The Washington herald., 1915-05-09
LAE SZEHAHDEe Cc111,1W Hx GeeAzzv OF
Wo0ERY N6HSZZ727S NHl1 R55z5 an Six
LLHSS 06RLES

, mains the most fatal of any great city
In the civilized world. with a mortality
of IS to each 1000 of population. as con-
trasted with - In Rome. Il in Paris and
Il in London. Until within ten years its
death rate actually exceeded its birth
rate. Yet. by command of the Gar. the
city has continued to outgrow her rivals
Approached by land PetroSrad seems
an oasis in a desert. Viewed from the
sea with its miles and miles of ware
houses and palaces al the waters edge
1t looks as if it were a city on raft
anchored at the mouth of the Neva-
Peter visualized 1t as a new Amsterdam
but il is rather a Baltic Venice without
the soft southern grace of that city OF
the Adriatic lagoons.
Only with watchful pampering do the
trees and flowers in the parks and gar
dens Withstand the assaults Of climate
which Catherine thj Great divided into
two wnters-a white winter and a green.
The streets and squares. which were laid
trees to break their arid breadth nor
have they the Partisan crowds to eniiven
their wearisome length. The immense
Winter Palace of tn" Gar on the banks
great. bare. cohhlod place over which
the muCh-stuffed droski driver jolts his
fare.
4 Car May Unmnke the City.
Although tho city has a certain barren
splendor. it seemed to me when / saw II
in the summer almost as unreal as II il
were has relief plan constructed for
the information or amusement of Peter
Or it might have been deserted city.
which the Gar had abandoned as alb
ruptly as Moscow was aba ndoned. In
deed. not a few Russians really believe
this will be its fate when some fine day.
Gar will pack up and transfer his
capital to Constantinople, which Russia
always calls Czarograd.
Petrograd really ma kos small appeal
TO the national There iS
nothing native to il. Its architecture is
imported from the West even as tho
magnificent collection of paintings in tho
hermitage is. and the people who inhabt
the place are Russians away from home.
For long there were strangely few wom-
en-: A normal representation Of the sex
still is lacking. because so many men.
particularly among the artisans, look
and when they go there they leave their
IA miles behind.
While il has become the business cen
ter of Russia and has great commerce.
its chief business is the government Of
the Russian empire. / was told that 10
per cent Of it's people wear the uniforms
of the Gar. which range in tone from
the flaming scarlet of the imperial lIv-
cry to the dull green of the crossing po-
liccman. However cXtravaEant that
computation may he, large number of
persons necessarily must he required to
conduct the most centralized government
of the biggest nation in the civilized
world. with its S.Gi1,o0o square miles and
its 10000 900 people. Americans proudly
call their country boundless, and truly
say that only by travelling across it can
a man comprehend its vastness. Yet
when one has gone far as San Fran
cisco is from New York his journey
across Russia is not half finished.
The Revolution.
All that enormous population through
out the great area of Russia is subject
in everything to a tap of the bell on the
desk OF the Car at Petrograd. There
and in him Is conferred the control of all
the l0l governments or provinces into
which his empire Is divided. To his auto
every little commune between the Me
mon and the Amur. between the Baltic
and the Pacific. Justice. taxation, re-
ligion. peace and war. liberty, life and
death all lie in his imperial hands.
The empire has a most enlightened
and liberal system Of Sovernmcnt-on
paper. But every restraint. every limita-
uon on his absolute authority which the
Car has accepted he has the power to
suspend or override.
Long after Nihilism had been crushed,
a new and more serious agitation arose
when the people saw the disasters that
an incompetent and corrupt autocracy
japanese war of 1a0t-5. wave of revo-
luton rolled over the land. A universal
labor strike was declared. The sailors
in the navy mutinied. The peasants
burned the houses of the landed pro-
prietors. Trains were held up and
robbed; banks were pillaged and high
waymen swarmed in the streets and
lanes.
The revolutionists in the centers of