The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-12-02

years?
, Calumny the first: The emperor and
all the imperial family are in perpetual
dread of assassination. They are prac-
ticaIly prisoners in the Winter palace,
and trenches with dynamite have been
found dug around the Winter palace
They dare not venture forth, except
preceded and followed and surrounded
by most elaborate military guard My
answer to this is that l never saw a
face more free from worriment than the
emperur's face. The Winter palace,
around which the trenches are said to
have been charged witfdynamite and
in which the imperial family are said
to be prisoners, has never been the resi-
deuce of the imperial family one moment
since the present emperor has been on
the throne That Winter palace has
been changed into 4 museum and a
picture gallery and a palace OF great
levees He spends his summer in the
palace at Peterhof, fifteen or twenty
miles from St Petersburg; his au-
tumns at the palace at Gatschina,
and his winters in palace at
St Petersburg, but in quite a diff
ferent part of the city to that occupied
by the Winter palace. He rides through
the streets unattended, except by the
empress at his side and the driver on
the box. There is not a person in this
audience more free from fear of harm
than he is His subjects not only adj
mire 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
father of the present emperor Yes,
but in the time that Russia has had
one assassination of emperor. America
has had two presidents assassinated.
But is not the emperor an autocrat?
By which you mean, has he not power
without restriction? Yes, but it all de-
ponds upon what use 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 Cypress,
and from the time OF Peter the Great
all time, the emperor who became in
cognito a ship carpenter that he
might help ship carpenters, and a
mechanic that he might help me-
chanics, and put on poor mems garb
that he might sympathize with poor
men, and who in his last words said:
MY Lord. am dying, o, help my un-
belief" say from that time the throne
OF Russia has, for the most part, been
occupied by rulers as benehcent and
kind aud sympathetic as they were
powerful To go no further back than
Nicholas, the grandfather of the pres
ent emperor; Nicholas had for the
dominant idea of his administration the
emancipation of the serfs. When 1t
was found that he premeditated the
freedom Of the serfs, he received the
following letter of threat from depu-
tation of noblemen: Your Imperial
Majesty: We learn that the council
and senate OF the empire have before
them for elaboration. with your sane
ton. the plan to abolish serfdom
throughout the Russian empire. We
are perfectly willing to abide by your
majesty's decision in this matter and to
Loyalty support your will, but there
are in Russia 4 large number OF small
owners of serfs, who are dependent for
actual subsistence on the labor of those
serfs and who consequently will be left
wholly penniless and without any re
source by the operation of emancipa-
ton They will then undoubted-
" resort TO desperate measures,
and. in the extremity of their
despair, viii put the life of your males
II in jeopardy" The emperor replied
in words that Will last as long as his
tory: Gentlemen. if l should die be-
cause of nv devotion to such q cause,
am willing to meet my fate" When,
under an attack of pneumonia from ex
posure to severe weather in the service
OF his people, that emperor put down
his head on the pillow of dust, Russia
lost as good a monarch as was ever
crowned Then came Alexander IL
the father of the present emperor.
Amid the mightiest opposition and in
uumerabI protests, he. with one stroke
of his pen. emancipated 1000, 600 serfs.
practically saying: 60 free. Be youl
own masters, and this is for you and
your children forever" On the
day he was basely assassinate6
/ he had on his table, found
| afterward. free constitution
that proposed to give the right OF suf
frage 10 the people Of Russia. If it had
not been for the assassination ne would
have soon signed that constitution, but
that horrible violence put things back,
as violence always does. What Z mar
velous character of kindness was Alex,
ander the Second, the father of the
present emperor. 50 that the present
/ emperor. Alexander the Third, inherit:
his beniCuity. Alexander the Second
hearing that a nObleman had formed {
! conspiracy against his life, had him ar
rested Then the eyes of the crimina
were bandaged and he was put in Z
carriage and for some time Travelled on,
only stopping for food After awhile
| the bandage was removed, and suppOs-
ing that he must by that time have
been in Siberia, found that he was a.
| the door OF his own home But this
punishment was sufficient
Calumny the second: II you go &c
Russia you are under severest espion-
age, stopped here and questioned there
and in danger of arrest But nv opin,
| ion is that If q man is disturbed in
/ Russia it IS because he ought TO be dis
turbed Russia is the only country il
Europe in which my baggage was not
together with = cord SO that their titles
could be seen, a pile Of eight or ten
books, all of them from lid 70 lid ours
| ing Russia, but had no trouble in tax
| ing with me the books There is ter