The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-05-06

"Check!" proclaimed the ambassador
with threatening air. as he advanced
his kings bishop to the one square l
had omitted to guard. And he leant
back in his seat and smiled as if he
considered the game already won.
/ sat silently studying the position
But my opponent was not a man who
played chess merely by moving the
pieces on the board. He did not neg
lect the opportunity to distract my at
tention by conversation.
"The game of chess is an admirable
one for men of my calling" he OBJ
served. There is something truly in
structive in the lessons which it con-
veyS. Look for instance, at the pawn.
a piece which in its earlier career
scarcely repays the trouble of capture,
but to which, later on, even the queen
may be sacrificed"
Unconsciously Swayed, perhaps, by
these remarks, l pushed forward Il
pawn between my king and the attack
ing piece The ambassador affected TO
hardly notice the move.
Consider again how delicately the
kings dignity is preserved" he went
on, taking w q knight with elaborate
carelessness, and setting II down dan
gerously near my pawn. You advance
upon him, YOU threaten him, you pre-
pare for him the certainty of capture
but you never remove him from the
board"
"And the moral of this?" I suggested
as vairly sought a way out of the Diff
ficulties in which my own king was in
volved.
"And moral is perhaps contained in
story which I would relate to you II
I We're no: certain that you would re-
fuse to believe it,"
But whv?" l demonstrated. DO
you mean that it requires one to credit
the existence of the supernatural, Tor
example?"
A look of the deepest, the most panied
disgust overspread his eXcellency
face.
MY friend, have by any chance led
YOU to mistake me for romancer. a
poet? Rest assured that the facts
shall narrate to you are perfectly au-
thentic and are known to several per-
sons in the inner circle of the Russian
court merely observe to you that my
story is incredible. do not say that it
is absurd"
I resigned myself to the prospect OF
losing the game, and prepared to listen.
"The peoples of western Europe do
not understand Russia. 1t is, of course,
OF official Russia, the Russia OF the
government, that l speak. During the
whole time that l spent at the embassy
in st. Petersburg ! could always per-
ceive that was a mere spectator, al
lowed to see no more of the true con-
dition of az airs than it suited the pur-
pose Of the officials TO display to me-
Nevertheless, I Halter myself that l
penetrated farther behind the scenes
than they were aware.
''Outwardly, as everybody knows. the
government of this empire is an autoc-
racy. the absolute power being vested In
the hands of the czar. But the true
government of Russia Is a secret So
ciety, the mysterious 'Tchin,' which in
cludes the whole of the official class.
and in whose hands the czar Is often no
more than puppet. powerless to exert
mis- own will. How burdensOme this po-
sition is may be estimated from the fact
that only sixty years ago Grand Duke
Constantine deliberately refused to as
cend the throne. which passed to his
younger brother. Emperor Nicholas /.
Nor has the "Tchin' ever shrunk from
asserting it's supremacy by the most de-
plorable deeds. 1t is not the nihilists
who have set the fashion of assassinat-
Ing czars. 1t is by the hands of their
own ministers and courtiers that the
mOnarchs Of Russia have most often
perished.
1T is necessary to bear these facts in
HlIlu III OTuef 10 unueTStaHu tne lnCi-
dent I am about to relate.
1T is not long since the attention of
Europe was concentrated upon the
death Of Alexander H. Occurring, as it
did in a remote corner of his dominions
on the shores of the Black sea. the ac-
counts supplied by the newspaper cor
respondents who hOcked like vultures
to the spot We're as circumstantial as II
each one had been admitted to the bed
side Of the dying monarch. The interest
taken in this event was moreover en-
hanced' by the romantic circumstances
of the marriage of the present car.
Nicholas II. 1t was natural that the
press, ever ready to give itself up to
transports over those incidents in which
royalty is concerned. should have law
ished its powers of description upon the
sudden summons to Princess AliX of
Hesse, her hurried and desolate jour-
ney across the frozen continent, her
marriage with the cZarewitch. celebrat-
ed, as it were, in the very death cham
ber, and then the grand passing away
Of the emperor, consOled in the happi-
ness of his son and fortified by all the
rites Of his church.
shortly after these events the new
czar returned to st. Petersburg with
his bride, and took up his quarters in
the Winter palace. AS is usual on the
accession of new monarch to the
throne Of Russia, hopes of a reform in