Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-08-03
COLllDlNG WITH KINGS.
One Of David Ker's Queer Experiences In
81. Petersburg.

81. Petersburg.
special Correspondence
NEW YORK. Aug. l.--At the time when
the great Russian statesman Nikolai
Alexeievitch Milutine (the chief agent
in bringing about the serf emancipation
of 1861, was first attacked by the disease
which proved fatal to him some years
later. his official residence at st. Peters
burg was thronged for several days to-
gether by native grandces of every class
all eager to learn which way the chances
of life and death were likely to turn in
the case of man whom many of them
loved and more of them feared, and
whose vacant place not few among
them would have been very glad to fill
II was at this time that l. happening to
be staying in the house, met with an ad-
venture that would have made an ad-
mirable "stage situation" for one OF the
comedies of Scribe or Dumas the younger
Running briskly down stairs one morn
ing to start out for my early walk, en-
countered man who was coming up so
hurriedly that before could stop my self
we ran right into each other The stran-
ger-a man Of middle age. whose broad,
heavy, rather sullen face was framed in
a pair of long grayish brown side whisk-
crs-wore the uniform of Russian naval
officer, but the increasing corpulence of
his short, thick set figure and the dull,
shortsighted look of his large gray eyes
lin one of which was stuck gold rim
med eyeglass) were anything but sailor
like.
AS we clashed together he growled out
something that sounded not at all like
blessing, but l flew past before he could
finish and reached the foot of the stairs
just in time to collide with another man,
younger and taller than the last, whose
thick cavalry mustacho and firm, hand,
some, sun Drowned face harmonized
well with his dress-the olive green uni.
form and Glittering gold lace of Rus
sian general.
! was just beginning to apologize,
when he caught me by the arm and said,
in tone of undisguised anxiety:
"Do you know how Nikolai Alexeie-
witch nicholas the son of Alexis) is this
morning."
"a little better" answered l, and
passed on.
l arrived at the front door just at the
right moment for a third collision with
another visitor who was just entering
tall, stately, very handsome man in
the gorgeous uniform of the Russian i'm
perial guard, with troubled, weary
look in his large, lustrous eyes, and a
visible tinge of gray in his short, dark
brown hair.
apologized for the accident, but he
was apparently in such hurry to pass
in that he hardly noticed me- But had
noticed him sufficiently to remark the
close resemblance of his face to por-
trait familiar to all Russia, and began
to have dismal suspicion that my hav-
ing bumped against him in this way was
neither more nor less than high treason!
This suspicion was changed to certainty
on my return from my walk, when NJ.
Milutine's son and heir, Yury (George),
sharp, little 10-year-old (who has since
had some strange adventures in Central
Asia, told me, as well as he could speak
for laughing that the three men whom
l had jostled so unceremoniously were
the cars eldest brother, the Grand Duke
Constantine Qord high admiral of Rus
sia), his second brother, the Grand Duke
Nicholas, commander-in in-chief of the
Russian army, and-last, but certainly
not least-the car himself
A few years later, was telling this
story to some friends in England, when