The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-11-22

waters, there can be no doubt that two
/ of the mightiest nations CT Europe
would have mingled in our fight. But
| for those two fleets the American gov
eminent would have been today only a
name in history. l declare before God
and the nation that l believe Russia
| saved the United States of America
! Last July L stood before a great throng
| of Russians in the embarrassing position
of speaking to an audience three-fourths
| of which could not understand my Ian
/ guage any more than could understand
theirs. But there were two names that
they thoroughly understood as we'll as
| you understand them, and the utterance
of those two names brought forth an ac-
clamation that made the city hall of st.
[ Petersburg quake from foundation stone
| to tower, and those two names were
| George Washington" and Abraham
| Lincoln"
! Now is it not important that we should
| feel right toward thar mighty, that God
( given friend of more than one hundred
| years? Yea, because it is a nation Of
more possibilities than any other except
| our own should we cultivate its friend
ship. There is a vast realm of Russia as
| yet unoccupied. If tie population OF the
rest of Europe We're poured into Russia
it would be only partially occupied.
! After awhile America will be So well
| populated that the tides of emigration
will go the other way and by railroads
from Russia at Behring straits-where
Asia comes within thirty-six miles OF
| joining America-mlllious of people will
pour down through Russia and Siberia
and on down through all the regions
waiting for the civilization of the next
century to come aud culture great har-
vests and build mighty cities. What the
United States now are on the western
hemisphere Russia will be OH the east
ern hemisphere. Not only because of
what Russia has been TO our republic,
but because of what she will be, let Us
cease the defamation of al that pertains
20 that great empire. If Russia can af,
ford 70 be the friend of America, Amer
ica can afford to be the friend of Russia
And now 1 proceed to do what told the
emperorand the empress, aud all the iu-
perial family at the palace of the Peter
Lof l would do if l ever got back Il
America, and that is to answer some of
the calumuies which have been an
nounced and reiterated and stereotyped
against Russia.
Calumny the First-The emperor and
all the imperial family are in perpetual
dread of assassination. They are prac-
tically prisoners i'll the winter palace.
and trenches with dynamite have been
found dug around the winter palace
They dare not venture forth except pre-
coded and followed aud surrounded by -
most elaborate military guard.
My answer to this is that l never saw
a face more free from worriment than
the emperors face. The winter palace
around which the trenches are said t.
have been charged with dynamite, and
in which the imperial family are said TO
be prisoners. has never been the resi-
dence of the imperial family one moment
since the present emperor has been on
the throne. That winter palace has been
changed into a museum and a picture
gallery and place of great levees. He
spends his summer in the palace at Peter
hOf. fifteen or twenty miles from St.
Petersburg, his autumns at the palace at
Gratschna and his winters in palace
at st. Petersburg, but in quite different
part of the city to that occupied by the
winter palace. He rides through the
streets unattended. except by the EN-
press at his side and the driver on the
box. There is not = person IL this audi
ence more free from fear Of harm than
he IS. His subjects not only admire him.
but almost worship him.
There are cranks in Russia but have
we not had our Charles Guiteau and
john Wilkes Booth: But" says some
one, did not the Russians kill the IA
Their OF the present emperor" Yes. but
i'll the time that Russia has had one as
sassination of emperor America has
had two presidents assassinated. But
is not the emperor an aucocrat?' By
which you mean, has be not power
without restriction? Yes, but it all de-
ponds upon what use a man makes of
his power. Are you an autocrat in your
factory, or an autocrat in your store, or
an autocrat in your style of business:
1t all depends on what use you make Of
your power, whether to bless or to or
press, and from the time of Peter the
Great-that Russian who was the Won
der of all time, the emperor who became
incognitO a ship carpenter that he might
help ship carpenters, and a mechanic
that he might help mechanics, and put
on poor mems garb that he might sym
pathize with poor men, and who i'll his
last words said: My Lord, am dying
Oh, help my unbeliefT'-I say. from that
time the throne of Russia has, for the
most part, been occupied by rulers as
beneficent and kind and sympathetic as
they were powerful.
To go no further back than Nicholas,
the grandfather of the lreSent ernDe1.cl-
Nicholas had for the dominant idea of
his administration the emancipation of
the serfs. When it was found that he
premeditated the freedom of the serfs
he received the following letter of threat
from deputation of noblemen: Your
Imperial Majesty-We learn that the
council and senate OF the empire have
before them for elaboration, with your