The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-10-23
ADVISING THE CAR
He Is One Of the Hardest Worke d
Men in the Whole World.
Lies Told by His Advisers-Headed by
Pobiedonostsen. They Keep Him from
Knowing the World and the World
from Knowing Him.
rCoPYRIGHT. Is941

such bad fellow after all. But during
the whole of his imperial career, which
began in 1881, when his fathers life
was taken by the bomb of the nihilistS,
the present ruler of the strange and
vast empire that extends over so large a
portion of both the greatest and the
smallest continent, an invisible but
none the less impossible barrier has
been maintained between him and the
public.
BY reason of this barrier all accurate
knowledge of Alexander the man has
been concealed, even as ali precise in
formation concerning his empire and
the world at large has been kept hid
den from him. Absolute though his
power is. and in spite of the fact that
it needs but the lifting of finger or
the speaking of a word on his part to
condemn any Russian to instant death,
TO lifelong imprisonment or to Danish
ment to the mines of Siberia, he has
never been able toput himself in direct
communication with the mass of his
! own people or to obtain knowledge of
their true condition. There is plenty
1 of evidence to show that this is not as
/ he has desired it; that he has been anx-
/ ious, ever since his reign began. to I'M
/ derstand the circumstances and the
! conditions under which his people live,
/ to study their lives, and to do away
with those causes that have made for
| the terrible discomfort which has been
! felt toward his government and which
even he could not be prevented from
discerning.
Soabsolute monarch ae the car Of
Russia must, in the nature of things,
be a person in whose life and habits
and doings the world at large would
take much interest. His constant
danger from the fury of his down
trodden subjects has added immensely
to that interest. There has not been
a day, probably, since his accession,
that plans were not in progress for his
taking off. There certainly has been
no day, since that on which the father
was killed, when the world at large
would have been surprised by the news
that like CORY fate had befallen the
son. Now that it is known the world
over that a more relentless enemy than
the nihilist has marked him down,
that disease, whose progress may
possibly be stayed little but cannot
be stopped, has fastened upon him, he
is of even greater interest than ever
before, and more than ever the title
unfortunate potentate" is now an ap-
propriate one for him who sits on
Russia imperial throne.
OF Alexander's surprising physical
strength the world has often been told.
His ability to bsud and twist a silver
coin between his thumb and fingers,
his prowess as wrestler, his endur-
ance at and delight in severe physical
tasks, all these have been exploited.
But few are aware that the car, ever
since he has been a car, has been a
tireless and unremitting worker at the
desk. Yet this is true, and his determi
nation, formed very shortly after the
death of his father, to master the de-
tails of his imperial LOB" is supposed
to have been the leading cause that has
made his life as one has said rather
that of a pope than of secular mon
arch"
OF course his most important duties
have been the reading of great num-
bers of reports, ukases and other docu-
mentS, which in order to be effective
must receive the imperial autograph.
Unlike some monarchs of lesser power,
Alexander has always aimed to peruse
every one of these papers from begin
ming to end, in the hope that in that
way he would be able to arrive at
the real truth concerning everything
appeI tanning to his government. Often
when dissatisfied he has declined to afhx
his signature, and, whether signing or
not, it has been his custom to make
notes indicative of his views upon the
matters treated by the documents,
upon their margins, always left waio
to give his hand full swing.
Some of the comments of the car.
all of which have been carefully pre-
served by covering the portion the i'm
perial hand has written upon with a
kind OF glaze, nave been very rorclbIe
and not always very refined. The
phrase: They are set of hogs is
said to be the one that occurs more
frequently than any other among his
notes. Another is: "What beast he
is" Reports of fires, of crop failures, of
famines, epidemics and other disorders
are almost invariably labeled: Dis
couraging," and once. when he thought
he discovered in the wording of docu-
ment presented to him some evidence
that his advisers had intended to hood
wink him. he is said 70 have written
on the margin of the paper: THE
council thought to trick me, but they
shap't." !
1t is stated by some who claim to |
know muck of the car that the notion
here put forth that he is kept in ignor- |
ance Of the real situation in Russia is !
not a correct one, but the burden Of |
proof is the other way. His advisers |
came 70 understand him soon after his |
accession as a man of no great mental |
caliber. as one who meant we'll. but |
who was prone to devote his time 10 |
petty pottering over minor details |
one who might make a mountain out |
of nolehill, but never see the real |
at all; who might discover 4
some slight discrepancy or wrong that I
a more able man might miss altogether, |
but one who would allow. the grossest /
20 pass unnoticed- Ac- |
co-dingly. all through his life he has
been led to believe that nine-tenths of |
all the criticisms that have been di- 4
rected against him and his government /
have been Infamous lies, that the mum
Der Of dissatisfied people in Russia has
been so small as TO be hardly worth /