The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-11-08
few days before his death claimed him
him from all his greatness

few days before his death claimed MN
him from all his greatness.
At 2:15 P. NJ. yesterday the sum-
mons came, and few hours later the
thunderous booming of cannon at Liva-
dia and st. Petersburg announced that
the Gar was dead and that he who had
been the Grand Duke Nicholas reigned
in his stead. On lightning wings the
news of Russia's loss spread throughout
the world. and it is safe to say that
everywhere the intelligence created SYM
pathy for the family of him who by his
policy had maintained the friendship of
the Great Republic of the West, and
from America came words of sympathy,
for the dead ruler had always been a
friend of the Great Republic of the West
and Americans had not forgotten how
well his fathers friendship sustained
the North in the war of the rebellion.
Among the peasants of Russia he will
be mourned with deep and abiding
sorrow, for was he not the peasant
Carr" None of the grandiloquent titles
borne by him was priced as much by
him as the one bestowed upon him by
his lowly subjects, whose virtues were
magnitied in him, and whose vices in
him were entirely lacking. He who de-
MES the popularity of the Gar among
the lowly classes of Russia is blinded by
prejudice. His kind acts to them in
their seasons of plague and famine will
never be forgotten, and tonight in thou
sands and thousands of homes from Via
livestock on the Pacific to the fortresses
of the Caucasus millions of people, as
they kneel before their icons, will pray
from the bottom of their hearts for the
repose of the soul of their little father"
He was to them as great in soul as he
was in stature.
There will be sincere mourning, too,
in the royal and imperial families of
Europe. Not the conventional mourn
ing prescribed by rule, but the mourning
of little children; for who has not heard
of the annual visits of the Gar to Co.
penhagen, the home of his beloved Ca
rina, when, with the children of En-
perors, Kings and Princes around him,
he was the biggest child of them all,
joining IN their sports and romping with
them like big boy?
His death will be most bitter loss to
the wife he loved so well that it was a
proverb in st. Petersburg that he was
the only Russian who was true to his
Wife," His home was an ideal one, and
all his pleasure was found with his own
family. But as the Gear and not the
man he could be as stern and unrelent-
less as fate itself. He banished men and
women to Siberia, but they were men
and women who sought to kill or to
overthrow the government of which he
was the absolute head, and which he by
the most solemn oaths in the great city
of Russia, Moscow, had sworn to main
tain in its integrity.
Since Tuesday, when the doctors in
formed the Gar there was no longer
room for hope, his Majesty composedly
waited for the end, attending to the nee
essary State and family affairs in the short
intervals of consciousness and freedom
from pain. These were necessarily brief,
the doctors having had recourse to soda
tives to produce sleep and allay pain
Wednesday the Gar was still able to be
taken to window of the palace, whence
he gaZed out upon the country he loved
The night passed with all the aggravat.
ing symptoms and dry cough. DR.. Sar-
chariin remained in attendance upon
him throughout the night, only snatch
ing brief intervals for sleep in the ante
rooms.
The morning broke with rain and wind
and heavy clouds, and the weather was
much colder. As the day advanced the
weakness increased SO rapidly that the
Gar realized that he could only live q
few hours. He expressed desire to re.
ceive the sacrament, which was admin
istered to him by the court chaplain
Yanisheff, and Father Ivan in the pres
ence of the whole family. The Czal
then conversed long and earnestly with
Father Ivan, concluding by asking his
family to again gather around him. He
spoke to each member separately and in
greatest length with the Czarina. He
blessed all the children present. The
scene was one of deep pathos, all being