The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-17
RUSSIAN WINTER PLEASURES.
Country Parties in the Islands Near st.
petersbure,

OF all the social pleasures of a ST.
Petersburg winter-skating not exclud-
ed-the most delightful are the country
parties, whether by day or night. The
suburbs of the capital are generally
I fiat and embarrassing. The exception
lis the Ostrova, or islands, with their
dense masses of dark green frs, pines
and SpruceS, their flowing blue or
frozen white rivers. in which, in spring
and summer, gilded domes and gor-
geous palaces are mirrored, their lofty
aisles of tangled frontage and fine
stretches of park 'and meadow, check
cred with the fantastic forms and rich
coloring of villas and mansions in early
Russian style.
Those islands of the Blest are the
goal of most of the pleasure parties
which, by day or night start from St.
Petersburg. They usually take place in
Lent. Before the carnival there is no
leisure for such amusements. Fashions
worshipers during that time being a
sort of dancing dervishes, Whirled
about in a dizzy vortex of balls, to
which there is no number and no end.
OF course, the night chosen must not be
cold, as cold is understood in the north
ern Palmyra. 1t must not quite freeze
the blood in ones veins on the way.
And that is what is threatened to do on
the very first occasion that l was in
vited to take part in a nights merry
making Inc 1SldHuS. mt
together at the house of the lady who
had suggested the idea, we waited an
hour or two for the mercury to rise
above "a degrees above zero ifahren-
heit), but in vain. 1t dropped degree
lower in fact, and yet 1t was splendid
night for all that, with not breeze TO
disturb the snowakes which clustered
together the black boughs or chung
close to the sere leaves of last years
foliage on the trees outside. A mere
breath of wind on a night ike that
would be sharp enough to put NE
threads asunder like the scissors of the
Fates. But even the cold alone often
does the work, and in the opaque gray
of the morning twilight many drosky
driver and his horse have been found
sleeping the last long sleep OF death.
From the windows of the snug apart
ments we could see the blaze OF enor-
NOUS fires in the streets, supplied by
charitable people of means, the req
glow of the wood fire contrasting de-
| iiphtfully with the white, glistenlng
shroud of snow and the great. shifting
| shadows of covering peasants, wrap
ned in shapeless sheepskins. That nlght
we forewent our intention of visiting
the islands.
| troikas, A Russian troika is, in winter
at least, sleigh drawn by SPIRITED
| coursers, three abreast, to the tlntln-
| nabulation of a peal of silYery peiis:
| The pleasure conferred by this MODE OF
| locomotion, all the other condltlons pc
ing favorable, belongs to category py
itself Many Russians harbor passion
for IL. Ones sensations and feelings
cannot be painted in words. Mercury
on his way from Olympus to troy,
bearing a welcomed message to Gone
favored mortal, may be supposed 10
! have felt and appreciated 1t. but II
| fully planned beforehand, IL it be the
| outcome of a sudden whim on the lazy s
| part it may be that there are no troi-
| kas to be had for love or money, poth
of which are abundant. In TINS case
! the pleasure hunters make the best or
| the low sleigh of every day life, which
| can Just hold pair, If they hold each
other. This the pairs generally do with
praiseworthy tenacity and conscien-
! tious steadfastness.
Then the exhlarating drive begins
| along the Proskept of the Kamennoi
| Ostroff, over streets, avenues and
| bridges, by which one flies with light
ning-like rapidity, the wildly enthus-
| iastic yamshshik (driver), whose quaint
| headgear is decked out with peacock
! feathers, urging his steeds to kill them
! selves in the service of the fair ladies'.
| There is something positively blissful
in the keen enjoyment of such a rush
!
as we'll as physical. 1t raises the heart
| and diffuses a roseate light and warmth
| over the psyche and the mind, which
the latter lavishly projects into space.
! One is on good terms with nature and
| mankind and ones self. The trees and
bushes, parks and meadows seem so
| many pictures, viewed thus cheerfully
| from under the warm fur cloaks and
! wraps. The doubly purified ozone of the
| atmosphere comes to one with some of
| the effects of iced champagne, enhanc-
! ing a hundredfold the intense delight
| of pleasant companionship. At last we
| pull up at one of the special restaur-
| ants on the islands, sometimes built OF
| ice, and the entertainment begins. The
| restaurant for which we were bound on
the cold night described above was an
exact reproduction of the ice house
built at the command of the Tsaritsa
Anna Joannovna, who compelled an
aged couple to undergo the ceremony OF
a mock marriage and then TO freeze 10
death therein for her pleasure.
If the outing has been elaborateiy
planned beforehand number of rooms