rdity of these
things. I can not discover much difference, save in degree, between
barbaric show on the part of savages and on that of civilized people.
For what, after all, do these coronation halls and gewgaws amount to?
Who is truly king upon earth, when there is "an everlasting King at
whose breath the earth shall tremble?"

Strange, indeed, and not calculated to exalt one's impression of
royalty, is the fact that, after purchasing a ticket to see all these
relics of the great Czars of Russia, a horde of officers, servants,
and lackeys, in imperial livery, must be feed at every turn. It is a
perfect system of plunder from beginning to end. At the door of the
new palace I was stopped by some functionary in white stockings,
polished slippers, plush breeches and plush coat, actually blazing
with golden embroidery; his head brushed and oiled to the intensest
limits of foppery, and his hands adorned with white kid gloves, who
refused to permit me to enter until he had arranged some infernal
compact of pay with my guide, Dominico. After showing me through the
grand chambers, pointing out the beds, bed-quilts, writing-desks,
chairs, and wash-basins of the Czars, he finished up his half hour's
labor by making a profound bow and holding out his hand, beggar
fashion, for his fee. I gave him half a ruble (about 87-1/2 cents), at
which his countenance assumed an expression of extreme pity and
contempt. Dominico had informed him that I was a stranger from
California, which had the effect of eliciting from him various
passages of exceeding politeness up to that moment. But he now came
out in his true colors, and demanded haughtily, "Was this the pitiful
sum what the gentleman intended as a recompense for his services?"
Dominico shrugged his shoulders. The liveried gentleman became excited
and insolent--assuring me, through the guide, that no stranger of any
pretensions to gentility ever offered him less than a ruble. I must
confess I was a little nettled at the fellow's manner, and directed
Dominico to tell him that, having no pretensions to gentility, I must
close my acquaintance with him, and therefore bid him good-morning.
There never was an instance in which I disappointed any beggar with so
much good will. I have no doubt, if he has read any thing of
California, he labors under the impression that I am an escaped
convict from San Quentin.

O most potent Alexander, Czar of all the Russias, is this the only
way you have of