o on the whole it was a good trip and most
interesting. But here we are now in a perfect pandemonium and the Czar
has not yet come nor one-fifth even of the notables. It is a great
city, immense and overpowering in its extent. The houses are ugly low
storied and in hideous colors except the churches which are like
mosques and painted every color. I confess I feel beaten to night by
the noise and rush and roar and by so many strange figures and
marvellous costumes. Our rooms are perfect that is one thing and the
situation is the very best. If the main street were Fifth Avenue and
Madison Square the Governor's Square, his palace would be Delmonico's
and our rooms would be the corner rooms of the Brunswick, so you can
see how well we are placed. We can sit in our windows and look down
and up the main street and see every one who leaves or calls upon the
Governor. We are now going out for a dinner and to one of many
cafe-chantants and I will tell you the rest to-morrow, when I get
sleep, for after five nights of it I feel done up, but I feel equally
sure it is going to be a great experience and I cannot tell you how
glad 1 am that I came. Love to you all and to dear Florence in which
Trowbridge, who is a brick, joins me.

DICK.

Moscow--May 1896.

DEAR CHAS:

There was a great deal to tell when I shut down last night, but I
thought I would have had things settled by this time and waited, but it
looks now as though there was to be no rest for the weary until the
Czar has put his crown on his head. The situation is this: there are
ninety correspondents, and twelve are to get into the coronation, two
of these will be Americans. There are five trying for it.

Count Daschoff, the Minister of the Court, has the say as to who gets
in of those five. T. and I called on him with my credentials just as
he was going out. Never have I seen such a swell. He made us feel
like dudes from Paterson, New Jersey. He had three diamond eagles in
an astrakan cap, a white cloak, a gray uniform, top boots and three
rows of medals. He spoke English perfectly, with the most politely
insolent manner that I have ever had to listen to; and eight servants,
each of whom we had, in turn, mistaken for a prince royal, bowed at him
all the brief time he talked over our heads. He sent us to the bureau
for correspondents, where they gave me a badge and a pocketbook, with
my photo in it. They are good for nothing, except to get through