The Washington herald., 1915-04-25
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| Terrible but whose craven atrocities moro
properly deserve the name of horrible,
introduced the title of Gar. which looks
like a variation Of Caesar or Kaiser, but
which is said to be no more than the
Slavonic equivalent of king. This Rus
sian Nero. who was crowned in child
hood. reigned from 1888 to 1854. in the
course of which period the frontier on
the south was pushed to the Caspian Sea
and on the east to Siberia.
The aristocracy of Russia. whose MEM
bers are called boyards. long were the
curse Of the land. and they are yet
hardly a blessing; In the course sSs. OF Ia,
see rising from the countryside the old
castles which form the familiar land
marks of other European countries The
because the sovereign owned all the land
in Russia, and his mobiles were left with
out estate or wealth of their own. They
were mere hangeTs-on Of the ruling prince
fought. and murdered to gain or maintain
a foothold.
Only a stout-hearted and strong-willed
sovereign could master that desperately
to take advantage of fvan's extreme
youth and tho clique of mobiles that OBJ
tained possession OF the child tried to
abuse and even starve him into submits
sion. The little monarch grew up like
savage. filled with a fury against the
plotting boyards, who had misused him.
and by the time he was Is he had become
the terror of his capital.
of all kinds, whether they be great wars.
fires. or floods. And history may have
dwelt overmuch on the fendishness Of
Ivan the Terrible. That he was a most
uncommon monster. however. a cata-
logue of his bloody deeds Is proof enough.
II he disliked the face Of any person he
met. he commanded that the offending
head be struck of then and there. AS
hn eli 20 no n
his sharp staff through the messengers
foot and pinned it to the floor. An am
bassador from the King Of France kept
his hat on In the imperial presence and
Ivan nailed 1t to his head. In spirit
Of frolic, he loosed a pack Of bears that
he kept for his amusement and turned
them upon his courtiers in the Kremlin;
as many as Is scaffoIds at time. dis
patching zoo mobiles in four hours. When
hard times came and the people cried
for bread, he promised them food II
they would assemble at a certain place.
When they had gathered, however. he
had 700 of them knocked on the head
and drowned. At another time. he caused
History stony" would d have have US 'S believe that in
the end. Ivan the Terrible died of a
broken heart Having beaten to death
his son and heir, he succumbed to re-
morse. And for long the people never
passed the Church of the Archangel.
wherin he was buried, without crossing
and blessing themselves as they prayed
that he might not come to life again.
The Coming of the Romanoffs.
For a generation after the death Of
Ivan, there was wild chaos in the Krem-
lin and throughout Russia. A full half
dozen Cars assembled the throne In less
than thirty years and each in turn was
dethroned: most of them to meet mystic
Among the slain was the s-year-old
Dimitri. who was the last of the Ruriki,
and after an existence Of 10 years that
Scandinavian dynasty was no more. In
good time a monk appeared with the
startling announcement that Dimitri had
not been murdered after all. and that he
the crown. The people believed him and
even the mother Of the murdered child
recognized tho stranger as her own son
Poles supported the pretender end the
false Dfmitri was enthroned. He quickly
fell, however, q prey to the epidemic Of
sudden death, whereupon there appeared
insisting that he was the ONE and only
genuine Dimitri.
Taking advantage Of the confusion. the
Poles slipped into the Kremlin, where
the distracted land. Patriot Russians,
however. .swarmed against the Kremlin
walls and the Polish interlopers were be-
% mon,n, sn
The aliens were expelled, but the
wise and prudent among the Russian
mobiles shrank from accepting the per-
ilous throne. 1t was decided to hold
an election and a 1s-year-oid boy.
Michael Theodore RomanofS, was ac-
claimed Car in the Grand Square of
was indebted for the favor OF the cleo
tors to the chance that a few drops Of
tho blood of Rurik. the Norseman.
ism and sacrifices Of his parents.
1t was indeed a wretched kingdom
which the first Of the Romanofrs
tic provinces and the. Poles occupied
the western country. while Tartar and
Cossack roamed everywhere at will,
went. Moscow herself, was in ashes
for perhaps the tenth time. The pail
aces and churches Of the Kremlin
treasury was empty and the people
were impoverished. For two months