The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-08-26
ST. PETERSBURG.
impressions of visitor from wash-

s ington, D. C..
 [ A Washingtonian in St. Petersburg, writing to a friend, says:-
 T have been here about month and I must say like the town good deal better than did London. This is a. re- markable country. We don't know much about 1t at home
 Let us take my impressions in order, First as to St. Petersburg itself. It is a disappointing town at first sight. It is a great big place, built on a lot of is- lands with the Neva, about the size of ithe Potomac at Georgetown, running through the center, and lot of canals, lstone-banked and iron-railed, cutting through the city in eoncentric circles, roughly speaking at right angles to the river into which they will empty. There are fussy little passenger steamers rum ming on all the canals, which were pri= marily intended to drain the swamp on (which the city was built; seeondarily, to ease the traffic, which has never yet become congested, and lastly and chic l fly are of use transporting firewood and other things which come down the river in big canal boats. about three times the size of those on the Chesapeake and tOhio Canal.
 tArchitecturally, the city seems at first almost blank. The buildings are yery much of a sameness, averaging five stories, sometimes as much as lseven, rarely less than four. Note: Elevators almost unknown. The build
 ing are fiat-fronted. the skyline is flat, land everything Is of an uncertain gray Tor light terra cotta-till you get used to 1t. There is a variety, but you have l to look for It.
 The streets are wide. maryelously so, opening into great pIazas in many places, but all of them are paved with lcobblestones Some have strip of l wooden block pavement running down one side, but it is, never the side on (which your drohsly is driving, and it is lnot popular pavement because (so Iold residents say1 nothing will stand the winter frosts like cobblestones.
 "The things that catch ones eye most lafter the first impression Of disappoint- tment are the churches, many of them Isomething after the Byzantine school Iwith minarettess gilded domes, and the most startling array of barbaric colors,
 red, green, blue and white. St. Isaac ICathedral is of another sort and it's im- mense giIded dome is landmark from ,any point in all the surrounding coun- ttry. It is massive. square on the out lside, with the naryelously beautiful slbronze figures of the saints, angels. and apostles all over 1t, seraphim blowing
 trulnpets from the corners of the main building and great masses of bronze Istatuary grouped under the triangular plinths Of the porticoes. all the figures
 of heroic size, but proportioned just tc
 give the impression of life-size from the
 street below. sa
 Inside the cathedral is marvel lThere is a solid gold model of the [church itself, about ten feet square,
 and the mosaics and mural paintings
 are masterpieces. The Ikons are mass Iof gold, jewels, and enamel work, and the most beautiful thing of all, win dow about thirty feet high with figure lin stained glass of the ascending Christ.
 in crimson robe that seems to give warmth and color to all that end of the lchurch.
 However, I am no Badeker, and you can look upon all these details in q Iguide book good deal better than I can write them if you are so minded.
 One of the things that strikes you forcibly at first Is the dissipated, dis Ireputable look that the Russian letter- ing on the signs give you. neaver can tget over the feeling that have irifted into the Russian section of Milwaukee for Detroit, where you can get that sort Iof lettering and the enternal double Eheaded eagle on the windows of the
 saloons.
 Another thing that gives an old. sIclothes-look to the business section is
 that nearly every store has pictorial lsigns, great panels, and the like, garish lin color and painted on broad, almost lmechnical lines. Pictures of dress suits, fur overcoats. boots, saddles, COWS, chickens, piles of eggs, loayes of sugar, lseetions of cheese, bread and sausages, [all mark their various vendors shops.
 When you get into the residential section the sameness of the fat-fronted Ihouses is almost depressing. Every
 body lives in flats with double windows eAAAh lstoYes set in the walls between the
 rooms against the intense cold in Win- tter. The summer Is said to be hot and deadly in town, and every one goes ou flor the summer to sdatchas.' summer
 cottages, built in colonies within a. rad lius of thirty miles. As the railway . ltrains run about six miles an hour you tcan imagine how long 1t takes to get
 back and forth.
 T confess am skeptical about this , lalleged summer myself, for here 1t is July and we are still wearing overcoats . I suppose 1t is due to get hot some Itime. for though the sun does set now , along about 11:30, 1t never gets dark, i Tt is now 2:30 d. m. and broad day. flight. I can see the patient policeman , standing in the middle of the street just where left him when I came in al midnight. The streets are rather deser-
 ted, otherwise it might be any time ot day. 4st.l.. .. "The policemen here are quite a rlict looking lot of fellows. They are all re, lserve men from the army and wear military uniforms, long overcoats saber, fiat-topped cap, and frequently
 have a string of medals of various cam } paign and border wars strung from on |. iside of their breast to the other. They lnna I1, kAAA NFt tAar,Na