The morning call., 1894-11-21
THE BURIAL OF The EMPEROR.

The accounts of the entombment of the
| Car in yesterdays CALL are marvellous as
| a picturesque piece of journalism, and
| equally striking as an illustration of the
| reverental temper OF good people in Eu-
rope in presence of the dead. The compo-
| site picture painted by reporters at st.
| Petersburg. Paris and Berlin enables the
| reader to see the scene as clearly as if he
| had been in all three places, and reduces
the function of the future historian to that
of a mere cOpyisi. Modern journalism
has rarely achieved more memora BILE feat.
When the coffin arrived at st. Peters
burg tor the ceremonial at the Kremlin
at Moscow, week ago, the imposing cere-
monies began. While a chorus of boy
voices sang a dirge, with minute guns at
intervals, the massive coffin was taken
from the train and placed in a hearse,
which was drawn by eight horses and sur
rounded by sixty pages in black 1t was
followed by the new Gear, the Prince Of
Wales. the King of Greece and the Rus
sian Grand Dukes. all on foot. Behind
them came in carriages the Dowager Gar
ina. Princess Alix of Hesse and the Grand
Duchesses. On arriving at the church the
C. ftln was placed on the catafalQue, with
the feet toward the altar, and the impress
siye Slavonic service for the dead was per-
formed in presence of the imperial family
kneeling on one side and on the other the
clergy in rich vestmentS and miters, the
officers in snowy uniforms and the ladies
OF the houSeht Id IN black. The face of The
dead Car was exposed 10 view and mourn
ers were permitted to kiss his hand.
On Monday morning, in a dense fog,
crowds began to gather round the cathe-
dral at an early hour. At the signal ar
ranged-three cannon from the fortress
the Car, the members of his family, the
foreign En- bassadors, delegations from the
provinces and distinguished visitors were
received at The church door by the Metro
poltan and his clergy, all bearing crosses.
As the services began tapers were handed
round by the clergy, and at given signal
all were lighted. The church itself was
immersed in gloom; he effect of these
Pickering lights, seen through floating
clouds Of Incense, was most lugubrious,
and the effect was heightened by the
solemn chanting of the Greek requiem. A
mass was said; at It's close the Car, the
Grand Dukes and the most distinguished
generals bore the coffin to the mouth OF
the vault which was prepared fr i re-
ceprion. The weighty sarcophagus was
lifted by machinery and slowly lowered
into the vault. AS it disappeared from
view cannon doomed. platoons of infantry
fired volleys, the m0urDers burst out in
sobs. and TO signify that the living had
taken the place Of the dead The imperial
standard was run up to the top Of the flag
staff of the fortress.
Such ceremonies leave a permanent I'M
preston on the mind. Few II any of
those who witnessed the funeral of Lin
coin ever forgot it, and In that case the
sorrow of the mourners WAS not intens-
fed by the devices of arr. In Europe,
where display and pomp have been study
with artistic minds for centuries, an i'm
perial funeral is spectacle to be remem-
bered. The great ones of the earth suffer
as much in their bereavemPnts as the
common herd. We hear of the Dowager
CZarina crying piteousiy over her dead
husband, and cOnvulsively kissing his life
less hand until she was carried away from
the scene by her attendants, and res ed
her sOrrOwing head on the sympathetic
bosom of her sister, the Princess of Wales
And we hear of the young man who is
now Emperor hanging over the yawning
mouth of the mortuary vault to the very
last and watching the stone slabs being
screwed in place tc shut out the bocy of
his father from the abodes of man. This
is just what people do in the humblest
walks of life We all know, of course,
that kings and queens and emperors and
expresses are just men and women like
the rest of US. But somehow we form
conception of them as if they were beings
of higher order. whose instincts and feel
ings were peculiar to their rank. 1t is
only when death in his rounds from the
castle of the king to the cottage of the
peasant strikes down some towering figure
that we see there is no difference between
royal clay and the clay of other mortals,
and we all stand ON a uniform level.