Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-25

sion of the Moscow throne by seven
teen-year-old Michael Feodorovltch Ro-
MANOR, son of Metropolitan Phllafete.
In little Nicholas veins propapiy runs
no drop of Michael's blood; the courtly
Almanach de Gotha calls him Roman
-Holstein- Gottorp, and spectators on
the, legitimacy of his alleged ancestors
refuse him even that name. But Ro-
manoff sounds grander than Holsteln-
Gottorp, and now that for three nun
dred wears soi-dieant ROmanoH line
has ruled Russia. Nicholas wants the
fact commemorated. And the brass
bound portfolios contain his ideas OF
how it should be done.
* :.
The plan originated with the late Peter
Arkadievitch Stolvpin. the murdered pre-
mier. who had considerable insight into
Nicholas mind. More than three years
ago Stolypin announced that 1918 would
see a special memorial issue of Roman
off postage stamps. They would begin
at 1 kopeck (half a Cent? stamps with
pictures of Peter the Great, and end with
rouble (half dollar) stamps with images
of Nicholas the Little. The subtle Stoly-
pin announced that the latter would bear
the superscripton ''Nikolai Dobri,' which
means Nicholas the Good; and he let it
dollar stamps represented the relative
values of Peter and Nicholas. mo WON
der" said men. "he keeps his post"
All the Russians smiled, and would have
laughed aloud but for fear of punishment
And they are smiling again today, for
the car. it seems, finds the stamps too
f1imsy and signs for something enduring
as brass. He suggests a mighty monu-
at ncfr 1x,J,o &c
originated. Kostroma is, dirty little
town on the Volga, which has never
ceased regretting that the first Romanoff
did not stay with It, and allow some one
else to car it at Moscow. Since 1884 it
has had bronze bust of Michael Feodo-
rovitch, thirty-eight churches and a ty-
phus-soaked jail. In the shape Of such
jails Nicholas has already many thousand
monuments to his painful dynasty; but he
is an ambitious man, and wants some
thing nicer. And he has decreed that
Volgaside kostroma shall have its own
real. live, topping monument of granite
or sandstone and bronze. with angels,
cherubs, lions, swords. banners, Roman
off-Holstein-G ottorp effgies, and with the
cap Rf Monomakh. the orb of Peter the
Great, and all the glittering insignia of
autocracy.
y x
And just as Kaiser Wilhelm did with
his Sieges-Allee, SO has Nicholas done
with his KOStroma monument. He or
dered a preliminary subscription to be
announced. 1t brought in s1,6S3 AS
there are 16O,00O,OOO Muscoyites, it APP
pears that each of them offered an aver
age thousandth part of a cent-a not eX-
travagant estimate of the value of the
dynasty. Being himself a thrifty man,
Nicholas was not discouraged, and he
ordered competition of designs. Seven
distinguished academy professors acted
as judges, and about twenty artists sent
in drawings. The first prize fell to the
joint design of the artists Sollogub, Bart,
Ruchlaidieff. Ovsiannikoff and Rohilsen.
1t is granite obelisk decorated with
bronze-gilt portraits of the cars. On
the top is the cap of Monomakh, upon
and at the base is the stately figure Of
the first Romanoff czar. Below it are
lions and emblems Of military might. 1t
is pleasing drawing, which everybody
praised, and couriers brought 1t in haste
to sea-girt Livadia.
Behold Nicholas as Maecenas! But just
as Rome's Maecenas was a poet as well
as patron of poetry. so Russias aims
to be artist as well as patron OF art. The
courfers came back to st. Petersburg
with imperial lamentations. Nicholas said
that the monument was too angular, that
1t gave too much prominence to Michael
Feodorovitch, and he rounded off the cor
ners with his imperial pencil. When lie
had thus improved it he declared that he
did not like 1t at ALL and that he pre-