STREET SCENES IN ST PETERSBURG.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 296, 9 October 1883, Page 5

STREET SCENES IN ST PETERSBURG.

St Petersburg, as approached from the Neva presents a most imposing aggregate of tali domes, tall spiresj and immense palaces and other public buildings. All is vast and arranged on a plan so gigantic that even the loftiest buildings seemed dwarfed. The immense edifices side by side become monotonous for want of grouping and variety. The most important part of the city is the Southern portion. Here are ths principal buildings ,and fiuest streets. The Court, the nobility and half the population reside here. This district is divided into three parts by canals, which are crossed by the three principal, streets in St Petersburg radiatingjfrom the admiralty, — namely the Neva Perspective, the Peas Street, and the Ascension Perspective. The first of these is the Regent Street ot the Russian capital, as regarJs life and fashion ,• it is 150 feet wide, and is lined on each side with elegant shops^ palaces, and churches. All these three main avenues run straight through the city, like the spokes of a wheel, through the sumptuous aristocratic quarter, the commercial regions, and the outskirts inhabited by the ponr ; the long vistas terminating in the mists that rise from the swamps outside. St Petersburg has been laid out on such an immense scale that, with the exception of a few chief thoroughfares, the streets present a deserted appearance. In some parts the silence is oppressive. It is calculated that if every man, woman, and child, were out of doors at one time, the streets and public places would afford them 400 square feet each. Many broad streets, lined with rows of broad mansions, are perfectly still except for the passage of an occasional drojhl. In the more crowded streets the predominance of the military element is very striking. The ordinary garrison of the capital is 60,000 men, aud soldiers of various types — Tartars, Circassians, Cossacks — are constantly met with. But besides the soldiers, the police officers, university professors, public school teachers, and pupils, all wear uniform ; in fact, half the moving population bear a military aspect. Amongst the civil portion of the populace a great variety of costumes are seen, both native and foreign. English, French, Americans, Chinese, Persians' Arabs, Finns, Kainschatkaus, aud ruauy more varieties of human life mingle in the crowd. The Russian peasant, or mujik, moves about everywhere — noisy, dirty, a great cheat, and a great drunkard ; but, wh )ther sober or not, a thoroughly good- latured fellow. It is as an isvostch'Jc, or driver, that he comes most iv co-itact with visitors; for distances $re so

great in St Petersburg that nobody walks who can help it. - The isvostchik-^* eats, drinks, and sleeps in his vehicle, and is very merry with his fellowswhilst waiting for a fare. All sorts of vehicles now ply for hire in this city ; but the indigenous carriage is the drojki, a small fo ur- wheeled,, carriage.,,,, of a. very primitive type, coristrjiet&ieP to carry one, sometimes two 'persons: In winter the drojkies disappear, ari<| are replaced by the sledges, [gliding smoothly and noislessly over ;j;h T e frozeii ' surface of the streets. — " Oitieis of M^ | World. 1 ' : , ; ' j 2! ,^^i I