The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-22
RICH LOOT IN KREMLIN.

If Russian Mob SeiEes Moscow Great
 Treasure Palace VIII Be Sacked. Civilian E. Curtis, in Chicago Rec ord Herald)
 If a mob should secure control of
 the city of Moscow 1t undoubtedly would loot the Kremlin. that ancient and imposing citadel of the Russian Czars, within whose treasury is a l collection of gold, silver and precious stones of enormous value. The Kremlin is an enormous fortress. and for thousand years has sheltered the throne and the treasures of the Russian Empire. It is what the Acropolis is to Athens, the Alhambra to Spain, Windsor Castle to London and the Vatican to Rome. It stands upon an emience, a city within a river VoIga, and inclosed by a wall nearly a mile and a half long. The Kremlin is not only the legal capitol of the Empire, the location of the throne and the residence of the CZar but also the headquarters of the Orthodox Greek Church. The walls inclose a large group of buildings | consisting of the ancient palace of the Czars, the palace of the Holy Synod, the Church of the Assump- | tion in which the autocrats of all the Russians must be rowned; the Church of the Annuncation, in which they must be baptized and married and the Church of St. Michael. in which their imperial bones. until the last century. were laid. There are two monasteries, two barracks, cap. l able of sheltering 5000 soldiers; a ! monument erected in honor of Alex ander II, the EmancipatOr; the great bell of Moscow, and the tower of Ivan. which you saw pictured in the geoEra- phies when you were a child and the treasury in which the thrones, crowns, scepters, coronation robes, state car riages, table plate. jeweled ornaments and other relics of the house of Ro- manoH are preserved. According to an ancient custom every ruler of Rus sia until recent years has had his own crown and throne and scepter, and each has endeavored to surpass his predecessors in taste and extrava- gance.
 As you know. Moscow, instead of St. Petersburg, is the capital of Rus sias but the court resides in the lat ter place for reasons of convenience. The palace in the Kremlin is always kept in readiness for its imperial tenant, and he spends a few weeks there at intervals each year, in or der to gratify the loyal subjects in l the holy city-'Our Mother Moscow" In some respects it is the finest resi- | dence of all the sovereigns of Europe not so immense as the Winter Pal ace at St. Petersburg, but richer and | more majestic, and some of the rooms, | notably the halls of the Order of St. George, the Order of St. Alexander Nepski and the Orders of St. Andrew and St. Catherine, are without doubt
 the finest in the world. The first named Is 200 feet long and sixty eight
 feet wide and the ceiling is fifty-eig
 feet from the floor. These rooms are 1 seldom used except at a funeral or a
 coronation. There are numerous other
 state apartments finished and fur
 nished with barbaric splendor five or 1 six hundred years ago, much gold and
 silver and many precious stones having | been used. Gold was once so plenti- ! full in Russia that it was spread over
 the walls of palaces; jewels were so
 numerous that they were imbedded as ornaments in doors, mantels, chande-
 Hers, stoves and furniture, while silver
 was used as we use wood for tables, | picture frames, baustrades, chandeliers 1 cabinets and thrones
 The throne of Ivan the Terrible, ! for example, is made of solid silver,
 ornamented with gold and studded \ thickly with gems. His robe of state,
 which is still on exhibition, was de- l scrtbed by writer of the fifteenth | century as seeming to be one sheet
 of diamonds while his neck collar, tho
 bands of his sleeves and the train that he drew behind him were within of
 sable and without of uniform pearls | like large drops of water of the purest | whiteness, each being of the value of
 a male slave" This mantle can be
 seen any day between the houra of
 10 and in the treasury, and the
 ancient writer did not exaggerate its 1 richness.
 According to popular opinion there
 Is in the Krsmlin enough useless
 treasure to pay the public debt of Rus sia; and in the churches and the
 palaces enough gold and jewels to