| Show THE tue CAPITAL OF buff KUff sia yiA r f i fl vi ital J at sst pe petersburg kersburg burz burg is worthy to tp be the capital of nuska russia AA ad empi empl beof ot gigantic dimensions ought to have suella sueila sueh such a vast ph metropolis e cropo lis ils as this this city is built on a really grand scale the squares immense the streets interminable the bouses houses bulky enough to discard ornament and yette yet be impressive mke uke the Pyram pyramids pyramid ld these huge structures depend fr hor effect upon size alone nione the Gove government fj palaces hiie an H the mansions of the nobles certainly do not want in columns arched windows and all the multitudinous orna ornaments ments of the architectural art as developed by the divers ages and people of the world but butas as though jealous of the flimsy gingerbread work massive greatness largely preponderates ates over the deedra decorative element and the expanse of the front mocks the tiie feeble attempts made to embellish them with their friezes bas and the like the architects themselves seeni seem to have felt their inability to draw from the finer resources of the art anything to compete with the effect produced by these piles of masonry many of the government buildings and palaces are constructed in th the e most unpretending styles with a few pillars stuck in here and there to break the monotonous noton no lines of rectangular windows the tae same modest pattern is upon tha thy whole followed by private builders who like their more ambitious prototypes rely upon numerous stories and towering walls rather than upon scon ces cornices cornicks cor nices and entablatures the impression created by this truly imperial style of architecture is considerably heightened by the extraordinary width of the streets not only in the great thoroughfares but in nearly all the streets situate in the sout southern bern berA or ingo inge fashionable part of the town which I 1 have as yet inspected the house sare are seen as well as though they were standing in squares allshouse all ail houses palaces not excepted are covered with plaster and painted with some light color after the fashion prevalent in berlin and northern germany generally but the are perhaps better kept than is the case in the prussian capital the stucco not showing those ugly fissures and untidy holes but too frequent even in themore the more elegant p parts arts of berlin j |
