The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-26

it and it's Identification is a matter ol extreme difficulty. especially your in- tercourse is with an official to whose tongue you are a stranger A story is current of an officer preparing to re- turn a passport calling out the name "Philander c. Knox," misteking the signature of our Secretary of State for the name of the holder. and most any one could have claimed the paper un- der such circumstances.
 But until a few years ago the trains were equipped with chapel cars. or moving churches. which were eiabor- ately peneled with beautiful woods, la vishly decorated with overlaid gold leaf and occupied by priest. They were intended not so much for the use of the faithful abroad as for the people living at the stations along the route and even the expresses tarried a suf- ficient length of time here for short services to be held. These chapels cars are still much in vogue on the Trans Siberian line.
 St Petersburg is unique in it's situa- tion and when Peter the Great selected the site for the new capital his court jester laconcally descrbed,it as sea on one side sorrow on the other; on the third, moss; on the fourth, sigh The city hugs the Neva river and so in hospitably did it receive It's founders that 100000 lives perished in the course of the capitals erection. In those days a cart load Of stone was the only pass
 e. to he oft y and the Tzar forbade it's use anywhere else.
 But despite all these precautions the water has entered ankle deep into the palace, the moisture can today fre- quently be noted oozing from between the paving blocks of the NevslSy Pros pect, the principal thoroughfare, ano guns are fired from the fortress whei. the river commences to rise and when II reaches a certain point cannons are dis charged to warn the citizens of their impending danger
 Tho Russian priesthood prophesied for St. Petersburg the fate of Babylon and Ninevah and it's glutted cemeteries now proclaim 1t the unhealthiest capi- tai of Europe.
 Ii has been called the Window of Europe the "City of Golden Domes.' and a 'Monstrous City of Gloom but to me it bore semblance to an imperiai exile dcing sentence at the uttermost point of the world. sentinel whose tent Is an ashen sky, whose bugle calls is jangle of tuneless bells and whose picket pest Is q sweep of limitless ocean.
 The Nevsky Prospect is over three miles in length and runs from the ad- miraIty to the old Monastary, but Wnnc 1t required more than century 10 ilii In tho intcrstice there are yet grea. yawning gaps so wide that the respec- tive sides of the thoroughfare bear dif- . ferent names
 But with all of this crude primitive ness there is weird fascination which My Lady of Shows weaves around the visitor that no other capital exerts. The days arc gray and the nights are white and upon the broad csplanade cf st Petersburg. the worlds truly unique highway. the ends of the earth seem tc meet Every house has an Icon in front illumined by a tiny oil lamp, every meat shop and vegetable stall has a faithful portrayal of it's stock painted in gaudy colors upon it's walls for the benefit of the 40 per cent of its illiterates who in that respect are as bad off as foreigners. and until late in the .afternoon the waiting horses aS the curb sleep upon their feet and the weary driver sleeps with his body prone upon the animals launches St Petersburg does not wake up until dusk and in the meanwhile it is city of si- lence. Crowds are not permitted tG gather. the newsboys are prohibited. from crying their papers. hand organs