The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-09-01
WHEN BABY \
TOOK COMMAA


ST. PETERSBURG, Aug. 11.-Gran
Duke Alexis, the heir to the Russia
throne, celebrates his fourth birthda
anniversary tomorrow. With him cele'
brates all Russia and loyal Muscovites
wherever they are found. In St. Pc
tersburg the troops will parade to. the
music of triumphal march composed
in honor of the birth of the czarevitch.
Banners will be flying in the streets
and the capital will be brilliantly illu-
minated tonight. All the government
offices, with the exception, probably, Of
the foreign office, will 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-
tions to the emperor and empressl and
| participate in q special natal mass.
The czarina, 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 fat and chub-
by boy, much taller, and weighing con-
siderably more, than the average child
of his age. Much to his mother IS de-
| light he is daily becoming more and
more like the czar, but his hair is fairer
and his eyes much darker than those
OF Nicholas Ill. Ety..
Alexandra Feodrovna keeps the
curl cut from the head of her baby
and it is an open secret in the palad
Peterhof that on the czarevitch's IS bl
day two years ago the, czarina
patched by one of her own messeng,
to the Queen of Italy, the Kaiserin tx
Germany, and Queen Alexandra of Ell 81
land dainty envelopes containing h
baby IS photograph and lock of hal
cut from his head.
Describing the scene which was end
acted when Russia IS baby heir took
command of all the Cossacks in the eml
| pire a correspondent wrote at the time
After 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 Is 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 czar 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 czar and his beautiful boy.
with his dark eyes glistening with exl
citement.
| Nicholas Nicholajevitch and half a
dozen other grand dukes followed in
his train, and then the other notables in
| the order of their rank. In and among
the Cossacks files the imperial process
sion took its way, and there was not
man of all the Cossacks who could not
say when the procession was over that
the czar and czarevitch in their royal
raiment had brushed his muddy clothes
and that he had breathed in their i'm
perial breath. Then the supporting a,
grand dukes and the throngs of officers
fell back, leaving the czar and the smil-
ing child alone in front of the regiment.
The czar, holding his boy proudly on
his left arm, drew his sword, and, rails
ing his voice until it filed the great rid
ing school as no single voice had done
before that day, said: "Cossacks of
the Don and the Dnieper, Cossacks of
the Volga and the Ural, Cossacks of the
Amur and Ussuri, today / commit to-
your care my God-given son Alexis,
your leader in peace or war, as God de-
lcrees.' ~
"Cheers for the grand hetman,'
| shouted the frantic little colonel, and
again the riding school re-echoed with
the Russian cheer. This time the czar
smiled and smiled, and did not say his
Cossacks nay. Only the grand hetman
grew restless, and sliding down his i'm
perial fathers leg with the grace of a
born lamplighter, few over the tanbarlS
arena to where his mother sat, and soon
he was telling her all about it, the
grand hetman, saucy, mischievous
child, and the beautiful, though some
what worn woman who listened to his
prattle with tears in her eyes.
81 was glad that the hetman desert
ed his father and the notables and few
to his mother, because they made a
lcharming picture, and because his swift,
deerlike fight across the riding school
gives an opportunity to deny with au-
thority the stock revolutionary story to
the effect that though the heir to the
throne is beautiful as any prince charm
ing, he is paralyzed from the waist
down, and cannot move a step.
When each of the cross bearers has
been honored the czar returns to the
|, 'front.' OF tine lmperlai loge, IolloWeu Dy
the Cossack colonel, a gray-haired wolf
of man, whom the ear now turns over
with evident amusement to his son,
who, though but two years and seven
, months old, is already grand hetman of
, the Cossacks, and now for the first time
is called upon to play the part. The
czar joins the empress and they walk
up close behind their little boy; indeed
we all do, as near as the court cham
, berlains will allow, 400 or 500 "grown-
4 ups" all anxious to assist at the cruel |
y spectacle of a boy prince beginning thei
task, which will last as long as his
life, of making conversation and put
ting those who stand before him at
ease, or better still making them pleas
: ed with themselves.
+. '"Colonel,' began the grand hetman,
quite glibIy, it seemed to me, 81 like
a your birthday. Your regiments birth
III al