THE CZAR'S CORONATION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7662, 22 June 1896, Page 4

THE CZAR'S CORONATION.

[Per 'Frisco Mail,]

This stupendously magnificent affair took ' place at. Moscow on May 22nd. Sir Edwin • Arnold, who waa present at the scene as representative of the London Telegraph when the Czir entered the cily, gives the following striking picture contrasts of color seen in line and among the people. Why cannot one write in colors ? There waa never anything seen on any stage like the living kaleidoscope of fanciful attire, of fantastic hues and embellishments, visible around me, particularly in the Oriental element and the far Eastern nations. Officials from Khiva wore many colored velvet robes, gold embroidered, and sugarloat hat. Now China contributes a dazzling group with flowered satin frocks and vermillion buttoned hats. Now a bevy of magnates from Lake Baikal astound the eye with furtrimmed brocade and long red boots. Now I recognise the grey turtouts and cap strings of the Coreans, and try one of them with a greeting in Japanese. He politely murmurs, Some of the Klurgiz Tartars then appear in yellow silk and scarlet shawls, outdoing all, and at a window of Gostinnov Dvor there is a beautiful vision of a Circassian lady in black and orange brocades, glistening with pearls and turquoises. I abandon in despair the polychromatic aspects of this point of the pageant. The Cossack Guards were uniformed in scarlet and gold, riding weedy Roman-nosed nags, with only a siiblHo and bridle, and with gold and black bandoliers, looking quite fit to pace in front of llie Czar. After these came upon the scene, almost the chief interest for me personally, since I saw gravely and significantly riding along as the vassal friends of the great white Khan, all the chiefs of the Central Asian kingdoms and provinces over which his eagles cast the shadow of their wings. They passed demurely upon noblß Arab stallions, the last among them mounted upon animals covered from crest to haunch with the costliest trappings of silver and gold cloth. Bui those and other parts of the pageant palled before the Grand Master of Ceremonies, borne haughtily onward in such a golden chariot as 1 thought existed only in Heaven or classical pictures, hoidiag a wand of gold, topped with an emerald as big as v walnut. 1 note that a Catholic Archbishop of America has been deprecating the aboliI tion of war by arbitration. He would have been consoled by the spectacle I witnessed in red square, a dazzling illustration of the " pomp, pride, and circumstances of glorious w&r." But here at last comes the august object of this unparalleled manifestation, the successor and heir of Ivan the Terrible. His handsome and manly young countenance is pale with prodigious sensation which such a scene must naturally excite, and he holds his gloved right hand almost perpetually to his regimental cap. He bends his head gently to this side and that as he acknowledges the boundless welcome. Every man is bareheaded, and every woman is waving a handkerchief or shawl or violently crossing her loyal bosom in a prayer for the " little father." The Czarina also sat alone, dressed wholly in white, even the jewels, pears, and diamonds seeming to mar by their color their effect of this fine apparel, which caused her to resemble a marble saint within a golden shrine. Most unmistakable were the affection and loyalty of the crowd, and I aaw more than one poor peasant woman's eyes wet with tears of sheer joy to behold this fair lady. One houest fellow fell upon hia knees to say his prayera as though he had seen something divine, till a Cossack bundled him back into the crowd.