THE DANCE OF DEATH.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 January 1918, Page 6

THE DANCE OF DEATH.

A PICTURE OF EUSSIA'S

REVOLUTION

Amongt all the strange happenings associated with revolution in Petrograd perhaps the strangest was the forcible seizure by the Leninites and militant anarchists of the splendid palace of Mme. Kshesinskaya, Eussia's foremost ballerina, and the favourite of the ex-Czar Nicholas. The gift of her royal lover, who also had it furnished fro her regardless of expense, the Ksncsinskaya Palace, was one of the landmarks of the capital, and was among the first buildings' of the kind to be invaded and sacked by the revolutionary mob. Later it was occupied permanently by the Leninites, who made it their headquarters and herein were enacted scenes that are unparalleleu since the days of the first French Kevolution. In the grand salon, with its ebony and silver decorations, its rose silk hangings, and its famous green malachite doors, the scum of the city ate, drank and made merry. Every night and all night there was music and 1 dancing, punctuated at intervals by the rattle of the machine-guns planted by the anarchists on the roof, and the answering volleys fired by the troops in the streets.

It was an orgy such as Hogarth never pictured, nor Balzac imagined. Death danced with the dancers. Pow-der-blackened men and half-naked women drank champagne from silver flagons and died' even as they drank, their life blood staining the golden wine a. vivid crimson.

Then the wild riot would cease suddenly for a brief period while the sur

vivors, shouting imprecations and curses, rushed to the windows and fired wildly up and down the street. But only for a few minutes Afterwards the music struck up again, lilting Russian dance airs played upon Ivshcsinskaya's four thousand rouble piano —with its famous gesso work and Vernis-Martin decorations the gift of a grand duke. —and the feet of the wine-maddened dancers whirled anew, and with seemingly unflagging zest, amid a litter of broken glass and torn tapestry.