New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-17
GRAND DUKEFREED G0RKY
Constantine Threatened to Quit Rus
Sia Unless He Vas Released.

Std CHJCSS lie W as heLeGS6U.
1t is to Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovitch
OF Russia that Gorky has been indebted more than
any one else for his release from prison and for his
escape from those dire pains and penalties Of one
KIND and another which overlook the leaders of the
discretionary outbreak against the Gar at st.
Petersburg some weeks ago. The grand duke. who
$ the president of the Imperial Academy OF Sci
ences and man of great literary tastes-he has
translated the works of Shakespeare into Russian
and published several volumes of very clever poems
has always been friend and protector Of Gorky
whose genius he admires, and three years gave
expression to his sentiments by causing the I'm
pertal Academy OF Sciences to elect Gorky as one
Of its honorary members. Inasmuch as Gorky was
at the time under police surveillance and virtually
indicted charges of completely In the revou-
tionary movement the action of the grand duke
excited a tremendous sensation in official circles
and the late NJ. de Slpiaguine who then Min
lister OF the Interior took upon himself to officially
annul the decree of the Academy of Sciences and to
return the diploma to the grand duke with an init
nation that he could not permit such a token of
distinction to be conferred upon man of Gorkys
affiliations by official body such the Imperial
Academy of Sciences. presided over by a member
OF the reigning house.
This in itself goes to show that the grand dukes
not all powerful stated by the foreign
press for the action of the Minister could not be
construed anything else than in the light of
public reprimand to the grand duke. who Is on
terms of particularly close intimacy and friendship
with his cousin the Car.
On the occasion of GorKys imprisonment last
month in the st. Peter and st. Paul fortress for
his unsuccessful attempt to form revolutionary
junta at st. Petersburg the day following the
bloody encounter between the troops and the popu-
lace in the streets of the capital Grand Duke Con-
stantine took the matter much to heart that he
threatened to leave Russia with his wife and chill
dren forever if the slightest harm was done to his
protege a whom he declared to be famous
yrrIl Of no1nT nf
sian letters. Emperor Nicholas is very fond OF
his cousin and others in control of affairs in Rus
STA realized the disastrous impression which would
be created both at home and abroad II the men,
Der of the imperial family renowned its most
enlightened upright and gifted prince were to ex-
patriate himself token of dsapprovai of the
attitude of the government. and that was why
Gorky has been released
The grand duke, 1 may add. is the of that
brilliant younger brother of Alexander H. who
imbued with such liberal ideas that he
peatedly charged with being concerned in the rev.
dictionary movement against his brother Alex
ander II, however, would never believe any evil
Of his brother. and on one occasion when Count
Shouvaloff. chief of the Third Department OF
the Imperial Chancellry. that is to say, of the
cret political police, submitted to him what were
alleged to be positive proofs of the late grand
dukes guilt. the Car declined TO look at
them, but. taking them up in his hands, threw
them into the fire. and then. a minute later, when
his brother entered the room embraced him with
more than ordinary affection. telling him what
he had done, and that he would never, matter
what might happen. accord one moments belief to
charges of dsloyalty brought against him.
PRINCESS HOHENBERG'S INFLUENCE.
Slowly but gradually Princess Hohenberg, the
morganatc wife of the heir apparent to the Aus
tro-Hungarian throne, is making her way into the
imperial family. from which she in the early
years Of her marriage vigorously excluded. Thus
at the christening OF the infant of Archduke
and Archduchess Leopold Salvator-the archduchess
is daughter of Don Carlos-the princess acted
gOdmother, while the Emperor himself was the god
father. With the exception of the princess, all of
those present at the ceremony OF imperial
rank, and afterward the princess entertained the
entire party, including the Emperor, at a dejeuner
at her palace.
The princess is an exceedingly clever woman, and
although she has not yet appeared at any state
balls, yet she has become one OF the most power
full figures at court, in Austro- Hungarian politics
and in Viennese society, having behind her the
tire clerical party. 1t is possible that when her
husband succeeds his uncle on the throne of the
dual empire she may not be Empress of Austria.
Queen of Hungary But for all that, she win be the
first lady in the land. She has transformed her
husband from decorative figurehead into i'm
portant factor domestic politics and in the inter-
national situation.
I may add that Miss Emily Carow. the sister Of
Mrs Theodore Roosevelt has been staying for some
weeks past in Vienna at the American Embassy,
and has been the recipient of much attention on
the part of the imperial family and of the Austrian
great world on her brother-in-laws account.
N.Y. IN - r1ToTN AyTI%c5G