The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1906-01-05

thousand dazzling points this marvel
GUS decoration"
This cathedral, so strikingly de-
scribed by the French writer, looked
down upon spaces where machine
guns were playing upon a desperate
mob, and where, with pistols and hand
grenades, the revolutionists were Civ
ing pitched battle to the well-armed
soldiery.
Within the forbidding walls which
rise just beyond the picturesque
church OF Vasil Blajennoi Is the Aero
polls of Russia. the Kremin, where
the sacred relics and the crown Jewels
of the czars find shelter Ivan II. sur
rounded 1t with the parapels which,
restored and rebuilt H. malay places,
are now being fortified by the govern
ment N order to prevent its buildings,
within which are the richest treasures
in the ~orld. from being looted by the
revOlutionists. Outside LIS gates rs.
600 troops were massed by Governor
General Dcubassoff.
Many Stately Buildings.
The Kremlin is an imposing collec-
ton of buildings, standing upon fiat
topped hill that is enveloped by it's
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 cars are
crowned; the Church of the Annun-
citation, 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, a 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
Romanoff 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, 1t occupies the top
Of a hill; it contains royal demesnes,
churches, squares and among the an
cient ediflces, modern palace that is
Embedded in them as unfelieitously as
the palace OF Charles ", among the
delicate Arabian architecture, which
it brushes with its weight. The tower
of Ivan Velil,i is in fact by no means
unlike the Tore de la Vela; and be.
yond the Krem..i,nn. as beyond the AL
hambra, lies stretched a scene o. 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
a more oriental appearance than the
Alhambra itself, with its massive red
towers that give no hint of the mag
nificence of their interior. Above the
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 a 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 built by the fancy of the Arab
ian story teller, a crystallization in
stone of the Thousand and One
Nights. And when winter sprinkles
with it's diamond powder these build
ings beautiful as a 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
Kremlln are claimed to represent an
intrinsic value of $600,000,000.