The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-30
Napoleon at the Kremlin


 The faithful in their pilgrimage to the kremin meet with many mementoes of it's invasion to tempt them away from the Christian principle of forgiveness. The Russian, however, seems to be n- nccent of any petty spite toward Napo- leon memory. Try to imagine the Amer jeans setting up in their capital a statue of the British general who burned Wash irgton in 1S14 Yet almost the first object that rises to the view of the visitor to the treasury or the museum of the kremlin is a great marble statue of the Emperor of the French. And his gift of a service of Sevres. which he made to the Czar in the days of the.r fraternizing, is also cherished there among the precious keepsalSes of the nation. Apparently Alexander did not send his presents back when they quarreled!
 Processons of school children, the boys in high Russian boots and the girls m their boyish Fedora hats, stream through the Kremlin streets and through the aisles of the treasury, where they see the great foe of Russia enshrined among it's heroes. But the teachers who ac- company them, no doubt take care to re- mind the youth of their textbook yer sion of the mans career. For the Rus sian historian cares not who makes his tory, if he can only write it. Thus Napo- leon is lightly dismissed in the school books as merely a successful marshal of the good King Louis XVII of France Louis XVI. after a long and glorious reign having died suddenly of apoplexy. It seems. however that this Marshal Bonaparte dared rebel against his King. Then the Czar, Alexander l, stepped in and the dsloyal soldier was stripped Of m. honors, deprived of all claims to pension and banished to St. Helena!
 That the wicked rebel against his good King lost everything as a penalty for his disobedlence, the boys and girls may see for themselves in the kremlin muse- um. Is his sleigh not there, brought in by the trusty Cossacks, who captured it? Was not even his bed taken away from him? Surely, for that indispensa- ble article of comfort, which was picked up on the banks of the Beresina after his flight over the river, stands beside the bed of Peter the Great and the enor- nous boots of that giant monarch. A large portrait of Napoleon which the Cossacks brought back from the Water loo campaign completes the story of how Russia avenged herself by chasing the invader clear across the European con tlnent. still more conclusive exhibit IS formed by row of S79 cannon cap- tured from the retreating army of 70 nations and which stretches the full length of the arsenal wall in the Krem- lin.
 "Christ Our Savior"
 The greatest monument of all the memorials of Napoleon's repulse from Moscow. however, stands just outside the Kremlin wall. It is the magnificent Church of Our Savior which Alexander Intended to erect on Sparrow hill where 1t would have mocked the memory of Napoleon's fleeting moment of triumph there After an immense amount of money had been spent in a vain effort to find firm foundation on the hill, the plan was changed and the church was set up in front of the very gate through which the invading Emperor passed into the Kremlin.
 There, on the bank of the Moskoya. rises this grandest and costlieset of ali the war monuments in the world There, by the Kremlin gate the na- tion sends up in purcst white marble it's prayer of thanksgiving, it's ts deum. while within its walls there rises at high mass q burst of song that ravishes the soul From a lofty gallery the visitor looks down upe.4 the lacy marble of the snowy altar. with it's priests in their rich vest ments of gold, and upon a multitude of worshippers, sometimes as many as 15 GOO standing on a floor of Jasper
 The beautiful baritone of the priestly chant mounts higher and higher until 1t seems like the crescendo of a great pipe organ. Then a famous choir marches down lane made by the soldiers, who have pushed the people back. and takes it's stand in the center of the church.
 This church is the most imposing, the most interesting, the most signifi- cunt of all the souvenirs of Napoleon q capture and abandonment of Moscov
 Next Sunday-Mr. Morgans story of his journey in "The Patch of Napoleon" on his Russian retreat-the greatest of mill tary tragedies-the Emperor's flight from his army-half a million men lost in six mo nthR