The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-01
A GLIMPSE OF The CAR
AN OBSERVER SAYS HE HAS THE
MANNER OF A TIMID MAN.
A Monarch of Great Power, but with
ont the Courage of His Convic-
tfons-As Seen I'm Vienna.
Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Journal.


bling the average subaltern official Of Eng
laad or Germany His face is small. finely
cut and pale. Only sparse. Hght-brown
beard imparts TO that weak face a shadow
OF masculinity-a shadow but no more. His
forehead Is high and singularly smooth;
smooth. too, is his chestnut-colored hair.
accurately groomed and as obedient to the
comb as troop of trained soldiers under
the eyes OF their colonel.
The nose is insignificant just nose, no
more The Cars eyes are soft and I'M
steady. In Darmstadt, small town easily
managed by a couple OF thousands Of secret
service men and Cossacks, they did not have
quite the anxious look as in Vienna and
Schoenbrunn. but at Murzsteg, Tyrolean
Alps, where Nicholas went hunting with the
Austrian Emperor within Gordon of eight
hundred gendarmes, they mirrored an al
most tranquil mnd-sometimes. There
were few human beings to brighten him.
I saw the Car quite often in these places,
and noticed his disposition TO wink He
winks at everybody he meets, except SOL
diers and servants, and the quiet pleading
In his look is pathetic. 1t seems to say:
You would not harm a well-intentioned
man like me, would your
Nicholas walks straight and is inclined to
sway his hips. He has pleasing manners,
devoid of the detestable military air that
lends his cousin of Germany the appear
snce OF unreality. The word command"
does not seem TO be in his dictionary.
/ said he bore himself well, but that applies
10 HIS torso only. His head is bent forward,
as IL he were walking towards binding sun
light, or expected an attack upon his cram
ium.
never saw the Car without smile on
his lips. the smile of man intent on cur
rying favor. Favor with whom? With
everybody, for he fears everybody.
Did not impress you a great lord?"
asked Princess Hohenberg, wife OF Arch
duke Francis Ferdinand.
Perhaps, but as lord standing in eternal
fear OF one bigger than himself"
Nicholas is shy, quiet, but not taciturn;
on the contrary. he is ever willing to say
a kind word to and for people. But CONVEX
sation with him is embarrassing. for the
Car cannot talk readily. There is either an
impediment in the flow OF his thoughts. or
his words. They say he writes better than
he speaks. AS an Austrian prince, who
shall be nameless. drastically remarked:
when Nicholas talks to you. YOU have the
feeling that he wishes you far away. beyond
reach OF him anyhow; though, at the same
time, he is extremely polite and under all
circumstances maintains most affable de-
meanor. But even the shortest confab
seems TO I'LL him with nervous disquietude."
HUNTING WITH FRANCIS JOSEPH.
AT Murzstes saw Nicholas and Francis
Joseph driving together. morning and even
ing. the old Emperor talking in an animated
20 ia mil nj ~
pleasantly. During dinner and at the night
~ receptions 1 heard him say few words
now and then. but it happened so rarely
that all present stood aghast. That, OF
course, only increased the little mans en-
barrassment-
The game heaters tell me that his Majesty
does not hunt in right royal fashion, that
Is. he refuses to slaughter game driven be-
fore his gun b. the helpers. He likes
stalking" because that mode of hunting
insures him the solitude he Graves. Some
countryfolk accidentally met Nicholas on
the Alps-the people had been hidden to
keep to their huts-say he looked at them
ut first like a frightened mountain sheep.
but later recovered himself and offered an
ne abominates. An old mountaineer. who is
poacher also. characterized the difference
between his Emperor, Francis Joseph,
and that of all the Russias, as follows
''Our Kaiser never fails nothing alive. but
the Car never hits nothing. He has not
nerve enough to keep his gun straight
Limitless is the empire ruled by the in
comprehensive Czar-limitless as to treas
ure and to mystery. as to marvellous pos
nd
and thought is not yet within reach of the
average European, but Russia is little else
than a gigantic prison in his eyes. 1t is
the land OF enigmatical contradictions. q
realm full OF dark secrets and dangers
What we do know is that Russia has room
for the most luxurious fairy palaces by
the side OF the awfullest jails. that hel
frontiers are Theoretically shut against
books and men and women who might carry
a ray OF intellectual light into the govern,
ment-fostered darkness, and that her grea
son Dostoiewsh preached in Russia
philosophical system equal to the classic.
(for which crime he suffered the lash and
terrible death in the Siberian iceheIds.) We
do know that the Russian nobility reckon.
its fortunes by the number of "souls" a
work for the feudal master in the fields, ii
OF nlustrious family and OF still more Illus
trious character, works harder than tn,
poorest peasant.
We do know that even to-day the Rus
sian masses are swayed by such barbara
superstiticns and animal tendencies as ou
forefathers abandoned In the middle ages
and we also know that there was no NOR
cultured modern writer than Turgenieff.
From Russia comes stories of unspeakabl
official cruelty and OF lmitless human
patience. Corporal punishment has bee
abolished all over Europe and the skin o
murderers, thieves. robbers and all sorts .
brutes is safe in the keeping OF the polio
except in Russia. where high thinking men
poble women and girls must lay their pant
ing flesh on blood-stained boards Will
murdcrous blows are rained down upo
them for believing in the rights OF man
Every few months Russia furnishes tn
world with stories OF wholesale slaughters
recalling the times OF Ivan the Terrible, an
daily We read Of Czarish subjects that iy
either like saints or wild animals.
Mutius Scaevola, who thrust his han
that had failed 10 slay his country's enem
into live Goals that Il might suffer for miss