Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/159

Rh there followed a Russian ode, and after many more toasts and more odes, the Russian Consul was called for a toast. The Consul was not well trained in public speaking, and so the President read the toast prepared by him. It ended with the following reference to himself:

"With regard to myself individually, 'Thanks' is the only word I am capable of uttering. You have cherished me, you have received me as one of your own, you have kindly overlooked my defects, and magnified my little deserts. I can say no more. I will wear you in the core of my heart, and if ever I forget what I owe you, or if ever I wilfully render myself unworthy of your friendship, I shall become the destroyer of my own happiness. Citizens of Boston: To comply with the established custom, and my feverish wish, I will, with your permission, give you the toast which is the titlepage to the sentiments I have ever entertained,— The Capital of Massachusetts! The first to resist aggression and the last to remember an injury. May it ever in politics and morals be the leading star in America!"

After the Consul had retired, the following was given: "The Russian Consul, the Gentleman and the Scholar,—the ornament of his own country and the friend of ours." The celebration ended with an ode on "Boney's Retreat," written by a lad of fifteen, to the tune of "Yankee Doodle."

Eustaphieve's "Alexis" was put on the stage on March 23rd of next year, with Mr. and Miss Holman and Mr. Young playing the principal parts. The performance was a success, the reputation of the author serving as an inducement for Boston society to attend. "The representation of this play was highly creditable to the performers," said one paper, "and Mr. Eustaphieve may congratulate himself on having conquered where it is not dishonorable to fail."

Boston was at the height of its admiration for everything Russian, and so the performance of "Alexis" was repeated on April 11th with the addition, "for the first time in America, and for that night only," of a melodrama in three acts, with Russian national music, selected and arranged by Mr. Hewitt, called "the Faithful Wife, or the Cozaks on the Road to Paris," in which the outlandish names of Roubinin, Mohroon, Chichak, Bournovilie were apparently intended to increase the terror caused by the Cossacks. Alexander's portrait (a true likeness) appears raised upon the Cozaks' spears, and is followed by a correct transparency of Moscow in flames, both painted from an original picture by Mr. Penniman, for the late Russian festival. The whole to