The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1874-09-05
Picking az Empress Of Russia.

There was said to be very ancient precedent
among the Byzantine emperors for choosing q
wife as Ahasuerus chose Esther. Sophas son,
cut of from all equal choice, sent ENJOYS with
letters to all the bOyars aud princes throughout
the empire, commanding them to assist in an
examination Of the young girls of their respec-
tive districts, rich, noble, poor or serf, that
selection might be made aud the most beauti-
full sent to Moscow for his inspection the in
habitauts warned that any one who DISC
bcyed or tried to conceal his daughter would be
visited with condign disgrace and punishment.
No one burst diso5ey the e'!lct; the young girls
were passed in review, aud fifteen hundred es.
teemed worthy Of their masters appreciation
were sent to Moscow. To form an idea of the
sacrifice we must try to fancy what Russia was
in the fifteenth centuary. Those Immense dis
tances, those sparsely settled districts, those
rude habits which dsmay the traveller of to-day,
when stages and railroads aud hotels and all the
forms OF modern progress are at hand to smooth
the path, then presented all their formidable
pristine difficulties. The risk, the cost, the IA.
tigue of journey from the rcmotest provinces
to the capital were appalling Yet these hard
ships had to be faced, the tumuits of hope and
fear controlled, all the hatred and jealousy of
rivals encountered, and the bitterness and NOR
tlhcatlon of disappointment endured. On ar
irving at Moscow further examinations were
made, and various competitors dismissed un-
seen Dy thc car, until the mum Der reserved tor
the actual exhibition was comparatively small.
They were all lodged in one large house, and
slept in dormitories of twelve beds. In each
room was throne in which the czar seated
himself; the young girls knelt before him in
turn. After he had contemp plated each at his
leisure, she dropped a pocket t-handkerchief
embroidered with pearls at his feet, and with
drew. Ivan the Terrible, the second who adopt
ed this custom, married three times, and always
in the same fashion. His first and favorite
wife was Anastasa Romanhoff. When about
sent from every part of the empire; of these
nations, and finally but twelve who were then
turned over to physicians and midwives for Ger
tIficates of health. OF this dozen the czar, af-
ter much deliberation, chose one for himself
and one for his son. Thus in two reigns the
custom became fixed in the manners Of the ma.
ton, and the people soon came to regard it as
right of their daughters, which gave the hum
blest born beauty chance of becoming EN-
press. Thus q girl who but few weeks before
had been gathering mushrooms in the fields for
tho support of her family, came to find herself
wife of the emperor of all the Russias. How
did she adapt herself to such POSITION? How
M ~, oo autoetdls IA4ttlia her tf13el.. wa
The French commentator on NJ ZaOIeffne OBJ
serves that the difference was slight then be-
tween the daughter Of the proudest boyar and
the poorest peasant; it is the development of
education and luxury which makes the true
distinction of classes. In Russia three centu-
ries ago all were nearly equally illterate and
dirty.-LippincotP Magazine for august.