Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-11
Bonds Win Pay Over Six Per
Cent Interest.
CARS CREDIT rs LOW
SUBSCRIBERS WANTED TO CURRY
FAVOR.
The Winter Palace the Largest Build
ing In the World but the Vatican
American Fondness for Light.
BY WILLIAM f CURTIS

Written for The Evening Star and the Chicago
Record Herald
A letter received within the last few days
by a prominent Jewish banker in New York
from his correspondent in Berlin confirms
what was said in these columns recently
about the Russian loan having been placed
chiefly through the personal influence of
the KAISER. 1t also confirms the report that
the subscribers were not ordinary invest
ors, but were nearly all mobiles and others
who desire to curry favor in both the
German and Russian courts. The writer
,, explains this on the ground that it was not
considered expedient to attempt to offer a
large loan to the public, for fear it might
not be accepted and the credit of the en-
pire seriously impaired. 1t appears also
that the bonds run for six years only, draw
g per cent interest and were sold at 9o.33,
which is equivalent to 6Ia per cent interest
"a fact that has not before been published
in an American newspaper. These are the
hardest terms upon which the bonds of
any nation have been placed for many
years, and bring the credit of Russia down
below that of Turkey the Balkan states
and the republics of Central and South
America. A few days previous one of the
petty German states placed per cent
loan at par through the same bankers
The reception of this loan is said to ind-
cate the pessimist'c feeling of the banking
community concerning Russian political
and financial conditions before the recent
labor outbreak in st. Petersburg, and they
cannot have been improved by the riots or
the strikes or the policy of the government
since. The sentiment of the German peo-
pie was disclosed by the discussion of the
loan in the press. Several of the most
conservative pro-Russian newspapers warn
ed their subscribers not to touch it. They
admitted that the Russian credit was good
ana That the government had never failed
&c an .fs,I obi -.
the same time it had never before been
In such an embarrassing predicament and
the people were never so poor as ncW-So
poor that the peasants in the interior are
eatlng grass chopped UP with their mllet
because their wheat, rye and barley have
been taken away from them by the tax col
lectors. Such conditions, one prominent
German editor observes, may be honora BILE
and undeserved, but they are not encourage
ing for the success of Russia in the war
with Japan, nor for the payment of the
l2,oo0,OGoU0 marks already owing to cred
ltors in France and Germany
Where the Gar Lives.
The Gar of Russia does not live in the
Winter Palace in ST. Petersburg although
a suite of apartments is always kept in
readiness for him to occupy when he comes
into the city to attend to matters of bust
ness or to appear at one of the great state
functions which are always held in that
palace and are the most splendid social
events of all the world. The car has
twenty-one palaces always ready for him
to occupy. Two of them are in the south
ern part of the empire, where he often goes
in the summer. One is the shores of
the Black sea, a most attractive place.
where in July and August it is usually much
cooler than in st. Petersburg. His favorte
residence is at Tsarskoe Selo. where Cath
crime the Great lived in splendor. surround
ed by her lovers and the poets and paint
ers, musicians and of learning whom
she attract to Russia from all Europe
The great palace at Tsarskoc Selo is an
ugly, monstrouS pile, an architectural night
mare, author has called it, accused
of presenting every fault and ilustrat ting
every blunder that an architect should
avoid.
1t is retained very much as she left it
and has never since been occupied by the
imperial family But within the grounds
which cover over 1900 acres of garden and
forest, is a French chateau erected by Alex
ander IL for the of his morganatic
wife, the Princess Dolgorouki which is
very attractive and comfortable, and it has
been the habit of the present empress and
her motherin-laW to go there at the birth
of their children. Nicholas II has occupied
it almost continuously during his reign. 1t
is too small for a court, and he loves quiet
1t is easy to reach from st. Petersburg and
his ministers come to him there in an
them