The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-09
THE FATHER OF RUSSIA

Peter the Great, honored by all Russians as the monarch who startled a world power, was born 244 years ago today, June 9, 1872. Plans have al- ready been made for a great ce1ebra- ton in 'Petrograd, the city he found ed, of the 250th anniversary of this extraordinary ruler.
 It has been well said that Peter while planting in Russia the seeds of civilization, remained himself a, bar barian to the last. He was drunken, coarse and ferocious man, who de- lighted in playing the role of execu- uoner, sometimes striking off as many as twenty heads in succession. In spite of these terrible personal traits he encouraged commerce, manufac- lures, science, learning and the arts, and during his bloody reign complete ly transformed the country
 Peter the Great as a husband and lover was as forbidding as he was in the role of judge and executioner. He soon tired of his first wife, Eudoxia, and imprisoned her in a nunnery in order that he might marry a, Iivonian peasant, Catherine. Peters taste in woman ran to the buXOm and coarse, and although he had a multitude of n1istresses-some of whom he Killed after ttring of them-Catherine was the first to long hold his wandering af- fections. Catherine was a maid of all WO1k, O1 SuhlpluOuS pnyS1Que put 1II1- moral character, when Peter made her acquaintance. He admired her be- cause of her physical charms, and be- cause of her ability to iron shirts nicely. In 1710yhe married her pub ic1y, and in 1722 he had her crowned as czartna of Russia. Even as his inn perial consort Catherine continued to look after Peters linen, as is evidenc- ed by one of the monarch's love let ters to his wife, written while he was absent on campaign.
 '1 am dull without you" wrote Pe- ter, ''and there is nobody to take care of my shirts
 Before her marriage Catherine had been accustomed to having many low CTS, and she did not permit a little thing like being an empress to inter fere with her habits in that respect Usually she managed her amours so secretly as to deceive the Czar, but on one occasion she was caught Peter thereupon illustrated his horrid dex- terity as an executioner, by cutting off the lovers head. He then exposed the deca pitated corpse to public view, and drove his spouse so close to it that her clothes brush ed the corpse Catherine was entirely unmoved, and kept up a laughing conversation with her husband the while. Peter then had a hand of the dead man preserv- ed in a bottle and forced the empress
 
 dressing table. This had no effect and for two months Peter was in a Su1l<y rage. Catherine's charms were too much for him to resist however, and he returned to her repentant, and was forgiven. Catherine promised to be true to him henceforth, and after wards managed her intrigues with such care that Peter was completely deceived.
 Eudoxia, the first wife of Peter, all though confined in a nunnery, fell vio- Aently in love with an army officer and the love letters which she wrote to him are still preserved. The un- fortunate woman spent twenty-four years in her prison, ill-clad and un- derfed, but her misery was frightened by her worship of Major G1ebof. Send me but crust of bread thou hast bitten with thy teeth, or the waistcoat thou has often worn, that T may have something to bring thee near to me, '' 1 she wrote her lover in one of those missives which rank among the most 1 pit1ful and tragic love letters ever in spired by a heart overflow1ng with af- lection.