The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-14
THE CZARINH AT HOME.
Her influence with the Czar Is All for
Good.

st. Petersburg Letter in Washington Post.
A peep into the home life of the Empress
of Russia throws pleasing side light on
the somewhat austere young woman whom
fate has elevated TO position more power
full than that occupied by any of her Sex
in the world, not excepting her grand
mother. the Queen of England. Victoria Is
the creature of her ministers The CZarina
dominates her empire and dominates it for
good.
The young Car has been criticised Of
late for acting independently of his min
listers. Some have limited that he would
develop into a second edition of Emperor
William of Germany. But ii is not egotism
that compels Nicholas TO throw off the
yoke of precedence: IL is the wisdom of
his wife. She has fixed upon a practical
ideal for the government of Russia, and 1t
includes many features offensive to the
Cars advisers. On many questions he has
had to choose between the wishes of his
wife and his ministers. The latter were
based upon the iron-bound system of Rus
sian policy; the former upon the simple
rules of kindly Christianity, and these have
been followed almost without exception.
To the outside world the Empress is a
cold, naughty woman. with stately repose
as calm as a statue. She has made few
real friends in the court circle because Of
the many changes she has enforced in the
customs of long standing. But in private
life she is another woman: GOODNESS and
stateiness vanish, giving way to good hui
NOR and genial pleasantries.
The Czarina is a very tall woman. per-
haps five feet eight nine inches in height,
and her erect carriage makes her seem even
taller Her husband, is good two or three
inches shorter. Her complexion is of un-
usual fairness. her features regular. and
her large eyes are of a dark grayish blue.
She has one tiny imperfection, small mole
at the corner of the mouth. Her voice is
low and deep, almost like that of a tragedy
queen, but when she laughs 1t breaks into a
musical falsetto.
When she was Princess AliX of Hesse her
surroundings were comparatively poor for
parsonage of royal blood and many econo-
mics were necessarily practiced OF which
the outside world knew next TO nothing.
She has lived in an English lodging house,
and. what is more. she sent the owner of
that house a magnificent gift shortly after
her marriage. The change from COMPARE
tive poverty TO Empress of the most splen-
did court in the world was indeed a change.
To picture the magnifcence OF the Russian
court would be work of years. The wealth
of centuries of mobiles. the treasures of un-
numbered rulers of Asiatic Kingdoms. the
riches torn from hundreds of millions of
|
Grafton. and all accumulated and accumu-
lating form an aggregation OF wealth that is
understandable.
Much of the Oriental love of splendor
formed a dominating trait in all the Cars
of Russia up to the present Emperor and
his father. The result is colossal super
chilled the blood of the young woman who
had perhaps felt the pinch of poverty. AT
any rate she contrasted the tremendous
waste of wealth with the terrible poverty
of the moujk, the forlorn creature whose
number is legion in the Russian empire;
the man who lives in a matched hut and
tiIls a tiny scrap of barren land, his wife
and children working at his side for the
meanest living and for the ever-present tax
gatherer. 1t is this contrast which drove
the Czarina to formulate changes in the
internal government of the empire, and
while Ii may be many years before these
are realized some good is bound to be ac-
complished.
The palaces of the Czarina are numbered
by the score each teeming with its burden
of glaring wealth. In and around this city
the royal couple have d dozen palaces, the
most prominent being the famous Winter
the grandest picture gallery the world over,
and the finest collection of Greek art and
Greek vases in Europe.
The palace swarms with a functionary
called the footman usher. a resplendent per-
sonage i'll dress coat edged with thick,
gold braid from tails TO collar. knee
brooches, fox cloth CATERS and silver
buckled shoes. There must be hundreds of
these in the palace; they are TO be seen at
every turn 1t would be idle to attempt TO
describe the magniticence of the immense
state rooms. many of them as large as a
great cathedral and the walls almost COW
cred with shields of gold and silver.
The lofty gilded chapel Is of peculiar in
| terest, because of its relics. One Is a pic
tured image of immense age. representing
the face of Jesus Christ and attributed TO
| the hands of the painter. ST. Luke. the
| apostle. 1t Is dark that the face Is bare
| ly discernible. The gold metal service about
| the head is inlaid with a necklace of dia-
4 nOndE a
| Beneath the ancient picture, and in the
| same glass case, are two embalmed but
| crumbling human hands, One, in massive
| box. set with twelve diamonds, is the hand
| of st. John the Baptist; the other Is the
| hand of a woman the slender bones of a
| finger encircled with old jeweled ring
! This latter is the hand of Mary Magiaene
Near the private apartments of the En-
| press are q suite OF rooms which nil that
| section of the palace with awe. They are
| the rooms of the assassinated Alexander IL
| Here he died March 1. 1881. an hour after
| the dynamite bomb had shattered his body
! The first room was his library Passing into
| the inner room from this library and init
| mate council chamber where the old Gar
| used TO talk TO his generals In confidence
| one enters another bare study. which was
| also his bedroom.
Here all is left as at the moment of death
| There is the shabby old leathern armchair
| and worn gray dressing gown lying over its
| back. On each table lies Il loosely folded
/ pocket Misunderstanding IL was the fancy
| of the owner TO find one ready every
| table 10 which he might turn. On his writ
ing table lay an ole brass box of matches
| and a half-smoke6 cigarette. laid down
| when the Car went out for his last drive
Two or three little bronze vases and a