The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-07-01
FEAR THAT HAUNTS THE CAR OF RUSSIA
Why He Is Afraid--The
Many Attempts on
Ills Life.

ST. PETERSBURG these letters
I have told about the poverty of the
peasant, the squalor of the laboring
man. the oppression of the Jew, and
tie empty life of the Muscovite woman,
but the most unenvIabie figure in all
Russia is the Car himself. What a
dreadful thing it must be TO go through
life arm in arm with fear! How ap-
mailing to grow up with terror as
constant companion! Do you remember
when you were a child how your heart
would come irto Your throat at every
sound when you were left alone? Well,
that same dread haunts an autocrat
:an his life, except that instead of being
the fanciful creatures of childish imag-
enation his COLLINS are real When you
stop to consider the menace that hangs
over the life of Nicholas, Car OF all the
Russias, it is no wonder that he shud-
ders when a window curtain rustles,
or starts at the approach of an unex-
pected footstep. You would be fright
ened. toe. if you knew that there were
scores of men who cared nothing for
their lives provided they could take
yours.
aOBLINs THAT ARE REAL.
Or a number of occasions Nicholas
has missed death by the narrowest
margin. While taking a trip through
the East fanatic whacked him across
rahe head, almost killing him. That
experience took away his desire for
travel. He can't enjoy the sights on
account of the expectation that some
one is going to step out of the
crowd and strike him. Shortly after
his return home he was nearly poison
ed. The drug was hidden in a peach
intended for the monarch. but a prin-
cess happened to partake of the fruit
first, and her death saved him How
would you relish your food if you We're
conscious of the probability that any
bite might be your last?
Not long ago when the Car was in
attendance at the sacred ceremony Of
blessing the waters. some of his own
soldiers fired upon him while he was in
the act of kneeling down TO pray and
the bullets of the murderers just
-grazed their mark. The terrorists
taunt His Majesty by every device
their cunning can contrive. They want
to keep fear alive in him. Once when
turning the leaves of the family album
he dropped the book with a start and
hurried from the room. Someone had
secretly placed therein likeness OF
the scowling, sinister visage of nihilist
who had killed a former ruler. Some
times the Gar will awake to find
Deaths head pinned to the canopy or
his bed, and again he will be startled
by finding the evil design drawn in the
most unexpected places.
WHY KILL THE GAR?
But the Car is a kindly man, you
say: did he not call the peace confer
ence? Why do men insist on seeking
his life? 1t is because the basis of a
despot's rule is the principle of keeping
his subjects afraid of him. A long
line of Russian Cars have held sway
over the people by tyrannizing them.
The lash and the scaffold and the
dungeon and exile to Siberia were the
methods used by the tyrants to ter
rorize the people The populace COVER
ed before it's masters until it learned
the trick of turning the tables. Now
the ruler is afraid. Bombs, poison and
the other weapons of the assassin are
the means employed to instil fear into
him and destroy his peace of mind. Then
mild Nicholas is heir to the hereditary
hate of class that will kill him II
they can. That is why he lives in a
castle that is armed like a fort; that is
why he trembles when the curtains
rustic. u,
The life of the Russian ruler is so
secluded that facts upon which to base
an estimate of his character must be
piecemeal. His religious IN
clination is shown by a strict obSerV-
ance of all forms of sacred ceremonial.
AT Easter it is the universal custom to
exchange kisses with all whom one
meets, and it is said that at this time r
His Majesty does not hesitate to kiss +
the bow who makes his fires or the one G
who blacks his boots. That he is y
stickler for form is further shown by U
his reported refusal of a letter of intro
duction in which the writer neglected n
to spell the word Imperial with u
capital letter. t
GHOSTS AT THE PALACE. p
Nicholas is credited with being firm S
in the occult. He is said to n
delight in the seances of soothsayers n
ana the divinationS of astrologefs- q
Many stories are in circulation about IL
strange happenings at the palace o.
where in the solitudes, the dead are V
,voked and spooks are called forth. 1t Il
8 said that the sorcerers manifested to N
him that he would have an heir, ana n
hat clairvoyants made him acquainted j