Sharp County record., 1881-05-26
The Cars Palace--.HoW the Emperor
Was Guarded.

on the other It fronts the enormous
sIIere which is adorned with mono
It, -ranite column erected to the mem
o. Alexander I. To the right of the
p. stands the Admiralty, and lit
IT, ther on the same side the Bar
r. of the Chevaliers Gardes; to the
le the Museum of the Hermitage
a. me Imperial printing offices. Fac
il { the Admiralty runs the Newski
Prospect, which is the principal thor
Oughfare in St. Petersburg, so that the
Gar could see from his palace windows
all the animation of the city. The Win
ter Palace is said to have cost hundreds
OF lives in the erecting, for when the
old one, which stood on the same site,
had been burned, Nicholas ordered that
the new one should be built within six
months. This necessitated the employ
mtnt of thousands of wOrkmen day and
night through the winter and many of
these unfOrtunates were frozen. As
fast as the lower stories were completed
the walls were dried with roaring fires
waile the works were carried on above;
and the upholsterers and decorators
completed the furnishing of the princi-
p"l rooms before the attics were rooted.
v thin ten days after the workmen had
les the building it was inhabited by
the Car and his Court, and Nicholas
fr-t care on arriving was to 90 the
70 nd of the whole place with the arch
ite { and contractors to see that none
of the work had been " scamped.' Be-
inc satisfied with what he saw he paid
the bill-about million sterling-with-
out a murmur.
It was in this palace, so strangely
erected, that the late Emperor always
spent the six winter months, and before
the NihiEst troubles began, the life he
led there was a pleasant one. Alexander
H., as above said, never affected the
Spartan simplicity of his father Nicholas,
who used to sleep on camp bed, eat OF
the most frugal fare and spend most of
the time he could spare from State busi-
ness in inspecting his soldiers. He
(Alexander) was addicted to cOnvi7ial-
ity and home pleasures. ae had few
very intimate friends-the Bariatan-
skies, Adlerbergs, Schouyaloffs, Blond
offs and others-with whom he spent a
good deal Of his time, and from whom
he heard all that went on in the world.
Every evening one or other of these
families attended the private Court din
ner, and afterwards charades CT COM
ediettas used to be performed either by
the ladies and gentleman of the Court,
or by comedians from the French thea
ter. During the daytime when it was
fine the Emperor would take walking
exercise in the public garden of the
palace, the gravel walks of which were
boarded over, and his only attendant
was usually big dog; or he would get
into his sleigh and drive about the city
without escort. Sometimes he alighted
and walked all down the Newski Pros
pect, looking into the shops; or hewOuld
stroll into some friendly house and pay
a visit He was known to everybody, |
but it was not the etiquette to salute
him, still less to accost him, unless ne
cpurted recognition by one of those !
good-natured mods of which he was |
nev-r chary toward his personal ac-
qUaintances, .
All this easy style of living, however,
came to an end last year, and the pre-
cautions taken to guard the Gar made
his life for time absolutely burden
some. He was scarcely allowed to 90
out, and when he did so was closely fol-
lowed by detectives with loaded revolv-
ers and by an armed Cossack hetman,
who walked beside him or sat opposite
him in his carriage. The vehicle in
which the Emperor rode-whether it
were coach or railway carriage ge-was
cased in iron, and it had nothing about
it to attract attention. Thus in the
streets, when several Court carriages
passed together the one that looked
like the Cars was never slat which
contained His Majesty; and, on the rail-
roads, the most brilliant saloon car re-
NAMED empty, while the Emperor trav-
eled in what appeared to be second
class compartment or baggage van. At
one time the Gar was prevailed upon
to wear a chain breast-p plate under his
tunic, but though one Of the ightest
kind was made for him he could not
bear its weight, so the expedient was
adopted of causing his tunics to be pad
ded with cotton wool stepped in aprep-
aration which hardened it, and rendered
it. ii not bullet-proot at least knife
proof. and difficult for even a bullet to
pierce at long shot. An attempt was
made some time ago to poison the Gar
by sending him petition covered with |
some noxious powder, since which he |
had ceased to receive letters, papers or
petitions. For a similar reason he gave
up smoking, though he used to like a
cigar. and he drank no wine but from
bottles uncorked in his presence. In
the Imperial kitchen the Cars food
was prepared by French cook, who
pied ali his vocations under the eyes
OF two police guards not that the cook
himself would incur any suspicion, but
because some conspirator might have
got at the ingredients he was prepar-
ing. The food was always cooked in
the simplest way, without sauce, and it
was tasted by two officials before il was
served at the Cars table. London
T,DleS. .
The Mission Church OF San Xavier at