Hide Article Text (OCR)
Princes and Peinccetes on the ice. On the evening of February 11 the English Skating Club gave a fete at St. Petersburg on the Neva. The grounds, if one may apply such a word to several seres of anclosed ice, are nearly oppo site the English church, and the club had converted the usually unadorned Jevel of their winter freehold into an Elysian field of ice templez, magnesium lights, colored _ lamps’, and fires, pavilions, and buffets. = All around the enclosed space, writes the corre spondent of the London Times, were hang chains of lamps, red, icing and green, fastooned in pretty patterns. At one side was the royal poriion, with a small supper-room behind, built out on the ice. Opposite to this were two kiosks for military bands, while at either end of the skating field were cloak and refreshment rooms for the general company. In the centre of the enclosure yase a castle,of frozen Watar, a trophy of ice masonry, con verted into a chapel fe ‘ardenis by a blaze of fires and lanterns burning at its windows and batements. Some ‘citadels were also built at the corners of the enclosed spaces their mimic architecture flashed with Bengal lights burning within; but the most beauti ful decoration of all was the soft cun shin streaming from electric or magne sium lamps fixed at intervals round the enclosure. The Prince and Princess of Walce, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh,’ Prince Arthur, the Crown Prince o Denmark, the Czareviteh, Czaryvns, and the Grand-Dnies Vladimir and Alexia were present, and each and all entered heartily into the skating, seem ng thoroughly to enjoy themselves. It was, indeed, » Welcome contrast “and relief amid’ the never-ending succession of balls and dinners, which offer ayth ing half so joyous as gliding to and fro over smooth ive, to the sound of music, in the ashing light of magnesiuman terns and by the rainbows ‘of ten] thousand colored lamps. Then, also, one bed:the pleasure of seeing princes and princesses in the fish as it were, not sitting at high tables or walking in moereballed processions, transfigured with stars and ribanda and jewels and long trains, but taking ‘their pleasure with the rest af ordinary mortale, enjoying no special exemption even from _collisions and tumbles. The Grand Dukes are good go-ahead skaters, very, Jehus in their turious driving of ladies chairs, and the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Ediurgh, the Crown Prince of Denma¢rk and Prince Arthur, can kald their own with the beer.” The Princess of Wales and the Grarevna kept their skates on for a very long time, and it was pretty to watch the sisters gliding along his hand, or in a chair with three or four entlemen. Sometimes a ring would form round the great American skate, Mr. Jackson Haines, watching him execute his marvellously dexterous and graceful gyrations and gymnastica, utterly astonishing to the ordinary skater. All the while the music played, and it was near one o'clock be fore a crowd of skaters gathered near the pavillion to give a farewell cheer to the royal and imperial skitars.
Newspaper Details
Semi Weekly Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Mar 14, 1874
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 19 Jul 2026
Other Publications Near Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Daily Milwaukee News
Milwaukee Daily News
Milwaukee Daily Sentinel
Milwaukee Daily Milwaukee News
Milwaukee Weekly Wisconsin
