Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-05-24
RennlsiYe Emit.

The spectacle present in the corona
ton of Alexander Ill is the legitimate
outcome of the drama of repression
which has been on the boards of the
Russian stage for the past two hundred
years. 1t is "a scene to which Russia
alone could give birth and its parallel
is not to be found in the annals of his
tory, neither is it likely to be repeated
in the future unless the repetition comes
from the same country.
For nearly three years the present
Car has been bearing the dignities of
ruler while still uncrowned, and
therefore nominally a junior and not by
correct Interpretation emperor, After
three years of terrorized waiting, which
can safely be prolonged no longer, the
uncrowned heir to the throne APP
proaches his heritage through living
wall of bayonets, with every house top
and coign of vantage occupied by arm
ed men, and one half of the inhabi-
tants of the. ancient capital under the
close surveillance of the other half.
Instead of the joyous shouts of
crowds of loving subjects is heard
the metallic rattle of the cruel
steel. In place of fond hopes and low
ing glances is the dread of terrible
fear and the searching gaze of the de-
tective, watching for the least suspic-
ious move. even in the ranks of the
no5lest. With the appearance Of a
prisoner doomed to the stake the un-
happy monarch reaches for the crown
which is weighed down by the sorrows
of seventy million subjects.
There is no need for envying this I'M
happy prince. The poorest laborer
that breathes the free air of this land of
liberty is happier, more to be envied,
than he. The humblest cotter is heir
to more happiness than can ever be
measured out to this crowned but I'M
loved monarch.
A more vivid picture of the evils of
repression can hardly be conceived than
this striking phantasmagoria with its
bright high lights of assembled royalty,
brilliant eauty, glittering gems, elegant
dresses, handsome uniforms, and the
dark shading of police spies, nameless
fear, and cold steel. The whirlwind
was sown by his ancestors; to-day
Alexander III reaps the fruits in the
shadowy death that fingers and turks
even in the guard-rooms of his palace.
The Car stands in an anomalous
position. By q single stroke of his pen
the shadowy. presence which fills his
waking and sleeping dreams would flee
into the background. Yet that one
stroke he dare not make. With the
nihilists on the one hand and the mobiles
on the other it matters little which way
he goes, eithermeans death. The people,
awakened by the pushing civilization of
the nineteenth century, demand consti-
tutional government on the same basis
as prevails among other European
powers. The mobiles, standing to-day
where they did when Napoleon / uttered
his famous epigram "scratch Russian
and you find a Cossack," would set the
country back another hundred years,
were such thing possible. Being i'm
possible they demand the other alterna-
tive of maintaining the present repres-
sive system as it stands. In the hands
of this party, events have shown the
emperor to be mere puppet. Hence
Russia to-day rests on volcano. 1t is
possible that the threatened eruption,
strongly foreshadowed for the past few
years, may be for time averted. But
away down, deep in the grooming heart
of the people, the dull red flame is
glowing, gaining brightness in its hid
ing place. AT an unexpected moment
this flame will be transformed into a
molten mass of social and political lava
oyertlrning and burying under its re-
sistless flowthe remnants of the old sys-
tenn. Happy for Russia will it be if it
does not destroy the good with the evil,
in its relentless flood.
IL