Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-07-03
LENINCRAD TARNISHED REMINDER
OF OLD BRILLIANCE AS CAPITAL
BY WALTER c. WHIFFEN

LENINGRAD, Russia H9.-TL!s city,
beloved capital Of Peter the Great and
his window looking towards Eu-
rope, better known as Petrograd or
st. Petersburg, seen after ten years
by one who knew it at the peak of
its glory and who witnessed the be-
ginning of its decline, resembles q
tarnished brass button.
Outwardly it is the same; the con-
tour and design are there, bur there
is no glitter There is much activity
in the streets and even signs of mod
crate prosperity, but the brilliancy inn
parted by the gaudier Czarist unif-
orms, the smartness of the women, the
luxurious carriages and motorcars of
other days are gone.
There is none of the glamorou5 res
taurant life which was feature of
pre-revolution days which caused the
streets at 3 a. m. to be as lively as at
the same hour of the afternoon There
are almost no restaurants and such as
there are are Sordid affairs. There are
no cafes chantant nor outlying re-
sorts such as used to cater to the
tastes of the Well-to-do pleasure seeker
tL4AA W1AUOCa k@dOlO1A0 WClC CI1ICk Ocl1lSQ
in lavish fashion with bands and Or
chestraS and folk songs and gypsies
The opera is here and the bailet in
practically pre-revolution standard of
merit, but the fashionable attendance
has given place to- aSsemblages of APP
parently appreciative people OF all
sorts, conditions and ages and in all
sorts of garb except the Bourgeois
evening dress.
Leningrad today is serious, semi
SomnClent and drab. The Nevsky
Prospect, formerly fashions parade
ground is crowded of a late after.
noon, but with modestly garbed women
and girls and becapped and booted
men and boys, happy enough looking
happier than in Moscow where they
are under the shadow of the admin
iStration"- but with nothing snappy
looking in the ensemble.
The Novskyf Prospect extends straight
away for a mile from the Moscow
station, Strikingly effective because of
its great breadth, its high business
blocks, its window displays and occa-
sional old churches and canals, t, the
graceful, slender gilt spire. Its cedar
block pavement shows signs of decay
A stroll down the Nevsky reveals
to accustomed eyes further evidences
of the changed times. Street traffic,
besides the street cars, manned by
hooded and woolen- jacketed women,
and line of new and efficient look
ing motor buses, is confined largely
to shabby public carriages and motor
cars and an occasional government
owned motor truck
There is little evidence of the for
mer merchandising and shipping that
kept caravans of horSe-draWn wagons
moving about the city and there are
practically no privately owned pleas
ure vehicles.
The show windows are full of mer-
chandise. Some 'of the displays are
as attractive as of old, but there is
a much larger showing of more utili-
tartan merchandise fruit and
meat shopS-which used to be rele-
gated to side streets where rents were
lower.
Under the leveling influence OF boil
sheViSm such establishments are able
to take their places alongside displays
of jeWelry, clocks, haberdashery, dress
SOOQS ana 1uTS. Inere is less OF ca
tering to a favored class. Old women
peddling cigarettes, candles, books and
papers on the once fashionable boule-
ward are further impridts of the new
Russia
At the far end of the Nevsky is the
winter palace of the czars, built by
the Empress Elizabeth about 1850 at
cost of ten million rubleS at time
when she could not pay her milliner.
1t was a sort of sanctified 1,recinct