DRIVING IN ST. PETERSBURG.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 181, 15 September 1876, Page 9

DRIVING IN ST. PETERSBURG.

4-+ In the first place, says a St. Pet e rburg correspondent of the ' San Francisco Chronicle,' picture to yourself the drojkies, which are mere single seats like stools without back or arms although often necessary it is next to impossible for two persons to seat themselves therein, so small are they, and two strangers thus seated can always be recognised by each having both arms clasped around the other there being nothing else to hold to. The driver has a similar seat a little highei and in front. So seated your driver starts. He is none of your lazy fellows, and he has learned that St. Peterburg is a city of magnificent distances, and his horse starts, and k"eps on at a good run, and could you but hold]on to the drojky with your feet as tightly as you hold to your companion with your arms, you would feel tolerably secure of keeping your seat. If you are driving on the Nievsky Prospect it is crowded with vehicles, the greatest number of them drojkies, all running as fast as your own. Now you put out your hand to turn away a running horse's head within two feet of your own face, and directly your other shoulder wipes the foam from the mouth of another passing horse, and this is done so often that your outside garments soon look like a winter landscape. For observations you have no time, your whole attention being occupied in wondering at the skill with which imminent collisions are dodged, and when at last you become used to it you think it the finest driving you ever enjoyed. Not only the driving, but the driver's dress and horse's are peculiar. Fastened to the shafts of all vehicles drawn by single horse is a hoop bent from one shaft to the other and rising to the height of three or four feet above the horse's neck. The check-rein is fastened to the top of this hoop. For drays this hoop is larger and heavier, often three inches thick, and five inches wide, and painted in bright colors, as a wreath of roses on a ground of grass green. la all teams where three or more horses are \ised they are all harnessed abreast. The private teams are of extreme elegance. While in France there is a majority of white horses, in St. Petersburg the greater number of fine horses are black. The private carriages are beautiful and in the finest taste. There is usually a dainty relief of gilt or silver on the carriage and harness, while the reins correspond with the lining of the carriage in color, and a jaunty tassel hangs from the throat-latch. So rapid is the motion, and so light and airy the tread of these horses, they seem to fly as much, as to touch the earth. The drojky drivers are in uniform, wearing a blue bouble-dreasted wadded gown which reaches to the feet ; under this a sheepskin shirt, and on the head a hat-shaped covering with broad-spreading crown, but nearly as low as a cap.

"In the 47th. chapter of the Koran, entitled Mahomet, revealed at Medina/ war upon infidels is made a religious duty. " And as to those who fight in the defence of God's true religion, God will not suffer their worts to perish. He will guide them and lead them into Paradise, of which he hath told them. It's delights are wonderful. O true believer, if ye assist God, by fighting for his religion, he will assist you against your enemies. * * V God will utterly destroy them; # # * # thi s shall come to pass, for God is the patron of the true believers, and the infidels have no protector * * * Paradise which is promised unto tlie believer who fights for his God, therein are rivers of incorruptable water, and rivers of milk the taste whereof changeth not, and rivers of wine pleasant unto those who drink ; and rivers of clarified honey, and therein shall they have ****** and pardon from the Lord." A warlike people inflamed with fanaticism, and sure to be rewarded, if death follows, would cause terrible carnage before compulsory submission to any Christian power. Mahommedanism has more propagandist or missionary power today than all the denominations of Christians combined. Africa, Northern China, Hindostan, and the great Malay Islands, are swarming with thousands of Mahommedan missionaries, and. we regret that their success among the Pagans is infinitely greater than that of Christian teachers. Broadly looked at, the massacre of the leaders of "Young Turkey" by a fanatic, is suggestive of the deep-seated hate of the infidel which exists in the breasts of 160,000,000 of people.— * Wilmington Herald.'