Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-06

MICHAEL
Roni4NoFF GEAR
full of contradictions extremely puzzling
to the western mind. even to this day.
Under Peters direction Russia was start
ed on her career from barbarism to civiliza-
ton. He swung 1t in a day from the group
of oriental into the concert of occidental ma
tons, in the process himself shaving off
the hitherto cherished boards of not few
of his great mobiles. He put it among the
world powers by winning from the great
Swede, Charles XII. one of the so-called
fifteen decisive battles of the world-Pol-
tava. He pushed out the empires boun-
dares, north. west and south. What en-
lightenment there is in Russia today has
sprung from the seeds he planted by calling
in English and French teachers in all lines,
Intellectual and mechanical St. Peters
burg, the island capital. is his handiwork.
And yet, the worst boor and brute of his
day, he piled heavier burdens than ever on
the already staggering backbone of the
nation-the serf.
The mailman Paul, who made proud per-
sons crawl out of their carriages and kneel
abjectly before him in the mud-who for
babe the wearing of frock coats, high col
lars and neckties-who first fought the
French furfously through his famous gen
eral. Suwaroff and then at the time of his
death, was actually preparing to aid Ma
poleon in his scheme to conquer India-who
eXhumed the body of his murdered father,
er, Catherine II. and compelled the actual
murderer to march beside the coffin, car
rying Peters croWn-this mailman Paul
made Freedom to clap her hands in JOY
when he released from prison the Polish
patriot for whom she had shrieked when
he fell-koSciuSkO.
Alexander Is tutor was Swiss repubt-
can. When it came time for this czar-to
bow to the autocrat that no people can
ever dethrone, he said: They may say of
me what they viii. but l have lived and
died republican, This was the same
Alexander who entered into the holy alli-
ance with Austria and Prussia, in order to
check the spread of republican ideas. It
was this Alexander who grimIy fed his be-
loved city of Moscow to the flames and
merely contributed nightly to the break
ing OF Napoleons power, and it was the
same man who gave up in despair and
turned over the guidance of his empire to
MS chief minister when he discovered. while
inspecting military colony, that the roast
sucking pig which oTnamented the dining
table in each of the various houses had
Deen surreptttiously carried from house to
house ahead of the inspecting party. This
Illuminating insight into petty graft, which
was TOO much for Alexander to endure
resulted from a suspicious princely mem
Der of the emperor's suit cutting off the
pigs tail in one house and fitting it on
in the next
Pleaded for Serfs' Freedom.
This AleXander's successor and brother.
Nicholas I, was an autocrat of the old
fashioned sort Many of his acts I'M
doubtedly rejoiced the shade of Peter the
Great, who must have been especially
pleased when Nicholas asked in a long
memorandum whether purgatory was good
Greek orthodox doctrine, wrote this COM
ment on the margin Of the communication.
NO purgatory." Under him the Russian
heel was relentlessly ground down into the
face OF Poland, after which the grim dis
patch was sent: order reigns in War
saw. His arms helped Franz Joseph at
the critical moment to overcome Kossuth
hghtlng Vailantly for Hungarian liberty.
The streets of ST. Petersburg filled with
reYolutioniSts shouting for his brother Con-
stantine and constitution, Nicholas ruth
lessly played upon them with cannon and
thrust the bodies of many victims into
the Neva, through holes cut in the ice. His
policy toward Turkey made inevitable the
disastrous Crimean war. But when he
found himself on his deathbed and all but
ready 10 dictate the dispatch The en-
peror is dying" he pleaded with his son
to free the serfs. AS Alexander II the
son struck the shackels off 23,0OOO0O peo-
pie.
The second Alexander's life was prob
ably the most consistent of any cars or
czarna's down to date. He saw what no
other occupant of the throne save his
father saw. that Russia, to be greatly
great, must be country of free men. He
pushed forward the development of Siberia
IOI centuries fltSletlSut anu uNuef MN the
seaport of Vladivostok was created. His
armies stood between the Slavonic Chris
tians and the massacretng Turk in the
latter seventies, and thus a number Of
Balkan states sprang into national ex-
istence. But before he was universally
hailed as The Liberator," he was locally
known as THE military tailor" because
for some time his chief concern and one
consuming passion seemed to be that of
altering his soldiers uniforms. When the
case of a student, who had harshIy cTiti-
cised his majesty for this occupation and
had been arrested by the police as a re-
suit was brought before the emperor for
disposal his punishment was that the
young man be rugged out in a brand-new
uniform! And a historical fact impossi-
bic of reconciliation with his humane treat
ment of the serfs, Alexander. on whose
sti!led bomb-torn breast a grateful peasant
delegation lovingly placed wreath, turned
Poland over to the tender mercies of Mou-
ravieff, the hanGman." after the insur-
gection of 1868 had been suppressed
a Curious Combination.
His son. Alexander III, has been called
a coward, because, not until nearly two
years after his accession did he venture
out OF his palace retreat to be crowned
at Moscow. But is II meet to call d
man a craven who, when q railway car
riage was blown from underneath him
and his family. calmly stood among the
wreckage uuguarded plain and
stroye TO comfort and allay the fears OF
all. and especially of that daughter, who,
with horror in her eyes, sprang into his
arms, crying: ooh. papa, Pm afraid that
they will yet kill us air. And he was hui
name enough TO be called the 'peacemaker
of Europe even by such consistent Rus
sian haters as Salisbury and Rosebery; but
not sufficiently tlled with the love of hu-
mauty to prevent the brutal racial and
religious prosecutions of Poles, Firms, Teu-
tons, Jews and nonconformsts that have
led to their logical results under the pres
out emperor.
He kept two things-the seventh COM
mandment and the peace of Europe was
a wits comment on Alexanders career.
Damned though,they had been by the world
generally in most things else, the latter-day
czars have usually been recognized, ex
cept by the malicious gossips as men true
TO and exceedingly fond of their families.
In this they have eXceiled not few con-
temporaneous rulers whose names will nat
urally be recalled. But 1t was not always
thus with the Russian autocrats. To men
ton one instance. the story will not down
that Paul was not the son of Peter III, but
of his mothers chief lover and his fathers
stranger, Orlof. II this be so, then the
founders of the dynasty now shakingly rul-
ing Russia are Paul, whose mother was a
German duchess, and his wife, Marie
Feodorowna, who. before her marriage was
the Duchess Dorothea OF Wurtemberg.