Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-05-17
fHE ROMANCE OF MOSCOW.
PAST AND PRESENT OF FAMOUS
AND INTERESTING CITY.
For Centuries the Heart of Russia
Beat There-Now it Charms With
the interest Of a Romantic Past.

VI cot ID Iuuo0Q Tie pOiILlCdl ana So
cial capital of the great empire-it
is the point through which Russia
comes in contact with the Western
world, the world of modern enterprise
and progress. 1t is the nervous
centre of the great imperial system,
the seat of the government, the centre
of military power, the home of the
nobility. st. Petersburg shows you
d 5littering splendor of the present,
Moscow charms with the interest of
romantic past
For centuries the heart of Russia
beat here; here history was made,
mobiles thronged the city, Cars were
born, married, died and were buried;
here the Church of Russia was estab-
lished in its great power, before which
even Emperors were sometimes
made to bow, as when Ivan the Ter
rible was compelled to do penance
for his anticipation of Mormon prac-
tees.
The development of the Russian
Empire was not unlike that of Ger
many-a process of amalgamation
welding a number of practically indie
pendent principalities of Russia, that
of Moscow early took the lead COM
ing into prominence and power as a
result of war in the thirteenth CEN
fury. In 1900 the Kremlin, the his
toric fortress was established, and
with the next few years the principal
ity acquired considerable territory,
and by rolling back wave of Mongol
invasion greatly increased its influe-
ence. The Prince who commanded in
this war and saved Russia for the
West was Dmitri Donskoi, for whom
one Of the Russian ships in the pres
ent war was named. By the six
teenth century Moscow had become
large government, with the territory
of the present department of the same
name, covering some 1880 square
miles, and in that century the Prince
of Moscow asserted his supremacy
over all the country, and Ivan III. be-
came Gear of all the Russias.'
At the close of the sixteenth CEN
fury Moscow was wealthy and pow
erful principality, but there were
opposing interests that led to fright
full disturbances, and the story of the
seventeenth century is one of blood
shed and bitter quarrelling, SO that
the history of this time reads like a
succession of tragedies taken from a
medieval romance.
After the death of Ivan W., the Ter
rible, the regent caused the assassiha-
tion of Dmitri the proper and made
himself Gar. Then rose a false
Dmitri, in whom for time the peo-
pie believed. Discovering the fraud,
they stormed the palace. The impos-
ter fed down corridor, leaped from
a window, hurt his foot in falling and
was taken His body was riddled
with bullets, torn to pieces, burned,
the ashes placed in cannon and fired
in the direction from which he had
come. Such are the stories that greet
the traveller in Moscow at every turn.
AS the Cars frightened their hold
uron the reins of government and the
power of the people declined the
character of Moscow changed-its po-
litical power and influence waned,
and gradually a commercial class be-
gan to predominant. Therefore, in
the eighteenth century Moscow, the
rival of the new ST. Petersburg Gov
eminent, was able to offer but spirit
less opposition.
Fire has played a notable part in
the history of this interesting old
city. In the early days it was several
times sacked and partially burned by
Eastern invaders, the last of these oc-
casions being in 1888. In 1547 two
CONGREGATIONS nearly destroyed Mos
COW, and there were others of a seri-
out nature in 1877, 174S and 1853 In
each instance the city was rebuilt,
and the people had the good sense
and enterprise to turn the catastrophe
each time into advantage, by erecting
better buildings, widening some of
the streets, and improving the appear
ance of their Phoenix city. In Sep
TENDER, 1912, occurred the last great
fire of Moscow-the burning of Mos
COW by the Russians themselves, one
of the great scenes of history
Through all the bewildering changes
of this tragic history, the old Kremlin,
the great fortress of Moscow, has
passed countless times stormed by
hordes of savage enemies. battered
and SCARED, the centre of a mael-
strom of human ambition and passion.
Today as one stands in its courts the
palace seemed haunted by countless
ghosts of those who in the hell of bat
tie have fallen within its walls; and
the hundreds of cannon left there
after the French invasion are elo-
quent though silent witnesses of the
fury of that great struggle between
two empires. There is one old gun
known as the Car Pushka, the King
of Cannon" cast three hundred years
ago, which weighs nearly forty tons.
Another curious relic is the King of
Bells, which was rendered useless by
the breaking off of an eleven-ton sec
ton in the fire or 1877. The great
bell now rests upon pedestal, on
which it towers to a height of nearly
thirty feet and weighs as it stands
two hundred tons. The coronet fig
ure that crowns it-surmounted by
a ball and cross-gives it. with the
shape of the bell itself, the appear
ance of dome. At the upper edge
of the cup part is a fancy scroll: be-
low this are large figures and an in
scription, while the base is adorned
by a second SCROLL Where the piece
was broken away. leaving an open
ing larger than a good sized double
door. fight of steps allows the curl
Gus sightseer TO climb inside the
dorae. Moscow is city of domes
and bells, the many churches and
cafhedrals raising above the ,,ftv roofc