Moscow is further east than Jerusalem. Like Constantinople, it is situated where the two great divisions of our globe, the Orient and the Occident, forever gaze into each other's eyes. Beyond this city are half-civilized lands and races, extending in barbaric wild-ness to Tartary and China, or over the enormous area of Siberia toward Alaska, our own frost - covered storm-door of the North. But as a mighty continent rises slowly from the sea, so from the barbarism of those eastern lands the Russian Empire is gradually emerging ; and Moscow is its lofty headland - its frontier city, faced Janus-like to east and west - a golden link between the Russia which has been and that which is to be.

Moscow.

I do not wonder that the soldiers of Napoleon's army, after their weary march of nearly two thousand miles, cheered with a frenzy of enthusiasm as the enchanting vista of this city burst upon their view. No foreigner can look upon it without deep emotion ; and as for the Russian peasants, whenever they approach this sacred city of the empire, and see its gilded turrets gleam like golden helmets in the sun, they often fall upon their knees and weep for joy, moved to an ecstasy of religious feeling, like that which thrilled the hosts of the crusaders when they first gazed upon Jerusalem.

Five minutes after we had left the railway station, however, we needed no argument to convince us that Moscow, like most Oriental cities, has a decidedly " seamy side." So fearfully and wonderfully constructed are some of its pavements that, in our transit from the station to the hotel, we were chiefly occupied in holding on, for dear life, to the sides of an antediluvian droshky, the motion of which suggested the sensation of riding upon the back of a runaway camel, as we bounded along on a chaotic mass of muddy earth, into which sharp stones appeared to have been occasionally dropped, like raisins in a pudding. Whenever the droshky struck one of those " raisins," I thought of home and heaven simultaneously, and saw stars in a clear sky.

The Kremlin From Across The River.

A Moscow Street Omnibus.

Moscow is one of the most irregularly built cities in the world. It is characteristic of a nation in a transition state. Every building stands in striking contrast with its neighbor. Thus, before a finely proportioned church, with lofty towers and brilliant domes, is located the hut of a blacksmith ; and at its side extends a row of cheap yellow cottages. Miserable hovels, which we should expect to find in the outskirts of a town, stand forth in Moscow beside a palace or a cathedral, just as a Russian peasant - clad in his sheepskin coat, wherein are concentrated the unsavory odors of several generations - will remain, unconscious of his filthiness, beside a man who is cleanly dressed.

Moreover, in Russian society there are said to be contrasts no less striking than those discoverable in Russian architecture. In reality, there are but two great social divisions in Russia, - the cultivated class, of less than a million, and the " Black Brood," numbering about ninety millions. Between these there is, however, an intermediate type, which properly belongs to the uncultivated class. It is that of the prosperous merchants, -the nouveaux riches, who are anxious to assume the airs and luxuries of the nobles, and of whom the most ludicrous stories are told. An English traveler says that one of these suddenly enriched traders evinced great pride in showing him over his house, which was, indeed, furnished in sumptuous style. Finally, in his sleeping-room, he called his attention to a magnificent gilded bed. "What do you think of that?" he asked, rubbing his hands exultantly. The traveler replied that it was superb. " Is it not so ? Is it not so ? " exclaimed the Russian, smacking his lips, and pointing out the blue silk curtains and white lace. " But it cost me so much that I don't sleep on this bed, but under it!"

One of the first things to attract my notice in Moscow was the enormous number of churches it contains.

One Of The Black Brood.