The Grit-advocate., 1906-01-05

GUS decoration"
scribed by the French writer, looked
down upon spaces where machine
guns were playing upon desperate
mob, and where, with pistols and hand
erenades, the revolutionists were CIV
ing pitched battle to TIE well-armed
soldiery.
Within the forbidding walls which
rise just beyond the picturesque
church of Vasil Blajennoi is the Aero
polls Of Russia. the Kremlin, where
the sacred relics and the crown jewels
Of tie cZars find shelter Ivan ii. sur
rounded 1t with the paraEets which,
restored and rebuilt IL n,a.y places,
are now being fortified by the govern
ment IN Order to prevent its buildings,
in the Eorld. from being looted by. the
revClutionists. Outside It's gates 25
600 troops were massed by Governor
General Dcubassoff.
Many Stately Buildings.
The kremlin is an imposing collec-
tion Of buildings, standing upon fiat
topped hill that is enveloped by its
tower-fanked walls. 1t is washed on
all sides by the River Volga, and its
outer circumference is nearly mile
and half long. Among the stately
edifices grouped together under the
one famous word "Kremlin" are the
ancient palace of the cZars the palace
of the holy synod, the Church of the
Assumption, where the czars are
clation, in which they are baptized
and married; the Church of St. Mich
ael, where most of them have been
buried; two monasteries, two bar
racks housing 5000 soldiers, monu-
ment to the memory of Alexander H..
who freed the serfs; the great bells OF
Moscow. now cracked and voiceless:
the tower of Ivan and the national
treasury. in which all relics Of the
Rcmanoff dynasty are stored.
Gautier compares the Kremlin to
the Alhambra, saying:
THE Kremlin has many points in
common with the Alhambra. Like the
Moorish fortress, it occupies the top
of hill; 1t contains royal demesnes,
churches, squares and among the an
cient edifices, modern palace that is
imbedded in them as unfelicitously as
the palace of Charles ", among the
delicate Arabian architecture, which
1t crushes with its weight. The tower
of Ivan Veliki is in fact by no means
unlike the Tore de la Vela; and be-
yond the Kremlin. as beyond the AL
hambra, lies stretched a scene Of won
derful beauty, a panorama that the
ravished eye holds ever in enchanted
remembrance.
Oriental in Appearance.
Strange as it may seem, the krem-
lin. as seen from the outside, presents
more oriental appearance than the
Alhambra itself, with its massive red
towers that give no hint of the mag
nificence of their interior. Above tha
walls, with their sloping battlements.
peeping between the towers with their
carved roofs are myriads of cupolas,
like balls of shining gold. with tulip
shaped bell towers rejecting in the
sunshine thousand colors from their
metallic sides. The wall, white as a
silver basket, incloses this bouquet of
golden flowers, till one feels as if, he
were gazing at one of those fairy
cities bnilt by the fancy of the Arab
ian story teller, a crystallization in
stone of the Thousand and One
Nights And when winter sprinkles
with its diamond powder these build.
ings beautiful as dream, one could
readily fancy oneself transported to
another planet, for nothing like to it
has ever been ones fortune to behold
before"
The jewels, silver, gold and relics in
the national treasury within the
kreml!n are claimed to represent an
intrinsic value of $500, 100000