The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-01-17

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 ions of the Caucasus, enriched by .7ushkin and Lermontoff in the days of
 heir exile. Prince Mirsky, the. elder, married Georgian princess, who gave
 le son the gentleress and grace of manner which flower so finely in some )f the older Oriental races. Prince Peter Dimitrivitch Mirsky, the present Minister, thus grew up in the midst of many colored throng of Georgians,
 Armenians. Turks, Circassians and pictureque Orientals of dozen diff ferent races and tongues. He passed his hcyhood amid the Oriental settings of Tifiis street scenes, in the midst of for est clad hills and torrents, and with the siant snow ranges on the horizon. His eyes and mind were trained to the ap- preciation of that that many colored Asian life, so different from the mono tonous gray of Northern Russia.
 Prince Peter Dimitrivitch Gthat is, Peter son of Dimitri) went from Tifiis to St. Petersburg to school, entering the aristocratic and exclusive Corps de Pages. and afterward studing for the army in the Academy of the General Staff. He got his commission, and re- turned to the Caucasus just in time for the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War of 1871 and his nearness to the Grand Duke Michael Nicolaieyitch (that is, son of Nicholas D. who was commander in chief of the Russian army in Asia, brought him at once into the thick of the fight. It must, be re membered that. while Russia in Europe was separated from the Turkish Elm | pire by the whole of Runania, which the Russian troops spent nearly two l months marching through, the Russian | army in the Caucasus found itself act
 uallyscn the Turkish frontier, in the re- zion known as Northern Armenia, so | that fighting began here far earlier than in Europe along the Danube.
 | Ardahan and Kars were two of the strongest Turkish fortresses, perched | up under the shadows Of Mount Ara rat. amid vast encirciing hills, and here, among crags and precipiees and torrepts, young Prince Peter Mirsky got his fist taste of war. Apparently it suited him. for we find him getting de- corrated for distinguished bravery in the bombardment of Kars, when he re- ceived the Cross of St. Anna, of the fourth degree. Tn the fighting of the se- cond, week of August he received the cross of the same order, and of the third degree. Two months later he re- received the Cross of St. Vladimir, and shortly after this was appointed adjutant to Emperor Alexander II.
 In 1881 Prince Mirsky was transferr- ed to the General Staff, and sent south to Odessa, to take command of the
 military district on the Black Sea. He was subsequently, on the staff of the Seventh and Eighteenth Army Corps, and in 1886 was appointed chief of staff of the Third Grenadier Division.
 In 1895, being then thirty-eight years old, he was transferred to civil employ
 and was appointed Governor of Penza, lin the Tatar country, within the bend
 of the yolga. Two years later he went southward to Ekaterinoslay as Cover nor, and in 1900 he was called in St
 Petersburg as Assistant Minister of the Interior. h 1902 he was made Governor
 General of White Russia (Vilna, Grode
 and Kovnop where he. became immense. I ly popular, and came into close contact with the Jewish question, seeing the
 hardships of the Hebrews with his oWr I eyes. He was still busy sruding this
 question. in Wilma when his recent promotion came. Charles Johnson, ir
 Harper's Weekly.