The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-29
THE czAR AND HIS WIFE.
Personal Appearance and Peculiarities of
the Emperor and Empress.

Personal Appearance and Peculiarities of
the Emperor and Empress.
New York World. ts,i ga
Alexander Alexandroalevitch is one of the
sovereigns upon whom greatness has been
thrust per force. Without talent or liking
for the life of anautocratic ruler, and above
all without any keen motive for confronting
| the conspiracies with which Russian society is
rife, he has been man rather to be pitied
than to be envied. .'I
Like all the Romanoffs he is tall, deep
chested and broad-shouldered, and of as
handsome and striking an appearance as
should be the son of Alexander and the
grandson of Nicholas, the handsomest man
in Europe of his time. In figure and general
style the Emperor recalls the German blood
of the maternal line, and he has the light
gray eyes of his mothers family, rather
than the blue-black orbs of Peter the Great,
Alexander l, Paul and so many other
sovereigns of the strain of Romanoff.
His best feature is his mouth, which is small,
and furnished with exceedingly handsome
teeth; he has a very fair complexion and
auburn hair In dress, while he is scrupu-
lously correct at the capital and upon state
occasions, he is inclined toward what might
almost be described as Bohemian latitude
having in particular dislike for gloves and
jewelry. He has served in the field against
the Turks, and carries two Craze wounds as
reminders of his service. Scandal, which
has never had any excuse for neglect of
Romanof prince, has found no breach in the
reputation of the present Gar, whose life
seems TO have been bound up in the society
of his wife and their children.
His wife, the handsome Princess Dagmar of
Denmark, sister of the future Queen of Eng
land, came to him somewhat as his crown.
Gba ba bat had of hi co11
who, on his dying bed besought his success
sor TO make good the young girls ambitious
dreams. Alexander the Liberator was bv no
means so severe parent as Nicholas The
present Emperor always enjoyed the reputa-
tion of being obstinate, capricious and high
tempered, but the death of his elder brother
did not fail to exercise upon him SOLDERING
effect The experiences of the last few years,
too, have been OF the sort that make men
thoughtful and gray before their time
Called suddenly to the throne, he had to
choose between Drawing the violence of the
Nihilists and mistrust of the peasantry. Not
only had he occasion to anticipate a peasant
sovereign to find himself in peril
from such a source. The significance
of the attacks made upon Alexander III
during the last sixteen years of his reign
it would be difficult to overestmate. His
son would have been happy had he been
lei 10 ENJOY the position OF younger Drotn-
er, to WELD the ak of the wood-chopper, and
to wrestle with his brothers and their attend
ants.
AS it is Alexander III lives as utterly
unregal life as can well be imagined. He
rises early and dispatches his official work
hurriedly and with a bad grace. his heart not
being in it; then gives himself up to long
walk or to wood-chopping, an exercise where
in he rivals Mr.. Gladstone.
Audiences and councils are things in
which he finds no delight-indeed are things
which he would shirk if he could possibly
avoid them.
Strange thatthe one ruler in all Europe