Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-11-07
LIFE OF THE DEAD RULER.
His Gigantic Strength and Cruel DISPOSE
tiou-His Marriage.

hcu-fAls lhaFFAaSes
The Emperor Alexander Ill, who was
born in 1915, was never expected to
reign, but was intended to lead the life
of a soldier 1t was upon his brother
Nicholas. the Czarevitch. that all the
best training was lavished. 1t was he
who. as the eldest son, was supposed to be
destined to ascend the throne and rule
automatically 100.000.000 unhappy Rus
slams But this eldest son, tended like
a dollhouse plant. was overeducated, over
forced, and died of physical and nervous
exhaustion in the flower of his early man
hood. Alexander. who had always been
regarded as the fool of the family. now
became the heir to the throne. He was
a suriy young giant. Opinions he was
believed to have none. If he possessed
any he at least kept them pretty much
and Alexis he was the performer of fabu-
louS feats at the supper table. He was
a splendid wrestler, extremely powerful,
who could drink more champagne than
any of his brothers, and who took pleasure
in initiating the tricks with which his
tory has credited Peter the Great. Thus
he used to crush horseshoes in the hollow
of his hand. roll silver rubles into tubes
between his thumb and finger. and used
to sally forth with his brothers to dis
reputable drinking places at night, IN
strict incOgnito, and thrash the assem-
the sails of windmill in full motion.
as Peter is reported to have dore, is not
on record. He had been brought up in
strict belief in the orthodox Greek church,
and, while his rather was a free-thinker
and believed in little else than pleasure,
the younger Alexander swallowed whole
the superstitions of his national ByZan-
tine faith, and made of his religious pre-
ceptor, PobedOnostzeff, his friend and con-
fidant, almost the keeper of his con-
science.
For the rest, he cared little for books
and less for art, but he delighted in the
details of militarism, and, being big and
strong, was on the whole harmless and
even gentle, though surly and Self-cOn-
tanned.
Welded to a Princess.
1t was this giant, living in intellectual
darkness, who, fresh from the wine cellars
of St Petersburg, was thrown into the
arms of the beautiful Dagmar of Den
mark This princess had been bethrothed
to the heir apparent to the Russian
throne What did it matter that Nicho-
las was dead? There was still an heir
apparent! Her parents were poor and
anxious for good matches for their daugh-
tiers; besides there were high political rea-
sons. Her sister had married the Prince
of Wales. Russia and England would
thus become related. The evermeddling
Queen Victoria was suspected to have n
IN,
the best part of which had just been swal-
lowed up by Prussia, wanted powerful
friends In short, the beauty and the beast
were united, the beautiful Dagmar to
the repulsive and dissipated Alexander.
That repusive giant developed into what
is called a good husband. But not sud-
denly. Scandal had to pave the way
At first Alexander neglected his wife,
who was too beautiful and delicate a
flower for him to appreciate. But his
fathers attentions to her and the stories
which these attentions called into being
made him madly Jealous. He satisfied
himself that these were SANDERS, but he
began to see that the flower he was neg
lecting was beautiful and sweet. The
Empress Dagmar certainly had as little
brains as her husband. She was frivolous.
and, having been brought up in great pov
erty, was naturally very eXtrava gaat
Sic loved dresses and vanities and eS1e~
cially dancing. If her husband was SUI
len and taciturn, sort of Saul. she was
a kind of female David, full of life ana
animation, and he grew TO love her
Alexander III. had few opinions aud la
tie learning, but he had an ambitious ia
vorite in the person of his old tuto-. 20
bedOnoStzeff This man was very nearly
a genius--an evil genus, perhaps, but
still a genius He saw that Russia WAS
drifting toward republicaniSm. 1t was
then the fashion to be either liberal and
western" or to talk of a revival Of tbs
old Republic of Novgorod under the
form of a confederation of all Slayonie
countries.
Takes the Throne.
a clever journalist saw how to turn
this latter movement to account. He ar
gued that the autOcracy was a purely
national institution, and that the con-
federation of SlavOnic nations should be
consummated under Gar. This man
was Karkoff He won over Pobedonost-
Jeff, and he succeeded in inducing the
czarevitch to put himself at the head Of
this national party. The czareyitch hat
ed his father The stories about Dagmar
and the treatment he had received as
the fool of the family were sufficient for