Arizona republican., 1900-12-23
Trying Time for
 Young Czarina

Russfa's young empress. in addition to .he anxiety and fatigue entailed by the nursing of her husband in her pres ent delicate condition of health, has had her task rendered more than or dinarily difficult by the struggle whOch she has been compc He'd to carry on In order to prevent the establi- lImeEt Of a regency. AmazemenJ has been ex- pressed abroad even in medical jour nals, that, in spite of the critical ccndi- ton of Emperor Nichilas, arl of his extraordinary high temperature. he should never once have lost conscious ness or become hght-headed, delirium being an almol- invariable companion of typhoid fever. particularly when It is complicated with pulmonary trou- bles. It is assumed that he was never dalirious from the fact that the doctors were silent on the subjeol, in their daily bulletins and that there was no inter ruption on his part in the transaction of state business. his orders and direc- tionz being issued as usual, while all papsrs being submitted for imperial
  turned in the ordinary course endorsed with the wishes of the autocrai.. No one, however. was permitted to ap- proach the czar excepting the three physicians in attendance, and these On- ly when admitted by luhe czarina, who insisted on nursing her husband herself and upon maintaining the most abSo- lute and despotic control of the sick IDai,, all tne save such of the aytendants-first and foremost an English nurse-whom she could implicitly trust.
 She was quick to punish any rlbel.ion ID her wishes or disobedience to her in structions, and finding that the minis- tler of the imperial houserold, Baron Fredericks, the all-powerfui chief Of tine entire imperial court was inclined to resent her assumption of authority, and had telegraphed to her mother-in- law, the widowed cZarina, at Copenha- gen to summon the latter to Lavadia, she dismissed himfat an hours notice, depriving him of all his dignities and banishing him to his estates, showing him a signed order from the czar when he manifested an indisposition to ac- cept his dismissal from her. The sud- denness of his downfall and the energy and decision disP-ayed by the young czarina in the mal.ter created pro- found sensation, and from that time forth her authority was never ques- tioned.
 The Slavtphile party in Russia do not hesitata to assert that the cZar was ready delrious part of the time during his illness, that the cZarina dismissed the minister of the imperial household because he was in favor of making the fact known in the medical bulletin and thus rendering the institution of re- gency necessary, and that the empress virtually acted asi regent herself of the empire during her husbands illness, conducting the government in his name. contrary to the provisions of the so-called family statutes of the house of Romanoff, which, it is needless to say, have no constitutional value, since Russia has no national constitution
 If this story be true-and it is widely believed in the various European cap- ltals-dhe young czarina has only. act ed in accordance with the knC'wn wish es and best interests of her husband, no one possessing a more extensive cogniZance of his ideas and aims.
 Had Vladimar become regent, as he fully anticipated when he learned that the czar was suffering from typhoid fe- yer he might have been trusted to en- tirely transform the present political course of ihe Muscovite empire. In former times he was believed to be lib eral minded and in favor of a thorough understanding with Germany. These sentiments, however, have undergone a radical change, and today he is re- nowned as being not only Anti-German but likewise reactionary and fanatic, added to which he iA imbued with d bitter hatred of England, which is shared by his wife, who. though the marriage of her brother to the Queen If Holland becomes the latter's sister-in- law. So intense is this animosity of the Grand Duke Vladimir with regard to England that neiaher he nor his wife and children have ev2r visited Eng land, being, indeed, almost the only prince and princess of any continental reigning house now living who have never visited Great Britain. Both the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Vlad- imir make but little concealment of their distaste for what they are pleased to describe as the English lnfluenceS or the czar, and for the British prejudices of the czarina, and head the malcon- tent party in Russia, especially among the ariStocracy.
 Strictly speaking, the Granl Duke Vladimir would have no right to the regency were it to become necessary to institute one in Russia, for Grand Duke Michael. the only bro -her of Car Nicholos, being of age, is, as near- est male relative to the sovereign enu- tied thereto, and the only preCeXt on which Vladimir could have assumed the regency during the czar's illness was that Michael was absent with his mother at Copenhagen.
 tt Is this, Gou0tless, that prompted the young czarina as soon as it becam; known that her husband had typhoid to send dispatch in the name of Nich- plas, to the Grand Duke Vladimir commanding, in her husbands name that bSuh he and his wife should remain at Parf. until further notice, and under no circums' .ances to return to Russia f hot