The Indianapolis journal., 1889-07-16
A ROMANOFF AN AUTHOR.


The First Writer In the Cars Famiiy-Pres-
ident Of the Academy of Sciences.
st. Petersburg Letter in New York Sun.
His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke
Constantine Constantinovitch, cousin to
the Czar of all the Russias, has just issued
book of his own poems, entitled New
Verses This is an extraordinary fact, for
never before has member of the imperial
family INDUCED in literature, and. indeed,
hatred of letters was rather traditional in
the Romanoff family. And now the Cars
own cousin goes to print; he thinks aloud.
like any common mortal, and what is still
more significant, he has not only not been
punished for such base and dangerous
venture, but, on the contrary, has been re-
warded by the Car. He has been ap-
pointed president of the Academy of
Sciences in this city, which post became
vacant on the death of Count Dmitri Toll
stoi, late Minister of the Interior. There
are many grand dukes in the imperial fam
lily, but when the question came up of fill
ing the first post in the most learned insti-
tuition in Russia the Czar showed prefer
ence for the only literary grand duke of
the family. Who can then deny that one
of the most baneful traditions of the Ro-
manOffs IS done away withi And if the lit
erary grand duke succeeds in making the
Gar and the press friends, the results may
be most eventful. both for the country at
large and for the imperial family.
Constantine Constantinovitch Is the son
of the Grand Duke Constantine, uncle of
the Gar and ex-Admiral-general of the
navy. He was born on Aug. 10, 1858. and
therefore he is now about thirty-one
nj fan m f1na
married charming Elizabeth. Princess of
Saxe-Altenburg, and it may be suspected
that his bride was also his muse, for since
that time in different Russian periodicals
poems, modestly signed by &C. r." the
initials of Constantine Romanoff.n The
poems of the imperial poet naturally met
with very favorable criticism. and soon
everybody knew who &C. X" was Re-
Gently. the Novoe Vremya. of this city,
speaking of the appointment of the Grand
Duke Constantine to the presidency of the
Academy, openly declared that the Grand
Duke was literary man not of mean
standard, and that he contributed also to
pnodupptpons 1aas papss C alwfys m0deSty signing his
Constantine ROmanoff sings of pure love,
various virtues. and nature. 1t is most
unjust thing to the poet to translate his
poems into prose. still venture to so trans
late here one poem. which is very charac-
teristic of the imperial poet. The poem is
dedicated to Ivan Gontcharoff, who is Just
ly rated as being second only to Turgeneff.
The poet addressed him as follows:
with Gs sory RRs uesR
singer takes the liberty of approaching
thee. Thou lookst at him without anger.
being not proud with thy grandeur And
more than once thou listed to the airs of
the shy singer. And when the songs were
over, thou kindly taught him, disclosing
to him the eternal secrets and traditions OF
the art And now he meekly requests OF
thee one thing-kindly accept his heartfelt
gratitude
1851" 1t appears. then, that the Car and
the poet are living occasionally under the
same roof. And it would be, indeed, a
great thingif Constantine Romanoff should
become an efficient intermediary between