The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-24

were received royalty in St. Petersburg" said a small, swarthy, wrinkled peasant woman standing in her field, one day last summer when was in the province of Kaluga. Now, when the English King and the French Presl- dent visit us. they are received in the hallway-somewhere in Revel. They are not admitted to the parlor-into St. Pet ersburg, because the Czar and Tsaritsa and their children are themselves afraid to enter the parlor. If the Czar is afraid well, he has reason to be-the people have not yet forgotten Red Sunday. But my heart aches for the Tsaritsa. who has done no harm to any one. My life Is mis- erable enough, but she, poor soul, cries her eyes out-a bird in a golden cage. And even there she Is forever in fear that bomb will destroy the cage and all - And the little peasant woman. who had left off ,aking her hay for while, wiped her eyes with her apron awkwardly
 When Princess Alix, daughter of Lud- wig ", the Grand Duke of Hesse, be- came Alexandra Feodorvona by marrying Nicholas IT., the Emperor of Russia, who was then the crown prince, she probably did not know that she was destined to become one of the most miserable women on the face of the globe. The palaces of emperors and kings have often enough in history harbored heartrending tragedies | and domestic dramas but the tragedy or the woman who is the first lady" of the Russian land, the mother of the Tsare- vIch, Is so pathetic that even the peasant women in -forsaken Russian villages | are touched with pity for her.
 The marriage between Nicholas and | Alexandra was by no means love match Neither the successor to the Russian throne nor the quiet, well-bred young duchess. reared in Anglo-Saxon environ ments student of Renan, of the German philosophers and the English poets, de- sired the match. The young crown prince was attached to the beautiful Polish dancer, Ksheshinskaya, and it was for the purpose of putting an end to that love affair that Alexander III. decided 1 to marry his son to the Duchess of Hesse. Immediately after her marriage, in 1894 | i Dowager Empress), the young princess | learned that the whims of her mother-in- law. Maria Feodorovna, were to be a law to her. At first she made an effort to { introduce the influence of European cul- ture into the life of the court, but she soon discovered a strong opposition in the real Russiann influence which was forced upon young Nicholas by his mother. To counteraet whatever influence the young princess might exert, the Dowager Elm press called the reactonary advisers to her aid, thus dominating the weak will l of the Emperor.
 Little by little Alexandra became con vinced that her modern ideals and her finer views of life had to be suppressed. In fact she soon lost her interest in matters that had once stirred her mind ; she ceased reading her favorite writers. and devoted her time to the study of the Russian language and even became ab- sorbed in the interests of the synod. Still she attempted from time to time to re- form the court life, but to no avail. Some time after the coronation of Nicholas, Alexandra forbade the ladies-in- waiting at court to smoke cigarettes. The new edict raised a stormlof dissatisfied criticism in the imperial palaces which served to make the Tsaritsa more wretched.
 The shocking tragedy that marked the coronation of the present Czar of Rus sia, on the field of Khodinka, which re- suited in the, death of 4S00 people, was a painful blow to the young Queens sensi- tive nature; it is believed that the inn pression has never been effaced from her mind. especially as she saw her husband