The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-26
MY LADY OF THE SNOWS-By c. F. Markell

1 to BIO the piece according 10 the sea
 son and oysters sell at a dime each. But though St. Petersburg with its population of several millions. has been called city of snow. whiskers and leather boots, the spell of its fascina-
 ton soon commences to bind and one grows to even love the standardization
 of It's discordant bells he oven ap- preciates the sentiment expressed anent prisoner, in one of the Russian epics, He was cut off from the light of the fair. red sun, from the sound of the sweet church bells" One loses his heart to the chiaro-o -oscuro effects of the white night" with gilded domes glittering superbly pale under a gib- bous moon, fire flames fitting as in a trolls dance athwart the glistenine snow and the blaze from tho electric lights of the rock crystal chandeliers
 big as hay cocks bursting from bali room salon and state apartment and flooding the pave beneath.
 He who has visited St. Petersburg feels that he has lived everywhere for here the east and west mingle intimate ly without fusing; for. as a sponge, Russia absorbs without asslmllating and her civilization Is an secretion; not a blend
 The Russian capital has a keen rival In Moscow where the same spirit of traditional incentive. which caused the Empress Anne once to term 1t her naughty little republic. obtains today.
 That superb village of the literary traveller Is rapidly disappearing and wooden. gay, picturesque Moscow will soon be thing of the past. It Is go- ing the pace of White Chapel and the London slums and will never return Spurred by the fire insurance com panies, its nconyenent, insantary and wooden walls have given place to the white stpcco and terra-c -cotta buildings; ; the ancient Davor has side-stepped for the marvellous blocks of arcades and galleries the whalom dark, crumbling highways have been suppianted by paved streets illumined by gas and elec- trcity while surface railways and cleo tric trans have left nothing of the for- mer pride of the Muscovite save it's Kremlin and its churches.
 Even the pigeons whose personifica- ton of the Holy Ghost once rendered them immune from mOIestation, are no longer permitted to rob the warehouses of half their stock of grain as was for merly their privilege, And now to lift the veil which surrounds this land of mists and mystery. To appear as an apologst for the Russian character as we regard 1t will, l fear, excite naught but ridicule and yet the Muscoyite places the average American upon the | ca m f1a aa al fa 1 Indian. He is mistaken as to us and we are fin error regarding him. The Russian deems 1t vulgar breach of etiquette to remove a coat even in a bar Der shop, and he looks upon us as a shirt sleeve nation. There Is no chewing in Russia and the Tzar's subject regards the expectorating of tobacco juice as impossible. He deems us rnoneymad and upon par with the Jew. There is no capital punishment in that land, beggars flourish in St. Petersburg, and 1t has been demonstrated that her prison horrors are no more excessive than were those of Great Britain cen tury and a half ago when England oc- cupied about the same social and politi- cal status of advancement that Is Rus sia's today. doubt if the Siberian cruelties surpass some of those in our own mining convict camps, and the deeds alleged to be committed in many of the insane asylums of our land.
 The Russians are extremely sym | pathetic hospitable and gentle no race l is more responsive to human suffering, i if we only knew II. and no where is | greater commisseratlon expressed for | the fate of the victims of licensed
 and drunken soldiery than in the land where that soldiery is established. The
 better class are cultured. educated and esthetic. They have dreamed out music,