Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1884 — Sentinels in Russia. [ARTICLE]

Sentinels in Russia.

Thirty miles from St. Petersburg is the castle of Gatschina. The Czar resides there voluntarily, a ruler to whose coronation the whole world came. A subterranean passage leads from the castle to the §tables, where are many horses kept saddled night and day. Outside there is a cordon of sentinels. The Czar’s bedroom has two windows with massive iron shutters. A General, with eighty Cossacks armed to the teeth, keeps watoh and ward in the adjoining apartments. No armed soldier is allowed in the room. At night this mighty ruler prefers to be alone. Mark the strange contrast; a coronation throne and a castle cell. There is no love of change in imperial circles. Old customs hold full sway. Prince Bismarck tells of his walking with the Emperor of Russia in the palace gardens at St. Petersburg. happened on a. sentinel standing in. the midst of a lawn. He asked why he was stationed there. The Emperor did not know. Upon inquiry the sentinel did not know—he had been ordered. The officer of the watoh did not know, except that he hadf been ordered., adjutant did not know. At last an old man was found who remembered hearing liis father say that the Empress Catherine 11., 10(Ji years before, had found a snow-drop on that particular spot, and had given orders that it should be protected. A snow-drop sentineled for a century! —Andover Review.