The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-29
THE CHAR AS HE IS,

Impressions of Miss Kussner, the Fa- nous Miniaturist.
 And then Miss Kussner gave me her keen, visioned, worded portrait of the czar. He has the most beautiful eye imaginable and expressive of so much soul! He is all kindness and ten derness, yet, despite his lack of height
 and his slender and somewhat delicate
 physique, he impressed me as a man of
 tremendous force and ability. He has
 nature all sunshine and is perfectly
 happy with his children, who were of-
 ten with him in the temporary studio at
 the palace. He so loves his people that
 he simply cannot believe that any of
 them would harm him, He is positively
 without fear, appearing In the streets
 in his drosky or his threehorsed troika
 unattended save by his coachman, who
 has been in the family for years. It is
 the same way~inside the palace, where
 he wanders about in the most informal
 way the chatter of his spurs, which he
 always wears, being the only announce
 ment we had that he was entering the
 room All that the papers have printed
 about iron walled rooms and life of
 terror led by the royal family is with
 out one particle of truth. How can
 thty print such things when they know
 nothing of the real palace life, or else know that what they say is false?
 ""All his life the czar was educated for kingship, and his personality seemed to me that of born ruler of men, modest though he is and even shy, like the empress. Even in the ordinary conversation that accompanied our sit tings or the family gatherings that sometimes took place in the room where l painted, I gained the knowledge that the czar has q warm emotional nature and a vigorous intellect, that beneath his quiet exterior there is passion and enthusiasm. I think also, that l req lized this beautiful empress of blushes and downcast eyes, by her long resi- dence in England with her grandmoth- CT, Queen Vlctorla-she was, you know, a lonely and motherless girl, being only six when Prince Alice died-has been given greater equality of feeling than would have been possible, perhaps, had she lived more in Germany,
 Both the czar and czarina spoke frequently of America and the Ameri- cans, and always in the most cordial way. He gave for his chief reason for admirlng our country the fact that 'it did not bother about what other na- tions think" and in speaking of the battle of Manila he referred to Admiral victory as "a splendid achieve ment."
 !" Most of my work was done at Win ter palace in St. Petersburg, but on several occasions I was called to sit tinss at Tsarkoe Seloe, the royal sum- mer residence. sixteen miles outside the capital, Overwhelming as is it's size, beautiful as are the chalets scattered through it's forest, splendid as are such rooms as the one floored with ebony fn- laid with mother-of-pearl it was none of these that interested me most, but the fact that here the czar and his bride spent their honeymoon. Here alone they passed almost all of the first winter, receiving absolutely no one except ministers of state, and these only when upon important busi- ness, the czarina dispensing much of the time even with the attendance of her lady-in- waiting.
 When I was about to leave Russia the empress cordially pressed me to re- urn the following year; and so l should nave done had I not had that ungov- srnabe impulse to go to South Africa and paint Cecil Rhodes, the photo graphs of whose head had an irresisti- ,le fascination for me, and who turned put to be as sitter oh, the worst Of all!--like a caged lion in my studio. Yet his only unfavorable comment on he portrait was the somewhat pathetic 1uery: Cant you make me look title kinder?'
 "The royal family of Russia had made me so welcome that l felt mex ,ressibly sad at parting, More than hat, it had been delightful to find them | mbued with such a true appreciation if art. Repeatedly they showed me | hat they felt that artists are few and | hat great artists are geniuses. This | hey have been taught from birth and | heir love for the beautiful is natural, | urrounded as they have been from | L i. Al IA1