New Britain herald., 1927-08-09

and an occasional governm ent owned motor truck.
 There is little evidence of the former merchandising and ship ping that kept caravans of horse drawn wagons moving about the | city, and there are practically no privately owned pleasure vehicles. Show Windows Full
 The show windows are full of merchandise. Some of the displays are as attractive as of old, but there is a much larger showing of more utilitarian merchandise-food fruit and meat shops-which used to be relegated to side streets where rents were lower.
 Under the leveling influence of holshevism such establishments are able to take their places alongside displays of jcwelry, clocks, haber- dashery, dressgoods and furs. There is less of catering to a favored class. Old women peddling cigar cites, candies, books and papers on the once fashionable boulevards are further imprints of the new Russia.
 At the far end of the Nevsky is the Winter Palace of the czars, built by the Empress Elizabeth about 1750 at a cost Of ten million rubles at a time when she could not pay her milliner. It was a sort Of sanctified precinct where one felt the presence Of imperialism and power. The big circle with the column of Alexander I marking its center. with the palace occupying one large arc and the former gov ernmental departments the rest, imparts no feeling of reverence to the people of today.
 Marks of Bullets
 The front of the palace is still pockmarhed by rifle and machine gun bullets of revolutionary days. The paint is pceling off. the gates are encrusted with crust. and the whole circle of buildings, with one exception, shows signs of dilapida- ton and decay. The exception is 9 former municipal administration repartment which still serves a similar function. and which looks conspicuous with it's fresh coat of yellow and white paint.
 An old greybeard permitted the writer to enter the courtyard of the winter palace. Piles of tim bers and rubbish partially filled the space that once resounded to the rumbling wheels of imperial coaches. In one corner a group of children of the street were making merry with a circular swing erect ed there. The palace with it's various wings named for bygone czars, their windows streaked with dust, looked deserted and dreary.
 The Hermitage, that famous re- pository of paintings. statuary and gems which every visitor to Peters, burg or Petrograd, hastened to visit, has overflowed into the Winter Pal | ace. Connected as it is by a sort of I bridge of sighs" it readily lent It. self to the needs of the Hermitage, whose exhibits have been swollen out of all possibility to accommo- date them through confiscation of valuable private collections. An- other wing is devoted to exhibition of revolutionary mementos-illus- ratlng the progress of revolution in Russia during the last hundred | years. There are to be found DOT traits innumerable of victims of revolution both imperial and prole- tartan, bombs and internal ma chimes and implements of torture which have marked it's path.
 Admiralty Building
 The Admiralty building adjoin- ing the palace on it's other side is still used for admiralty purposes and appears to be in fair state of repair. Beycnd lies S. Isaac's Cathedral, completed during the reign of Nicholas I, and thirty-nine years in process of construction, dating from 1919. It is awe inspir- ing from without with it's massive granite columns and gilded dome. It's interior is dank and denuded of some of it's glittoring altars, ikons and candelabra. A few minutes in the chill of it's echoing emptiness Suiflced 10 give an impression of the staggering blow dealt by the revolution 10 the Orthodox Church.
 On a side ot the square in front Of St. 1saac's Cathedral, and fac ing the former German Embassy, wrecked by Russian rioters at the