The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-18
CAPITAL OF RUSSIA is
BLONDE AND BEAUTIFUL
Clories of the City by the Neva
Portrayed in Graphic Color
by an English Writer.
SIMPLE RUSSIAN PEASANT
"A Peaceful, Faithful Race, Some
times with Trace of Trans
parent SlyneSs.
SIMPLE RUSSIAN PEASANT


LONDON, April 17-Writing from st.
Petersburg late in March a correspondent
Of the Daily Mail graphically describes the
beautiful modern capital of the Muscovite
Empire and touches happily on the pictur-
esque traits of its people. After recounting
briefly the incidents of fortnights stay.
he reverts to the unerring trend of the Wis
itor's steps to the banks of the Neva-down
the "Newski Prospekt' of the Russ-and
continues:
81 was there just now watching the sun
set. st. Petersburg is city that should be
painted A hundred times have stood still
praying for a decent water-color artist who
should bring its blonde beauty home to the
people in England. Ii is a blonde city, fair
as a golden-Iocked princess. 1t has great
distances rooIed by a blonde sky, the
snowy streets are blonde. palaces of sulphur
yellow and pale rose are everywhere.
Some cities are dark. Orvieto, with its
blind walls and murderous alleys. is dark
Toledo is dark. London is neither dark nor
fair. but a solid. self-respecting city, mag
nifcently plain. Petersburg is blonde and
beautiful.
Down on the Neva embankment the sun
was setting in a haze of pink; the
stood in the sky. The darkness was gath
ering-a blonde darkness. The frosted riv
er-ice-coated with snow-lay white and
clear. and the shadows could not touch
its whiteness. The pale sky reflected the
pallor OF the river and on the distant bank.
in tender silhouette, one saw the domes and
spires Of palaces and cathedrals. The gild
cd spire of st. Peter and st. Paul seemed
to hang between earth and sky, touching
neither-a shaft of gold. Fiery crosses,
lit every Sabbath eve. burned on several
OF the public buildings. Peter the Great,
colossal I'm bronze, mounted and set high
on rough-hewn granite pedestal, pointed
TO the crepuscular city his genius had
created
Peter may well be proud of Petersburg
Broad streets, broad avenues and splendid
squares cover the island city that bears
his name. His architects came north with
the plans of the great Italian palaces and
laid out something similar and yet dissimi-
lar to the Uhzzi the BaTberini Palace
II Italy such buildings match the SOIL and
time has stained and hallowed them; here
they are modern, trifie fiorid, and touched
with the ambiguity of a pseudo-renais-
sance- Munich is something like Peters
burg. Greek and Italian architecture
made in Germany fills the Bavarian cap
iLal Here made in Russia" might be
stamped the Winter Palace and other
great buildings that are a triie more
Italian than the Italians.
THE MAKING or PETERSBURG.
but nature has done far more for Pc
tersburg than the imported architect. The
sun shines every day in sky of palest
blue. the clear air is bright with a blonde
sunlight, and the frosted lagoons and ca
rails give space and a background to the
humblest picture. All the open spaces are
white with snow; little woods full of silver
birch crop up i'm unexpected places. Gray
crows get a chilly livelihood in these spots
'Outside the center of the town are old
houses that must have been built when the
city first founded. These are OF wood,
and very humble they look beside the great
stone tenement houses that are replacing
them And yet these old wooden houses
seem typically Russian-plain and simple.
and full of modest comfort. One likes
them: they are so un-Europeanized. so ma
tive TO this half barbaric country. They
could occur nowhere but in Russia. The
Sadowa is also Russian. broad street full
OF shops that are semi Oriental. and where
no bargain is Cancelled without chaffering
and abuse and a reduction of 80 TO 40 per
cent. of the price demanded.
And the people who crowd this spacious
and beautiful city? They are various as
the Engishmen of Shakspeare's day Every
other man has his distinctive costume.
Even the schoolboys are in uniform and
the students of all the colleges have each
the badges and clothes of their science,
art or profession. Doctors wear the uni
form of their order. cabmen of theirs. and
so on. till you know at glance whether
a man be soldier. sailor, doorkeeper, dvor-
nix, policeman. gendarme or even tramp
or peasant. The military uniforms are a
queer blend of East and West The Cos
sack wears his shaggy headdress of goat 5
hair. his sword hangs from his shoulder.
or. again. you see officers whose trousers
are tucked into their top boots and whose
tunic Is modification of the well-known
Russian blouse All and each of these gen.
try strike an unaccustomed note of color
or OF type as they jostle one another ON
crowded DOnfpVar1 which
pierces the heart of Petersburg and leads
down TO the Neva-
THE MAN IN THE STREET.
THE common garden Russian is the
simplest of Gods creatures He you
In shops. he drives your cab, he takes your
coat and goloshes when you enter a house
lie is everywhere; a rather dense. good
natured and. to western European. dog
like Individual. His father or grandfather
was serf or slave. and he still retains
marked races of his origin. There are mo-
ments when you feel inclined to clout his
head and perhaps he would feel fiattered al
the attention. He eats out of your hand
To speak. He. lives on tips and the
iargesse or his betters. He is altogether like
q favorite terrier. ard his eyes have the
same look in them that one sees in "A dos
who IL wagging its tail. Such are the com
mon people. They have no particular edu
cation no particular future except heaven
and the people above them are their mas
ters- Occasionally they sly instead OF
simple. but their cunning has a transpar
ency that can deceive one who comes
out of the sophisticated west.
Fog instance. servant here came to nm,
with the story that l had left my goloshe.
in cab and that the driver had brought
them TO the hotel; thereGpon the servan
had rewarded him on my behalf with s.
kopecks "a shillingl. Now. l had left N.
goloshes in a cab. and the servant had re
warded no isvoschk with 80 kopecks III,
had simply secured my goloshes overnigh
hen IN ma in, he -.
with this very transparent story. He go
his 90 kopecks, but whenever | see him
inquire whether any more isvoschiks hay,
come here with my goloshes.
Now- these maneuvcrs quite simple
and l only trust that the Russian strate
gists I'm the far East are possessed of :
greater subtlety-
1T is the simple man who is most easil,
reused TO fury. He Il an easy prey an,
the dcmagogHe or the quack may do VIVA
they like with him. But il we in EngIan,
regard the Russian people as a cruel am
perfidious race. let me at once say that tn
exact opposite Is the case, and that till yol
have aroused the mouJik's Indignation b
some great act of injustice or dishonesty
you Will md no more peaceful and Ikea hi
creature in the world.
Absurd he may be on some counts n
witness this The morning after my arriva
ordered cold tub. and beyond noticin
the chambermaids evident reluctance Z
furnish me with one. thought no more q
the matter At lunch American s-r,as