of not too
clean humanity, was excessive, and the
pefspirauon stood oW on the faces of
priests and choir, who went about their
work in a quiet, businosslike fashion:
but the devotion of the crowd to mem
DRY, to a something they themselves per-
chance could not explain, was very APP
parent.
Ostensbly it was the holy picture, but
II Is the link between the picture and
Peter that gives so much value and
makes it so revered
This Peter who built ST. Petersburg
gave Russia port and a navy, and start
ed her on her Notwithstanding career
Ihe fierce, remorseless. indomtable rest
leSsness of the man and his crimes are
forgotten; all the bloodshed he caused in
Selling upon the sole rule and his ILL
planned campaigns-even the one great
terrible crime of the murder of his own
son. Alexis, which rumor and tradition
lay to his Charge-all is forgotten in the
memory OF the man who by that same
indomitabe will and force of character
started Russia on her aggrandiZing
reer. Everything that is associated with
him, his clothes, his trappinSs. his jew
els the tools with which he worked. his
writings, his books, everything is treas
ured up and looked upon with such rev.
erence by the Russians that even strang-
ers begin to feel they are in the presence
of relics OF a man of men. The common
folks may well be excused for so crowd
ing to the little house where he lived and
worked almost as they live and work. TO
passionately Venerate the holy picture
that receives their worship of the found
er of Petersburg.-Bla and White.