The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-12-22

AleNanuer ILL.,, Gar OF all the Rus
slams. VIC are informed, has shown I'M
mistakable symptoms of insanity. This
is rather s'artling, coming as it does, SO
close upon the incidents attending the
forced deposition of the late King of
Bavaria. King Ludwig, it will be re-
membered, was deranged for several
years., and completely wore out the pa
tience of his courtiers and officers by
his innumerable eccentricities. But the
strangest feature of the case is that,
after his removal and suicide in Starn-
berg lake, the individual who fell heir
to his position is also deformed in mind.
Although Ludwig was bad enough, his
brother and successor, Otto l., is much
worse. Ludwig was not so insane but
that he had frequent lucid intervals, but
Otto is apparently without reason at all
times. As an evidence of his cond ton,
we are informed that he is continually
under the restraint of appointed keep
ers, and is allowed to appear in public
only upon special occasions.
But lunacy in royal families is no
novelty, as all readers of history are
aware Kings are just as liable to be-
come insane as are peasants, and dis
ease of the mind will faint the blue
blood Of monarchs as readily as the
more sluggish stream that courses
through the veins of the serf in his hoy
ell. In the royal family OF Russia this
fact has been signally exemplifed.
Alexander LII. is not the first of his
race whose mind has become clouded
by hallucinations. Indeed, short re-
search will develop the fact that over
one-half of the present Cars predeces-
sors have been either lunatics or mon
sters, and in numerous cases, both.
Among the early Muscovite rulers
was Ivan the Cruel, who bore prom
inent part in the history of Europe in
the sixteenth century. He did much
for his country in the advancement of
art and commerce, as well as for its ex-
tension by force of arms. He it was
that concluded the advantageous treaty
with Queen Elizabeth, after the dis
covery by the English of the northeast
passage to Archangel. But at length
his mind fell into a morbid, suspicious
condition, and for quarter of CEN
fury he was a misery to himself and a
terror to those surrounding him.
The least movement OF a
servant or courtier was, in
his distorted vision, an attempt upon his
life, and his suspicious were always re-
lieved by the death of the supposed of
fender. At one time he labored under
the idea that the people of Novgorod
had entered into plot to deliver their
city and the surrounding country to the
King of Poland AS punishment for
this imaginary offense he issued ukase
that condemned to death sixty thousand
inhabitants of the unfortunate city.
From the advices received concerning
the condition of the present Gar one
would infer that in his suspicious he
somewhat resembles his remote ances-
tor, Ivan the Cruel.
In the seventeenth century we find
that the strain of mental deformity in
the family of the Cars had become so
strong that of the four sons OF Alexis.
only Peter, afterward called the Great,
was of sound mind. And even the hui
mainly of the latter could not wholly
atone for his numerous acts of cruelty.
He was unforgiying to such degree
that he ordered the execution OF his own
son, Alexei, and punished with implaca-
BILE fury all who had been implicated in
the reasonable plots of the young
Prince. His life. too, it is stated. was
brought to miserable end by habitual
dissipation and excuses.
Catherine H., the last of the four
rulers in the female line. while not an
lmbecile, was so weak-mnded that she
gave up the entire control of the Rus
sian Government to her scheming favor
lite, Gregory Potemkin. Her son Paul,
who assembled the throne in 1876, was
always weak in intellect, and after
re gning five years became so deranged
that his subjects strangled him in order
to get rid OF him. Alexander l., who
was crowned after the assassination of
his father, was of such a humane and
benevolent disposition that he was
styled ''the Northern Telemague," but,
according to Theirs, even in him were
found traces of hereditary insanity.
His brother Constantine was afterward
excluded from the throne on account OF
predisposition to insanity.
The cause of the tendency OF the Cars
toward infirmity of mind is not readily
discovered. Whether it is produced by
sense of the dangers with which they
are at all times encompassed through
plots and intrioues, or whether it is the
result of unlimited authority, is uncer-
tain, 1t is a cur Gus fact. however.
that the same faint may be found in the