The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-13
Tied to Duty as Closely as the HUM
blest Laborer Among His Subjects,
with Harder Work.
AN OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION
PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS ONLY CHECK
IMPERIAL AUTHORITY.
Empire Has Advantages When Ruler
IL q Good MANA Great Country,
with Vast Possibilities.

--
At the risk Of mourning condemnation
for i~nelegance of expression, it is. new
ertheless, remarked that to be Car of
all the Russias is mo lead easy job"
Slangy, surely, to so put it, but forcible.
After all. what are life's vacations, save
jobs? And in what do the banker and the
blacksmith differ except in degree? The
one, as the other, cannot do it all. and
whatever it may be. the time comes when
there has to be REIMBURSEMENT to another;
| the old proverb running-no man is essen
tial to the place he occupies.
This has so often been proved true that
many an individual who, during life,
thought otherwise, could he get out of his
! grave and see how everything has gone on
just as If he had never lived, would hurry
| back under ground so chastened in spirit as
to view the remainder of his purgatcrIal
| period with perfect ~equanimity.
The Job which falls to the Gar is all laid
out for him before he is born into the
world. No more inviolable were the enact
| ments of the Modes and PersidnS han arc
the written and unwritten laws which e.
mesh every act and thought of the reigning
head of the house of the Romanoffs. Sim
| ultaneously with his appearance upon earth
| the machinery of his surroundings is set
in motion. To the hour of his death it
| moves with the certainty and regularity OF
the solar system. From the rising of the
sun to the going down thereof each days
tasks compels a diligence no foreman over
a gang of railroad laborers could succeed
IL ovoa11;n1 hu hic axootinnC 'Iln0n them
They have end to the daily toll with the
settling arkne of the night. Not so the
Car. His job, like ~Tennyson's brook. goes
on forever. He is always In danger or
something going wrong-getting blown up
or other slip in the gear. individually he
is but an incident; holds the job for the
time being, and when worn out. manned.
or killed, another head is adjusted into the
crown, and one more royal crypt in the
fortress of Peter and Paul has a coffin in it.
If there ever were a man tied to his task,
and this in the plainest sense of the term, it
is Nicholas of Russia. His existence Is a
veritable treadmill. 1t could not be other
wise with a man upon whose one pair of
shoulders is placed the burden of personal
responsibility represented in governing a
sixth of the land surface of the earth, peo-
pied by a hundred and forty. or more, mil
lions of human beings.
A MAN OF FEELING.
None of those who, in the Moscow Cathe-
dral of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin,
saw him emerge from the holy of HOLES,
with streaming eyes and features wed into
an inexpressible solemnity, could but be-
lieve him conscientious. Away from all
eyes, and, alone with his God, he, with the
key which never in life thereafter is re-
moved from the neck of the Gar. had un-
locked the casket wherein is sacredly pre-
served the final obligation, which. sworn to
in the presence only of his Maker, immedi-
ately precedes the browning. Throughout
the stately coronation ceremonies, preced-
ing the closing act, Nicholas had borne
himself as one oblivious of everything but
the meaning of what he was doing. His
countenance, at the consummation, was a
study in pathos, so unlocked for in one Of
his years as to produce a profound sensa-
ton. This was Involuntary heightened
when. stopping to kiss the Empress. his
tears believed her upturned face as rain
drops glisten upon the rose leaves.
Nicholas entered upon his reign in the
fullest recognition of the demands upon
Eth, ant 10 the uuScllhS VI WHICH ne HdU
pledged his life. Were the truth known,
the recent illness would be universally at
tributed TO the cause, undoubtedly its
origin-nothing less than overwork. Max
ing it a matter of painstaking duty to give
certain separate hours every week to the
executive heads of fourteen ministries, and
with each to take up questions involving
exhaustive precognition of detail, is enough
of itself to do up a cast-iron man.
Had the Nihilists permitted Alexander II
to live a comparatively brief period longer,
Russia. would have had a constitution. This
the sequence of his act emancipating the
serfs. Drafts of various plans considered
by him were found among his papers after
death; in fact were known of prior to the
assassination, as he had discussed the
projected edict, and invited suggestions for
it's Improvement, from among his advisers
and those nearest him. While these may
be not of official record in the proceedings
of some of the higher consultive bodies of
the empire, still in these quarters
Aiexander's position was we'll under
stood through declarations, at different
times, of his purposes in this con-
nection. Naturally, with the conditions
prevailing, the consultation so proclaimed
Il SOulQ " LaNO Ot1A ONit t.o1 OAAO A14a-
lively limited in its operation. 1t is to be
questioned If. in reality, the people would
have been the better off under a modern
guarantee of rights. than in the ~continu-
ance of the old order of things adjusted to
the changing circumstances of the new.
The grade of intelligence in Russia does
not average high. Judged by the standard
of education, quite the reverse. The COM
mon people compose nine-tenths of the
population. With them the possession OF
rudilnentary knowledge is the exception
instead of the rule. What they lack In
intellectually. they make up in religiosity.
At the least in so far as that which stands
for an intelligent conception of duty as
subjects. II their cultivation of the sense
of respect for orderliness in daily life.
through the measures in vogue here. Is
less. the devotion to the principles incul-
Gated by their religious faith is the more.
Thus the average Is notwithstanding at
1t from the mathematical standpoint.
A DEPENDENT PEOPLE.
No people. as a whole. in the world are
as tractable under any form Of control as