The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-05-21
An Impsrial Romance in Russia.

the gulf of ages and not under the waves
of the Atlantic 1t would appear TO us the 3
most natural thing in the world to hear
that the brother of the Gear of all the
Russias has been arrested by the Imperial
police, and that his house has been seaI ched.
1t was always the way of the Russian :
sovereigns in the good old days to find
their deadliest foes in those of their own !
household Of course this has not been
confined to Russian sovereigns. 1t Is
bitter SAYING, recorded of Samuel Rogers,
the poet, by Lord Houghton, that upon
some ones telling him that two famoDs
literary men of London were like broth {
ers" the sardonic bard responded, al knew |
| they were not on good terms together, but ]
| I didn't think it was so bad as that" But
no brothers in private life and no literary
men ever hated each other So desperately
or compassed each others discomfort and
RUIN so seduously as the Russian princes
| and prineesses for ages did. Three CEN
turtles ago the first Of the civilized Rus
sian Czars who ever made head against
| the Tartars and began to give Russia a
! European position, Ivan Vaslllvltch, OF the
race Of Rurik, acquired his first important
accession of power and dominion by the
simple process of deposing and putting to
| death his father IN law. At the end Of
the sixteenth century Boris Gudonof sadly
belied the En- glish force of his name by
poisoning his sisters husband Feodore
| ivanoviLch, the last of the Ruriks. He
ruled Russia after this as agreeably as
might have been expected from such
BEGINNING, bringing about the famous fam
inc of Moscow, in the course of which, as
veracious chroniclers assures US, women
were seen walking about the streets, hag
gard and wild, and knawing at the legs
and arms of the infants they bore upon
their bosoms. When, after the death of
Boris his sister sought to establish his son
upon the throne, the false Demetrius poi
soned both the nephew and aunts The |
first of the race of the RomanoHs, who rose |
] to imperial power but few years before |
the landing of the English Puritans on |
Plymouth Rock, lived IN comparative |
peace with his own household. and seems
| to have been under no greater necessity OF
strangling or poisoning any of his blood
relations than any other of the European
potentates of his time. But Peter the
Great went into the business with new
energy three score years afterwards. He
began his reign by driving his sister So
phia into q nunnery and by shutting his
brother Ivan out of all public life, and
crowned it, like Peter II. of Spain, by or
dering the assassination of mis- own son.
When Peter III. came to the throne IN
1852, upon the lamented death by brandy
of the Empress Elizabeth, the domestic
lars began again He had scarcely time
to shave off the boards of the Russian clergy
for the benefit of their morals before his
excellent wife made up her mind to get
rid of him. How Prince Banatinsky and
Prince Orloff fell upon the Emperor in the
prison to which Catharine had consigned
him. tried to drench him with poison, and
finding that impossible, ,choked him to death
with a napkin, we need not here reclte.
The story of Catharine II. has been but
recently revived by an interesting tholog-
ical discussion at the far West, IN the
course of which it has been gravely main
tanned that the Christian orthodoxy of that
exemplary but matrimonlally and sentl-
mentally speaking exclusive princess has
doubtless secured for her better position
in the next world than all the conjugal
virtues of poor, patient, heather Penelope
could command for the faithful wife OF
ULYSSES. 1t is not perhaps desirable for
us to dwell too much at length upon 1t
here. Suffice it that after being informed
of the death of her spouse the accom-
plished CZarina who had momenta
rily suspended ner dinner, ordered 8 fresh
plate of caviare, and went on with be-
meal as composedly as the beloved o
Werther, of whom Thackeray tells US tina
"Charlotte, having seen his body
Borne before her on q shutter,
Like q Well-conducted person
Went cutting bread and butter"
She shortly afterwards made everything
quite snug by ordering the assassination c
the forlorn young Gear Ivan VI, who ha
been lying for sometime forgotten IN a
out-of-the-Way prison, but who Nigh
have been the pivot of some vexatlou
plot. Nearer to our own times are tn
dark tales of the fate of poor crazy EmpC
ror Paul, murdered by his mobiles, and (
the melancholy closing years OF the HE
Alexander l., the most charming OF Walt
ers, and the most engaging of religious eI
tbusiasts. Whether that long twilight
doubt and anxiety was ended at Taganro
by the merelful hand of nature or by SON
agency of poison still remains moot'
question. So, too, is it with the closlr
chapter in the history of Nicholas, Il
mad magnificent, and broken-hearted so
s ereign who dashed himself so fatally Wi
al the power of his realm against the a
lied powers of the West To this day
man clearly knows, or at least no mi
clearly knoWi, has ventured distinct
to tell the world how the naughty Cz
passed away in that terrible winter viii
saw the pride of Russia humbled and
prestige dashed in pieces. Why the gioor
traditions OF IllS clOuO6Q anu
past should now be revived, as it were
the very hour IN which the Russian ca
tai was still ringing with the festal echt
of that splendid imperial bridal which
Just been gathering together there half
princes and great personages OF MID
and Western Europe, 1t Is not easy IN
present state of our information on
subject to divine. The Grand Duke Mi
olas is still young man. He was bC
e. in 1881, is a general in the Russian arr
and has travelled good deal both
- Western Earope and IN the East IN co
pany with his younger brother, the Grs
Duke Michael. OF his character and
talents but little has been known outs
900 of Russia, but that little has been on
whole rather favorable than the reYe
There Is no doubt that the Teutonio (
denotes of the Emperor Alexander b
been and are still intensely disagreeable
... the strong MuscoYite party IN Russia;
there is q story that the Grand Du
Nicholas and Michael on at least one p
tes- lie occasion shortly after the close of
Is on Franco German war, made point of
lived claiming their sympathy with France
sss in their detestatIon of their German klns
ailing in general from the Kaiser on his thl
Y can downward. This was IN the Cauca
result however, and there have been no re-
lst be symptoms, certainly, of any disposition
hap the part of either the people or the n
tudes classes at st. Petersburg to quarrel
uides. the love-making which mas been goln
h the SO openly of late between Aiexandel
mis- and his relations at Berlin. The proIe
as in Journey of the Emperor to Germany
much England may, however, have been 81
,r any upon as the golden opportunity Tor q
IN ap- ace conspiracy of the good old Rui
lamed fashion. Anything less serious than
y had could hardly account fol- such step a
he at cable now reports to Us. The whole S
very We repeat, belongs to another age,
sr the tells us more plainly than many pag
Iercise description could how far the Russian
hough pire still is from the tullness OF wi
,ut the known in the Western world as civ
n sem ton.
he eX A--
As well Government Claims on the Pa