Birmingham age-herald., 1894-11-02
Biography of a Man Who Prosecuted His Fellow
 Beings.
How the News Was Received in All the Cities of
 Europe.

MALTA, NOV. line czar was lolu on Tuesday that he could live only few days more. He listened composedly. During the rest of the day he passed most of his time in disposing of his personal and fam- fly affairs. Then he calmly awaited the end, with his consciousness broken only occasionally with short periods of coma. \ Yesterday morning he looked for the last time from the windows of the palace. He was long silent, then he said it was pleasant to feel that he could pass his last hour on Russian soil. Last night he had no sleep. He was racked by violent coughing and hemorrhage. His heart grew so weak that it often seemed to have stopped beating. This dis dressing symptom became accentuated at 10 o'clock this morning, but shortly after ward the czar rallied slightly. He was fully conscious. He wished the sacrament to be given him in the presence of the fam fly and he received the viaticum with grate- full fervor.
 An hour and half later he was seized with violent spasms. It seemed the end had come, but he rallied again and at 12:30 he appeared to be free from pain, even comforta ble. But the weakening heart beats and breathing told his physicians that the end was coming fast. He was conscious almost 10 the last moment. At 2:1b his eyes closed slowly and he ceased breathing.
 The body will be embalmed in Livadia tonight, and will be exposed in the palace chapel for day or two. Several state off l. cials left St. Petersburg for Livadia this evening.
 opr6i fo ba ion lot to made tonight, the body will be conveyed aboard the imperial yacht Polar Star to Odessa. It will be escorted by the whole Black sea fleet, which has orders to assem- ble at once off Yalta. From Odessa the body will be taken on special train to St. Petersburg and will be placed in the cathe- dral of St. Peter and Paul. The final cere- monies will be held probably in about two weeks.
 It is understood that Czar Nicholas II will be proclaimed tomorrow, that the Grand Duke George, Alexander III's second son, now ill in the Caucasus, will be declared the heir, and that the troops and state officials will take the oath of loyalty and allegiance on Saturday. State mourning IS expected to begin on Saturday.
 OBITUARY OF THE CAR.
 Alexander III, emperor of all the Rus- eias, who succeeded to the throne on the murder of his father by nihilist conspra- tors on March 13, 1881, was born March 10, 1845. For some time after his elevation to the throne he seldom appeared in public, but lived in the closest retirement at Cat china, being in constant dread of the machinations of the secret societies of so- cialists. His coronation took place at Mos COW on May 27, 1883. He married in 1866 Mary Feodorovipa, formerly Mary Sophia Frederick Dagmar, daughter of Christian TX, king of Denmark, and sister of the princess of Wales and the king of Greece.
 The principal concern of the czar was to put down nihilism, to develop the military purpose of Russia, to organize her Asiatic and Caucasian provinces and to keep steady eye upon Constantinople.
 From the beginning of his reign periodi- cal attempts upon his life were made by the nihilists. Twice officers in his own army tried to shoot him. In 1888 he and his family narrowly escaped death in a railway accident near Borkie. The train was thrown from the track and many passen- gers were killed, but the imperial party were hardly injured. The derailing of the train was supposed to the work of nihil- ists. Last spring plot was formed in Finland to blow up the castle which the czar was expected to occupy during the fall maneuvers around Smolensk. The police are still busy hunting down the conspira tors.
 The czar was deeply religious. He was under the in f1uence of such bigots as Pob- odonoszeff, attorney general of the holy synod, and his group, and persecuted the Jews, Catholics and German Lutherans in Russia with out cessation or mercy. He in- herited with his minister of foreign affairs, Prince Gortchakoff, strong prejudice by the agitation of the Panslavist war party in his capital. Nevertheless he held fast to a peace policy.
 Last year he reached an understanding with France during the visit of the Russian fleet at Toulon, and ever since kussia aud