Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1917-04-27

was called Taurida. the Russian
equivalent of Crimea.
Later the empress bought the pal
ace from POtemkin for 100000 rubles.
But when the latter returned in 1871
as victor from another campaign
he again received the palace for
present. On the night of February
90 of that year ball was given there
in honor of Catherine III, which is re-
membered in Russian history as a
unique event. One hundred and forty
thousand lamps and 10000 candles
were used for lighting purposes that
night.
After the death of Potemkin the
Taurida palace was again acquired by
the car.
Rasputin's Influence.
To the influence of Gregory Raspu-
tin, Siberian monk and mystic. the
former ear of Russia can attribute the
revolt which has brought into being
new Russia.
Gregory RaSputin-it is q name that
Russian progressives hate with the ut
most vigor. Rasputin is dead, vic
tim of assassination but the whirlwind
he sowed did not die with him. The
whirlwind overturned rOck-ribbed
dynasty that the efforts of thousands
of patriots had been unable to shake in
the slightest.
The rock foundation of the Roma
noffs owes it's disintegratiOn to the
teachings and rituals" of Rasputin,
the most powerful man in Russia In
recent years, the power behind the
throne" and the "cOnfidant of the
czarina."
No one knows Rasputin better than
Sergius Michaelow TrufanOff, who but
q few years ago as IliOdOr, the Mad
Monk of Russia, was factor himself
in Russian court affairs and who re-
Gently wrote q serial Of his life for
the Jewish newspaper Die Wahrheit.
Russia Before the "Deluse."
In his serial Iiodor has drawn a
striking picture of the Russia before
the deluge" 1t is a picture that de-
picts the degeneracy of the Russian
court, of the unheeded voices OF the
people asking for food and justice, OF
graft and license on every side. of
czar-weak-kneed foolish, pitiful. the
tool of his sycOphants. believer In
mysticism-and in the center of this
most dramatic stage of centuries stood
Rasputin, the untutored unkempt. re-
ligious mystic from Siberia, who by
his hypnotic power over the car and
the czarina was able to make and I'M
make ministers, laugh at the holy
synod, force Russia into war and all
but succeeded in making separate
peace with Germany.
Iliodor, first favored by Rasputin,
discovered the real monster Rasputin
, was" and then fought him to the finish.
But Rasputin won. and IliOdOr fled
to this country.
Probably the most surprising thing
about the Overturning of the Roma
nOff dynasty was the ease with which 1t
was accomplished. But a peep behind
the scenes with IliodOr into the court
= life of the car, into the degeneracy of
the mobiles, and to the car himself, de-
scribed by niOdor as a IMAM without
, q tongue, nervous, weak, phlegmatic
hardly able to articulate, an abrupt
| voice, muffled, emitting sounds like
| those from the grave, eyes dull. misty
| and filled with tears" may help to ex
| plain. 1t was the French revolution
| repeating itself.
| Welded Terrible Influence.
| For years the car had listened II
the teachings" of religious mystic'
and the last and the greatest OF thes'
was Rasputin. IliodOr said he pos
sessed almost hypnotic powers and THU
power first exerted itself on womel
and then through them on the court 1t
self. One of those first to fall undo
his influence was the czarina and tn
car soon succumbed.
| How strong the influence of the mys
/ tics was on the car Is illustrated b.
b the fact that IliOdOr relates that whe
q his ministers had finished giving hir
J, their opinions of weighty matters tn
4 mystics would sweep in and get tn
last moments Of the cars attention
often reversing all that the minister
had said. Rasputin, the greatest Q
these, was able to use this weakness
to great personal advantage. and man
S efforts to overthrow him were defea
B ed by the car himself.
Il 1t was shortly after Rasputin wa
Il introduced to court by the wife Of
81 famous general that the revolution &
B 1905 took place, and the car and hi
4 court, frightened by the clamoring {
u the populacc, prepared to flee. Raspl
tin, however, presented such fri
n front that the car again took heal
st and from that moment Rasputin hel
'e full sway.
IN Many serious charges were mao
n concerning Rasputin's personal swa
is over the czarina, IliOdOr said, but
Oh was always the car who Quashe
these charges. What were the pra
e. tees of the cult Rasputin led in II
innermost circles Of the court Iliod'
never wrote, but he limited that Il
S so-called cult practiced the most r
voting rites.
~ The assassination of StOlypin, IliOd
laid directly to Rasputin and the cza
Stolypin had got in Rasputin's WI