Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-12-31
PICTURE OF THE CAR.
AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE LIFE
WHICH HE LEADS.

How the Autocrat is Obliged to Travel.
A Monarch with Many Flatterers but
Terror.
Nv friend the messenger was on his way
to st, Petersburg in the autumn OF last
year, when his train stopped at small
Russian way station and was shunted OIL
upon a side track The station yard was
filed with soldiers, filing oil into lines
along the main track
The messenger let down bis window and
put out his head to discover the cause of the
delay. A soldier said something to him in
Russian, then pointed his gun at his head.
A travelling companion pulled the messen-
GER back, saying: You don't understand
Russian. eh2 That man told you that if you
didn't shut the window and pull down the
curtain he would blow your brains out. "
Naturally tho window came up and tho
curtain came down. They sat thus In the
darkened compartment for quarter Of an
hour. Then, with a prodigious rattle and
roar, there flashed by them on the main
track a short express train. Twenty min
utes more another rushed past in the same
QlTpSIlOn. lHtil, dlltI rpisio eAiS
soldier shouted to them that they might lift
the blind, and they resumed their journey.
Inquiry revealed that the czar had passed
them on his way to the Skierniwice meet
ing. and that these precautions were ordered
all along the line. No one knew which OF
the trains bore him.
A PICTURE OF THE CZAR.
The car himself seems to have many fiat
tsrers. but no friends. | have talked, ]
daresay, at one time or another, with a
score of people who have met him and are
fairly qualified TO judge what manner Of
man be is. Almost invariably be is de
scribed as a big. burly, bearish sort Of man,
strangely unlike any Of his more recent
ancestors on either side, and with a face OF
. curious Teuton-Tsrtar type, picturesque
but unpleasant He has vast physical
strength, Of the blacksmith sort, and has
tho kind of mind which not infrequently
goes with that order Of body-slow, honest,
obstinate, conflding where faith Is reposed,
SUSPICIOUS everywhere else. In q way
George III must have been Of the same
nature. Ho was, with Louis XVI, ratheI
ooutsmptuously celebrated by his contem
porary critics as one Of the two faithful
husbands among the sovereigns OF Europa
Good husbands seem 20 make bad kings,
The present car is said 10 be most de
voted and single minded spouse-the frs
Of his race He is par excellence family
man, to whom the highest happiness would
be the homo circle, if he were allowed tc
have q home. His tastes are simple; h.
eats plainly and heavily; before the burder
Of empire came upon him he used TO be I
great sleeper, a mighty hunter, bluff
friend of the few he liked, a hnter Of for
malities, diplomacy, and politics generally
in short, a good, wholesome, rough plebe
ian prince, stupid and choleric but homes
and true Pate never played on mortal I
crueler trick than when she suddenl!
| hurled upon this man the load Of czarship
| To be absolute master Of over 100, OOO, W'
Of human beings is in itself task OF incon
ceivabls magnitude. When, further, tn
task is complicated by organized robber!
among officials and organized murde
among subjects, by continual necessity o
provoking war by aggression abroad an'
ceaseless terror of assassination at home
/ IL becomes simply impossible