FROM RIGA TO ST. PETERSBURG 49 



Petersburg to Petrograd in 1914, and the reason, 

 the former being German and the new name 

 Russian. 



In St. Petersburg, as in Riga, under the kindly 

 care of Count Andre Bobrinskoy, private hospi- 

 talities were more extended than could be accepted, 

 for I had determined upon devoting my limited 

 time chiefly to tours through some of the famine- 

 afflicted provinces. My anticipated pleasure of 

 shaking hands with the Czar was rendered im- 

 possible because of his having just then gone to 

 Copenhagen with the Czarina and their son, 

 Grand Duke Nicholas, to join in the celebration of 

 the marriage anniversary of the parents of the 

 Czarina, the King and Queen of Denmark. A 

 picture of the group assembled at that celebration, 

 presented to me, may be seen on the opposite page. 



I met in St. Petersburg, Dr. Alexander Francis, 

 pastor of the Anglo-American Congregational 

 Church of St. Petersburg. Early in the autumn of 

 1891, Dr. Francis spent several'weeks in the famish- 

 ing district of Taboff where the suffering was most 

 appalling. He told me that in one village not a 

 child was left alive. In another village the people 

 had used up every board in the making of coffins 



