The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-30
WHEN BABY
TOOK COMMAND
Five-Year-0Id Heir to Russian
Throne Heads His Own
C0ssacks.

ST. PETERSBURG, Aug. 11.-Grand
Duke Alexis, the heir to the Russian
throne, celebrates his fourth birthday
anniversary tomorrow. With him cele-
brates all Russia and loyal Museovites
wherever they are found. In st. Pc
tersburg the troops will parade to the
music of a triumphal march composed
in honor of the birth Of the ezarevitch.
Banners will be flying in the streets
and the capital viii be brilliantly illu-
minated tonight. All the government
Offices, with the exception, probably, of
the foreign Office, win be closed, and
the ministers of state, the heads of de-
partments, and all persons whose rank
entities them to admission to court, will
go to Peterhof to offer their felicita-
tons to the emperor and empress and
participate In special natal mass.
The ezarina, although much worried
by the events of the past years, still
finds time to spend many hours in daily
worship at the shrine of her little
prince. The czarevitch, from delicate
infant, has grown into a fat and. chub-
by boy, much taller, and weighing con-
siderably more, than the average child
of his age. Much to his mothers de-
light he is daily becoming more and
more like the car, but his hair is fairer
and his eyes much darker than those
of Nicholas III.
In little sachet of pale blue silk,
Alexandra Feodrovna keeps the first
curl cut from the head of her baby boy,
and it is an open secret in the palace of
Peterhof that on the czarevitch g birth
day two years ago the czarina dis
patched by one of her own messengers
to the Queen of Italy, the Kaiserin of
Germany, and Queen Alexandra of Eng
land dainty envelopes containing her
baby's photograph and lock of hair
cut from his head.
Describing the scene which was en-
acted when Russia s baby heir took
command of all the Cossacks in the en-
pire a correspondent wrotea at the time:
tAfter the czar had returned to the
loge the empress came to the rail and
handed over it their son, the long pray
ed for heir, the little Alexis, who came
to bless the palace, by the favor of st.
Seraphim. The boy was all clothed in
white furs, / thought. though the court
newsman, who should know, said his
costume was made of swan s. down and
ostrich feathers. All his pretty curls
were combed out and the little Alexis
wore his hair parted in the middle and
brushed out straight, as is the ancient
Muscovite custom. The ear seated his
little son comfortably upon his left arm.
and the procession formed First came
the swingers of incense and the priests
and bishops, who swing incense, too.
Then the ear and his beautiful bow,
with his dark eyes glistening with ex-
eitement.
Nicholas Nieholaievitch and half
dozen other grand dukes followed in
his train. and then the other nOtables in
the order of their rank. In and among
the Cossaeks files the imperial process
sion took its way, and there was not a
man of all the Cossacks who could not
say when the procession was over that
the car and ezarevitch in their royal
raiment had brushed his muddy clothes
and that he had breathed in their i'm
perlaI breath. Then the supporting
grand dukes and the thronCs of officers
eel back, leaving the car and the smil-
fhg enid alone in front of the regiment
Ine ear, holding his boy proudly on
MS left arm, drew his sword. and. rails
ing ms voice until it filed the great rid
ing school as no single voice had done
Defore that day, said: |sCossacks of
me Don and the Dnieper. Cossacks of
the Voiga and the Ural, Cossaeks of the
amur and Ussuri. today I commit to
Your care my God-given SON Alexis.
our leader in peace or war, as God de-
4'heers for the grand hetman,'
<fd the frantic little colonel. and
me riding school re-eehoed with
nan cheer. This time the ear
nd smiled, and did not say his
. ray. Only the grand hetman