1889

(Continued from Notes in the previous issue.)

During my visit to Russia the winter of 1913 one of its great holidays took place - the blessing of the waters of the Neva River in front of the Winter Palace overlooking the Neva. The ceremony took place on Janury 6, according to Russia's calendar of that time (January 19 by the rest of the world). Tzar Nicholas II and the Imperial family, who had been living for several past years in the Alexander Palace in Tzarskoye Selo, came into St. Petersburg to the Winter Palace the day before the ceremony. On that morning I witnessed the Dowager-Empress Marie Dagmar, mother of Tzar Nicholas II (a sister of Queen Alexandra of England), coming down the Nevski Prospekt from the Anitchkov Palace, her Winter residence on the Nevski, to join the Imperial family at the Winter Palace. She was in an equipage driven by two pairs of horses with a postilion riding the near horse of the leading pair.

That morning the Russian gentleman, who had previously been escorting me about, came early to my hotel, and it was through him I was taken to witness the above as we moved through the crowded streets on our way to secure an advantageous point from which to observe the ceremony. We were in full view of the Winter Palace and the Fortress of SS Peter and Paul when the ceremony began at noon, with the firing of cannon from the Fortress on the opposite side of the Neva not far distant below, as the long line of Church dignitaries in their white ermine robes, headed by Tzar Nicholas II and members of his Court, was slowly marching from the entrance at the middle of the Winter Palace to the bank of the Neva, where a large hole had been cut from the thick ice covering the river. It was here the Church dignitaries performed a ceremony in commemoration of the Baptism of Christ. Returning to the Winter Palace Tzar Nicholas II appeared on the balcony, accompanied by the tzarina, the little tzarevitch, and the four princesses, where they received a tremendous ovation. Following this ceremony a reception was held in the Winter Palace attended by the ambassadors and high officials of foreign countries, among whom was America's Ambassador to Russia, Curtis Guild, my good friend dating back to before he was Governor of Massachusetts. That evening I dined at the American Embassy with Ambassador and Mrs. Guild and heard all about what took place at the Winter Palace that afternoon. By the midnight train I left for Moscow.

In Moscow the weather was cold and deep snow covered the city. The principal attraction, of course, was the Kremlin. In a sleigh I was driven from Hotel Metropole on Theatre Square, where I was staying, to the gate leading into Red Square, where my driver stopped, got out and entered a chapel to pray, leaving me in the sleigh in sub-zero weather. Upon returning he drove through the gate into Red Square, from which through the Spasskiya gate we entered the Kremlin. Tzar Alexei Mikhailovitch, father of Peter the Great, in 1647 decreed that no man should pass through this gateway with his hat on, and that decree was strictly enforced at the time I passed through it. Once within the walls of the Kremlin, the experience of having a sleigh ride there amid the great conglomeration of ecclesiastical, palatial and official buildings was mine to have and never forget. Another day I visited the Court of Justice within the Kremlin while it was in session. An evening at the Great Imperial Theatre presenting a superb ballet performance was much enjoyed, as was also a visit to the Tretyakov Gallery, which then had one of the most important collections of modern Russian paintings. This gallery was especially rich in works by Vereshtchagin, famous as a painter of war scenes, whose war scene paintings I saw when they were exhibited in the 1880's at the round-shaped Cyclorama Building then standing in Castle Square in Boston. Since then I have seen these same paintings on various visits to the Tretyakov Gallery since the Russian Revolution.

Secretary, Treasurer and Bequest

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