Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-13
CHAPTER !.
A COURT FAVORITE.


WE LIVE in strange times, when
Wv strange things happen which at
first sight seem unintelligible
and the reason for which we fail to
grasp. Even in Russia. where Rasputin
had become the most talked-of person IN
the whole empire, few people fully re-
allied what he was and what had been
the part which he had played in Rus
sia's modern history. Yet during the
last ten years mis- name had become a
familiar one in the palaces of the great
mobiles whose names were written down
in the Golden Book of the aristocracy of
the country, as well as in the hutS OF
the poorest peasants in the land. At a
time when incredulty was attacking the
heart and Ithe intelligence of the Rus
sian nation the appearance of this semi
vagrant and semi-monk of one of the
most prosecuted sects in the empire was
almost as great an event as was that
of Cagliostro during the years before
the fall. of the old French monarchy.
There was, however, great difference
between the tive personages. One was
courtier and a refined man of the
world, while the other was only an un-
couth peasant, with crude cunning
which made him discover soon in what
direction his bread could be buttered
and what advantages he might reap out
Of the extraordinary positions to which
events together with the ambitions of
a few, had carried him. He was a per-
feet impersonation of the kind of indi-
vidual known in the annals of Russian
history a 'Nremienschtchik," literally
the man of the day." an appellation
which since the times of Peter the Great
had chung to all the different favorites
of Russian sovereigns. There was one
difference however, and this a most es-
sential one. He had never been the
favorite Of the present tar, who perhaps
did not feel as sorry as might have been
expected by his sudden disappearance
from the scene of the world
shall say a thing which perhaps will
surprise my readers. Personally. Ras-
putin was never the omnipotent man he
was believed to be, and more than once
most of the things which were attr!b-
uted to him were not at all his own
work. But he liked the public to think
that he had a finger In every pie that
was being baked. And he contrived C
Undue Russian society at large with
such a profound conviction that he could
do absolutely everything he chose in re-
gard to the placing or displacing of peo-
pie in high places. obtaining money
STanlS anu government oOi'i aus iOi AIiS
various "proteges," that very often the
persons from whom certain things de-
pended FASTENED to grant them to those
who asked in the name of Rasputin, out
of sheer fright of finding this terrible be-
ing i'm their way. They feared to refuse
compliance with any request preferred
to them either by himself or by one who
could recommend himself on the
strength of his good offices on their be-
half. But Rasputin was the tool of a
man far more clever than himself, Count
White. 1t was partly due to the lat
ter's influence and directions that he
tried 10 mix himself up in affairs of
state { nd to give advice TO people whom
he thoOght to be in need Of it. He was
an illittrate brute, but he had all the
instincts IF domineering mind which
circumstances and the station of life IN