AN EMPRESS GOT UP TO LOOK AT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9022, 7 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN EMPRESS GOT UP TO LOOK AT.

THE AMAZING SPLENDOUR OF THE CZARINA DESCRIBED. Ax American lady now in St. Petersburg thus describes a Court reception at the Winter Palace:— " We women folk are accustomed through ignorance, I suppose, to think and speak of Russia as a semi-barbarous country. It is in Bome respects ; but in others it is the most splendid country—with the exception of our own—in the world, and St. Petersburg is the most interesting of all European cities. Through the introductions we brought with us, we have been enabled to obtain entree to the presence of royalty and see the interior of the finest of all the palaces. It was a bitter cold day when we drove in a gorgeous sleigh to the Winter Palace—which was like a fairy picture in the fading light without and illumined within with the brilliancy of thousands of candles—to attend a Court reception. The effect of the light on the snow and upon the gay equipages of the numerous j#uests was indescribable. We approached the Empress through 3000 officials. First through superb State Departments, each blazing with a thousand wax tapers and gorgeous with priceless hangings, malachite pillars, works of art, and tropical flowers and ferns. The light was worth the journey from New York to Russia. The floors were things of beauty, inlaid with ebony and rosewood and ivory. " As we waited for our turn I had a good opportunity to see, and I mad« much of it. At last we entered the throne-room, and there, surrounded by a sea of splendour, etood the Empress, herself a moving mass of diamonds. She was the most dazzling eight of all. On her head was a crown once worn by the Great Elizabeth. It was the first time I had seen a real crown on royalty, for the diamond tiara worn by Queen Victoria last summer at her reception was not a crown, except in name. Mrs. Astor used to wear as fine a one. But this one on the Imperial head wa3 worthy to adorn the Empress of all the Russians. Describe it ? fro. I only saw millions of coloured rays and white sparks of light emitted from it at every motion of the royal person. The necklace was made from what was left over of the crown. It reached from her neck to her waist, and had rubies, sapphires, and diamonds enough in it to have supplied 1000 prdinary royal necklaces. The Imperial orders worn on her breast contained all the gems of the East. They scintillated with light, and that is all I can say of them. The stuff of her gown was emerald velvet, with a train of white velvet embroidered with enough gold to stock a mine, and bordered with real gold balls. The front of the gown was ornamented with ropes of linked pink coral, set in diamonds and fastened at intervals. Never saw I human being thus arrayed. Solomon might have put on more, but Ido not believe it. She was enough of herself to take the breath out of a body, but surrounded as she was by Grand Duchesses, each one ablaze with jewels worth a kingdom, she was the most wonderful sight I ever witnessed in my life. I did not know % mortal could look so magnificent.

' " The position of her sister, the Princess of Wales, is almost obscure as compared to the peerless destiny of this Empress of all the Kussiaa, and, if the war party succeeds, Empress of Asia as well. The officials in their semi-barbarous grandeur numbered hundreds upon hundreds, but I paid no attention to them; the Empress and the palace were what I went to see, and the eight has thrown me into a peculiar mental condition. My less fascinated companion, who had been ito Court before, took my breath away from me by remarking that she pitied the poor woman. Why ? Because she will not find anything new in heaven in the way of jewels or surroundings. How about peace of mind ? Of that indeed I think ehe stands in great need now, poor tiling 1" .