Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-02
Copyright 1896. by Bachelor. johnson Bachelor,

Copyright, 1896 by Bachelor Johnson Baeheller)
Check proclaimed the ambassador,
with a threatening air. as he advanced
his kings bishop to the one square 1 had
omitted to guard. And he leant back in
his seat and smiled as if he considered the
game already won.
1 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 neglect the opportunity
TO distract my attention by conversation.
THE game of chess is an admirable one
for men of my calling" he observed
There is something truly instructive in
the lessons which it conveys. Look, for in
stance, at the pawn, a piece which in it's
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. 1 pushed forward pawn between
my king and the attacking piece. The
ambassador affected to hardly notice the
move.
Consider again how delicately the kings
dignity is preserved he went on, taking
up knight with elaborate carelessness
and setting 1t down dangerously near my
pawn. ~ GU advance upon him, you threat
en- him, you prepare for him the certainty
OF capture. but you never remove him from
the beard
And the moral of this?" / suggested, as
vainly sought way out of the difficulties
In which my own king was involved.
The moral is perhaps contained in a
story which | would relate 10 you if l were
not certain that you would refuse to be-
Heve it,"
But why?" I demonstrated. do you
mean that 1t requires one to credit the
existence of the supernatural, for exam
ple?"
A look of the deepest, the most paired
disgust overspread his excellencys face.
My friend, have l by any chance led
You 10 mistake me for a romancer poet?
Rest assured that the facts / shall mar
late 10 you are perfectly authentic and
are known TO several persons in the inner
circle or the Russian court l merely OBJ
serve TO you that my story Is incredible.
do not say that il is absurd
resigned myself to the prospect of los
1Eg 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 govern
ment, that l speak. During the whole time
that l spent a the embassy in st. Peters,
nurs l could always perceive that I was
mere spectator, allowed to see no more of
the true condition of affairs than it suited
me purpose OF the officials to display to me.
Nevertheless, l fatter myself that l pene-
trated farther behind the scenes than they
were aware.
government of this empire is IN autocracy
the absolute power being vested in the
hands of the ear. But the true govern
ment of Russia is a secret society, the
mysterious 'Tchtn,' which includes the
whole Of the official class, and in whose
hands the car IS often no more than a
puppet, powerless to exert his own will.
How burdensome this position Is may be
estimated from the fact that only sixty
years ago Grand Duke Constantine DELHI
erately refused to ascend the throne which
passed to his younger brother Emperor
Nicholas I. Nor has the 'Tchin ever
shrunk from asserting Its supremacy by the
most deplorable deeds. It Is not the nihi-
lists who have set the fashion of assassi-
mating cars. 1t Is by the hands of their
own ministers and courtiers that the mon
archs of Russia have most often persisted.
TT Is necessary to bear these facts In
mind in order to understand the incident
am about to relate.
''1t is not long since the attention of Eu-
rope was concentrated upon the death Of
Alexander III. Occurring as 1t did, IN a
remote corner Of his dominions, on the
shores Of the Black sea, the accounts sup
piled by the newspaper correspondents who
fiocked like vultures to the spot were as
circumstantial as If each one had been adj
mitted to the bedside Of the dying mon
arch The interest taken in this event was,
moreover enhanced by the romantic cir
cumstances of the marriage of the present
czar, Nicholas II. 1t was natural that the
press, ever ready to give itself up to trans
ports over those incidents In which royalty
Is concerned, should have lavished it's pow
ers of description upon the sudden SUM-
mons to Princess Alx of Hesse her hur-
Red and desolate Journey across the frozen
continent, her marriage with the czare-
witch, celebrated, as 1t were, in the very
death chamber, and then the grand passing
away of the emperor, consoled In the hap
piness of his son and fortified by all the
rites of his church.
Shortly after these events the new car
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 the government were
extensively entertained. The progressive
party talked with confidence of the mild
and enlightened temper of the young car
and augured much from the way in which
he had formerly held himself aloof from
the represSive measures of his fathers
ministers. Foolsi AS If the 'Tchin' ever
died, or it's policy could be changed by the
mere replacing of one royal figurehead by
anotheri
However, the result of all this was that
the nthilists relaxed their activity, and for
time there was absolute repose in the
Russian capital This repose was broken
by a strange and disturbing rumor, which
circulated, observe, merely among the ex-
elusive circles of the court. This rumor
was TO tie effect that the Winter palace
had become haunted.
1T was stated that a ghost had been
seen walking in one of the corridors at
midnight And there were those who as
serted that the spirit in question was
that of the dead car
LAS you may imagine, such a report
could not be long in attracting tho atten-
ton of the secret police. The result was