Omaha daily bee., 1909-03-14
LONELY And GLOOMY
Influences that Rule the Emperor of
Russia.
GRAND DUKE FAST DISAPPEARING
Only Funeral Masses Bring the C1Rr
to st. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Power VIII Nicholas
Turn Recluses

ST. PETERSBURG. Feb. 21-The old
order changeth, the brotherhood Of grand
dukes is disappearing. In three months
the cars two senior uncles have been re-
moved by death; others, the junior col
lateral members Of the house of Romanoff,
are eliminated successfully by ukase.
The other day it was Nicholas Nicho-
laevitch, deposed from the presidency Of
the Council Of Imperial Defence. now it is
his brother Peter Nicholvaevitch, removed
from the nspectorship-genera of military
engineering. both OF them cousins of the
car. AS the ranks OF his kinsmen thin
out around the throne the spectacle of the
lonely. melancholy little ruler fills more
space in the public eye.
II Is a literal fact that the only induce
ment that has succeeded in bringing the
car to his capital in the last four years
has been to hear the burial service or
masses for the rerAOse OF the souls of his
dead relatives, It was so when he sud
! denly appeared for the Inauguration of the
memorial church which rears its gorgeous
Byzantine shane near the Ekaterine canal
on the spot where his grandfather, Alex
ander II. fell to the nihilists' bomb.
Within an hour OF his uncle Vladimir's
death the other day he was speeding In
automobile from from Tsarskoe selo to the
Palace Quay in st. Petersburg-to the con-
sternatiou OF his unwarned police shadow
ers-to be in time to hear the clergy read
the first "panihide.' Between them and
the final laying to rest Of the grand duke
in the fortress church Of Peter-Paul the
car stood through five services of inor-
dinate length.
CIassed as Melancholy
He has finally classed himself as the
melancholy monarch, just as his father
stood for the supreme type of taciturn
disciplinarian and his grandfather. Alex
ander II, for the generous. pliable and
fanciful Slav OF fabulous tradition. Peo-
pie remark the contrast between Vladimir
and the car and speculate on how Russia
will be affected by their rulers turning
more and more inward to his own rumina-
lions.
Opinion abroad decided from the outset
OF Russia's present troubles to speak Of
the grand dukes or the grand ducal coterie
or camarilla as being much the same ac-
cursed visitation to the body polite that
the present cholera epidemic is to public
health. This opinion is founded on fairly
sound instinct, but it is not anything like
an explanation Of the influences hat rule
the car. Especially is it misleading If 1t
suggests that the dying out of his male
relatives is likely to make him a more
amenable modern politician. All the signs
point to the contrary.
Vladimir was wholly free from the fatal
istic gloom that has marked Nicholas II
for its own. The dead grand duke was be-
fore everything a viveur. He lived to
crafty his senses; anything like the per-
formance of sustained, Flooding duty was
displeasing to him.
He took no personal initiative in organ
izing the shooting down Of the st. Peters
burg workmen four years ago, yet he was
blamed for 1t rightly enough. His name
was signed 20 the orders to the troops and
he could have withheld his name as mill
tary commander in the capital had he had
the energy and seriousness to inform him
self for what the mass of the people were
agitating. When he learned from the for
eign press that his name had been given
to a cruel massacre he wept copiously and
sent for reporters, in whose presence he
eagerly sought TO whitewash himself.
Decent Sort in Some Ways.
Aside from this Vladimir had a pleas
anter renown among the people of st.
Petersburg than most Of his brothers. His
sympathy with art was genuine and dis
eliminating. He would have made an in
teresting man of fashion If he had not
been clothed with responsibility for mill
tary and state affairs until almost the last
years of his life.
In his final GOODNESS with the car he had
the support of most Russians OF the upper
class. His eldest son, Cyril, had married
the divorced wife of the u of Hesse,
brother of the czarlna. The latter In her
wrath prevailed on the czar to strike Cyril's
name off the list of Russian naval officers.
Vladimir, who had no narrow scruples
on the question of matrimony, resented
this disgrace on his son and resigned all
his offices. 1t is significant that, although
Cyril was forgiven and restored to his
naval rank three months ago. after the
death of Grand Duke Alexis, he has not
returned from abroad for his fathers