The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-02

From the Christian Science Monthly.
 METER THE GREATS claim to lU greatness rests chiefly on the fact G that he saw clearly what Russia
 needed and devoted himself un- t;ringly to supplying those neeos. Ills ra+bods were often interruptions; in many instances they were very mucn worse, and, in at least one, namely the removal of his son, the unhappy Tsare- witch Alexis. they were criminal and in human Yet. in spite of it all, Peter had many notable qualities. His love for his country revealing itself in an utter oe- termination to make her great, ana 10 insure that greatness, may nave peeh distorted, in it's passage through the times in which he lived, into thousand unlovely forms; but it was real ana abiding passion, and he suporoinateo everything to it.
 Tn Peters case, the boy was very much the father of the man. In the poy "ho nlaved with his "blackguards,' as ms sister Sophia called them, building wood- O reSSeS walls. ditches and bastions,' 1t IS not hard to see the man who, in after years' arred to such purpose against the Iurh' or against the Tsar's great rlVal' the King of Sweden. The same may be said or the boy of 14 or so, eagerly studying geometry under the Dutchman' franA Zimmerman, or learning shipbulldlng' at the Lake of Pereyaslavl, from the Ger man shipmaster, Brandt.
 Tn these early years, Peter, who as child was joint Tsar with his brother Ivan. shared the many troubles of his family: but when he became sole Tsar as he did in 1894, he took both hlmseH and his country vigorously in hano. lie beean with great military adventure an expedition against the Turks at AA0y If ended in disaster; but when Petet3S
 turned defeated to Moscow in the faSp- vember of 1895, it was with grim detef- imitation to wrest vistory out of deleat' He went right down to the root or the matter. He sent to Austria and Prussia for as many sappers, miners, engineers, and carpenters as money could procure, and when they all came, great army, Peter lived amongst them, the most strenuous and hard working of them all, in his little hut at veronaz building a new Russian armada. The next scene in inc drama is when the Russian fleet hlockaded Azov from the sea, and Peters forces retrieved his defeat on land by capturing the fortress.
 Peter now felt himself at last firmly established. but it was necessary for him to safeguard the future. Turkey was too formidable foe to be attacked sin- glehanded, so he determined to send a grand embassy to the principal western powers to secure their cooperation against the Porte. To this embassy, which set out on March 1O 1897. Peter attached himself as volunteer sailor, Peter Mikhailov," in order that he might have every facility for learning shipbuilding. Politically, the mission was failure; the western potentates were not much interested in eastern affairs; but per- sonally. Peter gained from it all that he most needed. He learned suhhery al Konigsberg. shipbuilding at saardam and Deptford, engraving at Amsterdam and he returned to Moscow convinced, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the one abiding error in his country's ways was conser- vatism He launched his first attack on this conservatism against externals. On the 18th of April, 1898, he gathered to- gether some of his chief boyars in his wooden hut at Peobrazhenskoye and, with his own hands. deliberately slipped their boards and mustaches. Later on. a special ukase forbade the wearing of ancient. cpstuwes, and prescribed the Saxon M Magyar jacket. and French or Germaa--hosa-- That was in 17oo, and the next year Peter entered upon his desper-