The Winslow mail., 1915-02-13

blessing them and encouraging them. Discre-
ton is thrown to the winds Several times he
has penetrated to the battlefields of Poland and
would have exposed himself to the shrapnel of
the Prussians had not his encourage skillfully
rendered this impossible
His dress is simple and he is often seen in
peasant garb-that is a suit of some fine ma
teria cut in peasant blouse style, manly-ook-
ing costume of which the true Russian is very
proud.
More remarkable STILL the queen, always be-
fore the most exclusive of royalty has gone
among her people. visiting the sick and wound
ed. The Russians scarcely knew her before.
There Is in all this ostensibe activity little
than the desire to and encourage
the fighting nation. There is more, for instance,
than inspired the visit of King George to his
troops in Flanders This extra element is anxi-
ETY.. lively fear and not of German howitzers.
The victories of Russian have their sweet
mixed with bitterness for the czar and his
family
Why? The is none other than the ma
iestic figure of tn. Grand Duke Nicholas Nch-
e eoiaievitch, the commander in chief of the Mus
coyite forces. The czar Las long suffered by
physical comparison with his soldier cousin
now he suffers in serious way.
sf ever there was a king in looks it is Mich
oias Ncholaievitch He is full six feet six inches
Sn his stockings, lean but graceful, with head
in which the keenest intelligence is combined
with vast dignity and force.
When he is with the the latter by COM
oarison is weak and insignificant looking, cod
died monarch In secret the czar's subjects are
not slow to speak of this and many avow history
of the past twenty-five years would have been far
different if this tall Mars had been in his cousins
OYace that the humiliation Of the defeat by Japan
would have been spared the proud Russians.
If has to be remembered that the commander in
chief has taken his commission to make him dc
fstor of Russia The proclamatons to the Poles
and the Jews promising liberties in exchange for
loyaIty during the not signed by the
czar. but by Nicholas Ncholaievitch. This was
astonishing in itself and many have maintained
made the promises null and void because the
promising party would never have the power, II
he had the wish, to carry out his obligations to
the oppressed peoples.
Yet would the czar dare to oppose his victorf
oms general by refusing to grant request to
carry out these promises? Such an issue might
prove a popular one for -!icholas Nicholaievitch
The history of Grand Duke Nicholas begins in
an unhappy youth He cung to his German
mother. whose Russian husband had woefully
wronged her and ruined the family fortune. But
cnme TO manhood he followed straight in his
fathers footsteps for the parent was one of
Czar Alexander Us famous field marshals, who
many times had scourged the enemies OF Rus
sia
Alexander III wa5 not especially fond of the
youne Grand Duke Nicholas, for noble and peas
emf alike consciously or unconscously gave more
homage to this splendid giant than to the three
snindling dull sons of the ruler. He ordered
that the grand dukes army activities Lust be
simited to the cavalry-but the only result was
soon to be told that his horsemen, thanks to