The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-14

and proclaimed himself grand prince i'm
his place. The next year Doe was dcposed
and soon afterwards died Of poison. Ivan
III, about 1880 had one OF his brothers SO
heavily laden with chains as TO Kill him.
Ivan the Great had his own grandson put
INTO prisOne and murdered. His son, Nasili,
Imprisoned his own nephew and then had
MN murdered Ivan the Terrible. sus-
pccttng his eldest son of cOnspiriug
against him, slew him with his own hands.
ryan second son was murdered by one
of the followers OF the court. and this
put an end TO the line of Rurik.
The famous impostcr. known as Dimitri
v. was murdered and his young son was
also put TO death.
Catherine the First, widow of Peter the
Great, died prematurely from intoXica-
ton. The Czarina Anne, a niece of Peter
the Great, allowed the country TO be ruled
by one of her faVorites. vino banished
more than 21C90 persons TO Siberia and
tortured hundreds of Others to death.
Anne's successor. Ivan the Third. was de-
posed and imprisoned for the remainder
of his life. Elizabeth. the youngest dalgh-
ter OF Peter the Great, relgued twenty
years, and trusted the entire government
10 TWO OF her taVOritcs, and finally killed
herself by drinking brandy. She declared
her nephew Peter to be the heir TO the
throne, but brought him up i'm such ig-
norance and seclusion that he was entire
~ unit to reign He was married to a
strong-minded young princess, who ass
sumed imperial authority under the title
of Catherine the Second. Almost her first
act as empress was to send her wretChed
husband TO prison. He begged her to let
who greatly amused him, his pet dog, his
violin and his Bible This request She
refused with scorn and ridicule, and a few
days later sent Alexis Orl0m and some
other rutiians to put him to death. They
first gave him poison in glass of brandy
He, realizing that he had been poisoned
begged them to give him an antidOte and
let him live. Their answer was to seize
him and strangle him with a towel Two
other young princes were also murdered
by GATHERINGS orders.
still more horrible tragedy was tnaC
of the Princess Catherine, who was a
daughter of the Empress Elizabeth. She
had fled to Rome for safety, and was
living there The empress sent Alexis
OrlOm to make way with her. He made
love to her, won her affections and went
through a false form of marriage with
her. Thus he was able TO decOy her aboard
Russian vessel. AS soon as he had
done SO, with his own hands he put her
in chains and thus conveyed her back ia
/ Russia, where she was soon after muir
dered N prison. The whole reign OF the
! Empress Catherine was a succession OF
crimes and vices such as few monarchs
since Nero have been guilty of.
She was succeeded by her son, Paul the
| First, who in the beginning gave promise
of being humane ruler. He had the
remains Of his wretched father eXhumeC
and royal honors paid to them by the
side Of the body of Catherine, at the
latter's funeral. Before long, however, ht
began TO display symptoms of caprice anC
cruelty. Many of the mobiles of the court
We're murdered 10y. his. orders, and hnal5
! the others, in self-detense, cOnspired to-
| gether against him. They were not sat
| isfied with merely killing him. They cap
tured him in his own room in the palace
| and tortured him TO death In most de
/ liberate and horrible manner.
Pauls son and successor was Alexander
| the First an amiable Christian prince
| whose courtesy in war captivated Ma
.,Ta an no af,na f.rr al
/ of the British at the end Of the Napoleon
/ empire. He was, however, one Of the
! most miserable men in his dominiOns
| living in hourly dread of assassination
/ It was said that at his coronation ht
| walked in a procession preceded by tn,
! assassins of his father, followed by those
/ Of his grandfather and surrounded bS
] those who wished to be his own. His
! suspicious was directed towards those Wht
were in daily attendance upon him. Ere
/ quently he would turn suddenly rount
/ upon one or another and accuse him o.
| being an assassin. So haunted was n,
/ with the idea OF murder that he woulC
/ not sleep two nights consecutively II
! the same room, nor would he retire K
| rest until one of his attendants had frs
| lain down in his bed to prove that 1t die
not contain some instrument of deStruc
/ ton. His fears We're aroused by the dis
/ affection which had been caused by tht
/ establishment of military colonies, by
/ which the peasantry found their hut
4 turned into barracks and their time di
military drill. A peculiarly offensive
/ feature Of this system was that the mer
! were compelled to cut off their boards
/ The nObleman, by whom this scheme Wal
! suggested, was murdered by his owl
| servants, and the car was in dread o.
! sharing his fate. Alexander ultimately
! died a natural death, but the impression
was very strong at the time that he haC
/ been murdered, or, as a contemporary
writer said, had yielded to the ''hered
| itary complaint Of his family His sol
/ dread Of assassination. His successor
| Alexander H.. was known as the liberato
| of the serfs, but even that act of be
| nevolence did not save him from assassin
/ alton His son, the late Alexander III.
! was in a state of abJect terror from thu
| beginning to the end of his reign. ant
/ was in fact, thus driven to a premature
| grave. Such We're the antecedents of thu
| present monarch. The omens are dreadful
| ones, and it is to be seen whether or no
| he will escape their tragic fulfllmenu.