Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-16
LEGEND OF ST PETERSBURG.
Tale of the Foundation of the Rus
 sian Capitol.

Sldn CaplCOl.
 On a glorious spring morning to- ward the close of May, two hundred years ago, mOmentous historic event took place in a very quiet way, with not even a. chronicler to describe the details. Woodland, water and a cloudiess sky formed the framework of the picture, the foreground of which was occupied with number of boats sailing on the surface of broad river and manned with warriors, fierce look ing, oddly dressed and wrangling among themselves in loud tones. They were the famous "Bombardier'' regi- ment which had achieved feats of prowess a few weeks before during the battle with the Swedes, and their captain" was the most imposing fig ure of them all, sitting in the prow of a stout vessel ahead of the rest. The weather was bright and bracing, and the breeze caused the face of the blue, broad Neva to wrinkle, as it lost itself in the Finnish gulf The cap tain stood with his back to the sea, gazing at the smiling islands in front, which were literally covered with dense forests; indeed, had it not been for the noisy-tongued men on the boats he might have fancied himself in country heretofore unvisited by man. The whole district, Swedish down to a couple of weeks before, had recently been taken by the Russian troops. The captain" now landed on the most pleasantly situated and attractive of the islands and, with few of his of ficers, was making his way to the cen ter when curious sound in the air above arrested his attention
 Looking up he beheld great eagle Tapping it's wings noisily, soaring mp to dizzy height and then swiftly de scending to a spot not far from where he stood He did not then know that it was bird tanned by men who were wont to load the boats with timber, but, looked upon it's appearance as a good omen for his undertaking. Seiz- ing a hayonet. therefore, he cut out two sods of turf, placed them one on the other like the beams of cross, then made a wooden cross from two boughs and pressed it into the sods eMciaimed: '.In the name of Jesus 1 Christ, let there be a church on this l spot, and let its name be those of the chief apostles, Peter and Paul" And 1 it was as he had said. The church, with it's golden spire now surmounts the terrible fortress in which many po- 1 litical prisoners have perished miser- ably, and the city around it is St Petersburg, for the Captain of the Bombardiers'' was Peter the Great
 1 Such is the legendary tale of the l foundation of the northern Palmyra, which is said to have been jotted down 1 by an officer of the corps at the time, and to have been laid in a gold cask- ct, which still lies among the found 1 ations of the fortress. But history gives us a more prosaic account Of the matter. Petersburg was not built on virgin soil, but on the site of rising l town. Novgorod, when a member of the Hanseatic league, had used the Neva as commercial waterway, and the Swedes, we'll aware of it's enor- l nous value as a trade route, took it in l 1917, built a fortress on the stream I Okhta, on whose banks town soon rose, inhabited by merchants, who owned as many as hundred ships
 In those vessels Russian produce was exported abroad and foreign wares were brought back to Russia. And so rapidly did the we'll being of these traders grow that in the year 17OO, when Peter the Great began his war with the Swedes many houses were built of stone. Another generation and it would have been q formidable stronghold of Swedish power; but on the last day of April, 1763, Peter born- bar6ed the fortress and entered it on the following day.-London Telegraph.