Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-05-07

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kings and OF partial reconquest by ths
burned every stick; the tsar wal
prisoner; Polish sovereign wa,
crowned In the sacred city; the SwedeS
neiu Novgorod;. bands of brlgands tor,
.areu the ADMINISTRATION peasants and
.oIrorized the towns. and men ate hu.
inaI, hesh' while the higher mobiles wer,
IN the pay of foreign Invaders.
But In 1913 came a religious and ma.
sioha. awakening. The Poles Were
urlVeh out by popular rising led by
the putcher Mimi, and q national as.
selnoiy seated new family upon ths
throne In the person of Michael Ro-
amahot, whose grandson Marlborough
saw eignty-fve years later in the guiss
of Dutch ship carpenter.
kCSSdA IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY AND THE PREPARA-r
TON FOR PETER.
hussia was still oriental. Women
we We're immured and despised. To SEQ
me lace OF Il tsar's wife was death. Tho
dress OF men and the equipment az
troops were Aslatic. The tsar rode t,
pattie with lance, bow and culver. III
ulclai Dunishments were varied by
,, ieo aN on the wheel. impaling, knout-
ing TO death, drowning under ice. bury
ing aiive, roasting in iron cages. or
.earlnE TO small pieces by iron pincers--
any oil which deaths must have been n
i after the torture that commons
~ accomnanied the trial. The royal
iuniiiy alone in few generations fur
nlshed imbeciles and detectives enough
10 call for IL state asylum; more than
halt the rest died in early childhood.
ana the majority OF the royal consolts
seem en-, 10 nave persisted OF poison.
This was the Russia that Peter
i 'o,i,, huge inert. isolated mass
without Il seaport. except on tho
frozen scar to tho north. and without
u sailor: shut off TOO, from civilized
EUROPE on the land side by vast un,n-
purifiers were added Her European
ne'.hbors and foes. Danes Poles end
Swedes, understood that Russia's bar
bariSm made their safety and iealously
smut out from her The men. arms ana
sciences Of the west. Slgismund NJ
Poland frightened off English mer-
chants seeking to enter Russia with
threats of death. He did not intend. hs
sald, that that eternal enemy of al
free states should provide herself with
guns ana munitions. and above all with
urtisans To continue to make arms
hitherto unknown to that barbaric
country"
What the foes of Russia feared he,
rulers hoped for. Conservative and
Nsiatic as the nation was. the tsars
were impelled inevitably to seek to T;u-
ropcanize the country. Peter did not
originate the ideal. 1t was he who be-
gan the work. y great man always
hides many smaller ones behind him
and gets tho credit for their work, Two
hundred years before the Ivans had
sought to bring in Germans and Ger
man arts and the grandfather. father
and elder brother OF Peter had all strlv-
en- zealously 10 that end. Much had
been done The church had been re-
formed: the shackles OF precedence"
had been abolished among the mobiles.
The German pnlnnN "a MnSnnvr nd 4 he
western adventures invited to his
fathers court furnished Peter the com
panionS and instructors OF his boy
hood and his later Counsclors. frienls
and tools. a Dutchman. Zimmerman
was his tutor. and a German girl was
MS f3Vorite mistress. Among his init
mates We lind such names as Leslie,
crawfuird. Bruce. montgomery. Ham
| ilton. eminent Dutch merchants and
| officers like Adam Veyde and Won
| Mensden. and In particular Lefort. a
Genevesc clerk, turned aivcnturer. and
Gordon, an improved Scotch Dulgald
| lDalgetty who had finally been secured
for Russia by Peters father These
last two were to be Peters chief assist
ants. Like another Alexander. Peter
was able to Europeanzc Asia because
| there had been a Philip with like aim
before him. Through his tremendous
! energy his genius and his iron will
Peters work dwarfs all into nothing
ness that had gone before. But it is
| well To remember after all that he did
| not change the course OF development
for Russia. What he did do was to
| hasten wonderfully what had begun,
! but what without him might have re-
| manned Insignificant for centuries more.
| This VIII be the subject of the next
paper
Note.-Ths paper viii be concluded