The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-09-16
HEIR To- VAST EMPIRE.
The lite. zarev fch--t is sirth
Inspires Mercy and Bounty
The Ruins of Aniiquity---Ihe
Strange Gods Of Africa How
the Great of tine Earth Died

vast domain of Russia has been receiv-
ed throughout that extensive territory
with glad acclaim and fervent c5n
CALCULATIONS To the Gar and CzariEa;
and the christening OF this mite OF
humanity has bee made the central
figure I'm a spectacle of almost
pied magnifioence in the splendid cap
ital on the banks OF the Neva. where
the news was heralded to the world
by crash of annon and the Ginning
OF innumerable church bells from the
frontie- Of Poland to the confines of
the farthest east" The beautiful little
church in the Peterhof palace was K
unto a gorgeous kaleidoscope, where
sparkled priceless Jewels enhancing
the charms Of the titled women Of the
imperial train-jewels which are the
heirlooms of the old nobility and which
had doubtless flashed at the barbaric
courts of the savage Peter the Great
and of Anna Ivanovna: while an In
describable richness Of color was CIV
en- to the striking picture by the uni
forms of generals and marshals Of the
army, and the grand duke. princes.
etc., of the royal household.
Outside the sacred building the pa
geant was no less imposing. In a gol-
den chariot, drawn by eight milk-white
horses, and surrounded by the brilliant
household troops and the famous
Cossacks of the Don. of which he be-
came commander in chief as soon as
he was born. in virtue of his rank, lay
the royal babe on the lap of Princess
GalitZen, mistress Of the Czarina'5
tiny pink thumb, as the chubby, swart
infant of the Slav peasant woman
would do in the hut by the roadside. IL
he were hungry; or maybe Princess
Galitzen ~bethought herself to carry d
milk bottle with her in the carriage of
state. Anyhow. when the metropoli-
tan Of st. Petersburg Amounted the
face, head and limbs of this scion OF
the Romanoffs with the mystical OIL.
brought from the Holy of Holes in the
Kremlin, the TIE Deum was chanted-
the signal for a salvo of artillery from
the guns of st. Petersburg and Crons-
tadt, and the tolling of the five hun
dred bells of the sacred city of Mos
COW.
Meanwhile. away off on a foamy coast
lurid with beseiging fires, the fellow
c~ountrymen of this embryo ruler of
10000 600 subjects were starving and
dying behind the broken walls of Port
Arthur,and fighting and falling at Lao
Yang. Doubtless in the ~stupendous
plan of the providence of an all wise
God the child at the font in the church
of the Peterhof and the child kicking
his cfryfdv N1iffla LOGS in tho ochnc Of
the hovel on the steppes are alike only
atoms in the general system Of laws
governing an universe. And yet the
birth and baptizing of this heir to n
scepter and a throne were significant
events. When the Russian peasant
takes his brown-skinned infant in his
arms, he calls in the neighborS, and
makes merry in a double allowance Of
rye bread and sausage and vodka.
while the mother decorates the
doorpost with a branch Of
green fir from the snow-clad hills. The
Great White Ca is a more august
celebrant, n in the pride and gladness
of his heart issues a manifesto: unto
me a son is born; peace n goodwill
to men," The Persian nurse says to
her newborn babe: Little stranger.
men smiled at your coming into the
world; so live that they weep when
You leave it," The coming into the
world of the little Nicholasvitch
brought smiles to the lips and joy 10
the hearts Of thousands. in the amnes-
ty proclaimed by the proud father to
prisoners languishing in dungeons, or
toiling in the mines Of Siberia, and in
the grant of millions of roubles to the
suffering and unfortunate peasantry o.
Finland. Surely there could be nothing
more blessed from being born IN
the purple" than this.
In the veins of this Czarevitch flows
plenty of the blood of the Romanoffs,
but the line Of direct succession is not
long. His father, the present reigning
Nicholas IL, is the son Of Alexander
Ill, who was the son of Alexander II,
| who was the son of Nicholas l., and
there the direct succession stops. Mica
olas was the younger brother of Alex
ander l., the founder of the Holy AL
lance, n of Napoleon,
as head of the allied overs of Eu-
rope from 1913 to 1915. His elder broth.
er, the Grand Duke of Constantine.
next in order of succession formally
renounced his heritage from either
| modesty or incompetency; but this was
not generally known to the masses @.
the Russian people. and on the death
or l., in 1925, the accession
to the throne of Nicholas caused terri
BILE riots in Moscow and St. Peters
burg, which the Iron Car" crushed
with pitiless hand. Grand Duke Con.
stantine was expelled from Warsaw
and the country by its patriotic rebels
and soon afterwards died Of the
plague.
Let us now. as a matter of histori,
interest, trace the line Of succession
back further. Nicholas I. was the
youngest son of Paul, half-maniac and
all despot, who was assassinated IN q
conspiracy Of the nobility. Paul was
the son and successor of Peter I'LL, vino
was deposed (and died mysteriously)
by his ambitious wife, afterwards thu
great Empress Catharine. Peter Ill
succeeded Elizabeth, daughter of Pstel
n Great. who deposed Ivan, son O.
n Duchess OF Brunswick. and she
succeeded Anna ~Ivanovna, whose pre-
decessor OF Peter l.. son of Alexius
the Unfortunate. Before Peter III
came Catharine l., a Livoniar
peasant girl, who assembled tn.
throne on the death of . he,
husband, Peter the Great. And so y.
might go down to the times of ivan. IN,
Terrible and WAR the Great.
II this little Czarevitch lives to sue