New-York tribune., 1905-08-06
CZAREWITCH'S "OWN."
Nasal Qualifications Of Men an HIS
Regiment -Snee&ing Regulations.

next his first birthday, and at the same time
the anniversary of his appointment to the colo
nelcy of the Pavovsld Regiment of the Guard,
10 which he was gazetted when only a few
hours old. 1t is one of the queerest looking
bodies of troops in Europe For no man can
belong thereto unless his nose happens to be
Of the most pronouncedly turned-up description
Indeed the more uptilted that feature the more
desirable the recruit for the Pavlovskis and
It is the men whose noses are the most turned
1p-whose nostrils seem to be in danger of
;eiving the rain that falls from heaven-who
are invariably placed in the front rank. The
regiment takes its from Emperor Paul.
who was somewhat crazy and who at last be-
came SO completely demented that it found
necessary to put him out of the way by means
Of assassination. His nose was the reverse of
aquiline, and, having been led by his courtiers
to believe that fiat, upturned wide was
not only object of beauty, but likewise an in
dication of mental endowment of the loftiest
character-in Illustration of which argument
they cited the proboscis of Socrates-he con-
Ceived the idea that it would be we'll to have a
regiment of his guards composed exclusively of
soldiers and officers possessed of his peculiar
style of masculine beauty. With this object in
view he caused all likely recruits to he paraded
before him from time to time, and selected from
their number those whose noses qualified them
Regiment. Russia is the land of tradition, and
cngs more than any other Western nation to
its ancient customs. Thus, although Emperor
Paul has been dead for more than a hundred
years, and is admitted even by the most fervent
worshippers of Muscovite autocracy to have
been crazy, yet the Pavlovsh Regiment con-
tinues to be recruited to this day in the same
manner as at the time of it's creation namely,
by the shape of its noses
It is likewise to this intense conservatism of
Russia that must be ascrbed the retention of
the strange practice instituted under Emperor
Paul of compelling the Pavlovskis. to blow their
noses Immediately before the appearance upon
the scene of the sovereign, on the occasion of
any inspection by him of the regiment. Car
Paul was terribly superstitious, and con-
Vinced that for any one to sneeZe in his pres
sufficient to bring him bad luck. It
seems that on one occasion several of the Paw
lOvskis happened to sneeze while he was passing
the regiment in review. Perhaps the peculiarly
open and exposed character of their nostrils
rendered them more prone to the sneezing habit
Be this as it may, Paul gave peremptory orders
that there should be more sneezng in the
ranks, and accordingly the officers instituted the
practice Of causing the to blow their noses
at the word Of command Immediately before
the inspection by the monarch began. I am
sorry to have to add that pocket handkerchiefs
rot in fashion in the regiment at any rate
among the rank and file of the Pavlovskis They
instead thereof that which was employed
for the purpose long before the invention of
pocket handkerchiefs, and to which even some
American citizens, more especially those who
citizens by adoption have been known to
resOrt-namely, the f1ngep-and the spectacle
afforded by a regiment of between 1000 and
5000 stalwart men blowing their oddly shaped
noses with their fingers and with a loud noise
at the word Of command, as a sort Of trumpet
signal of the Emperors approach, is altogether
remarkable
That Emperor Paul should have regarded
sneeZing unlucky must be ascrbed to the
pronounced Oriental strain in the Russian char
acter. Throughout Oriental countries, no mat
ter what the religion the sneeze has aIways
been regarded as portending misfortune and as
resulting from the influence of the spirit of evil
This belief was probably confirmed by the cir
cumstance that in certain plaques that reached
Europe from the East, both previous and sub
sequent to the Christian era, sternutation con-
stftuted one of the principal symptoms of the
malady. Polydore Vergil, in describing the
plague which swept over the Old World toward
the middle of the sixth century asserted that
the infected fell down dead sneezine thoupb
apparently in good health" That the supersti
ton existed in the days of Buddha is apparent