The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-22
HEIR TO RUSSIAN
 THRONE HAS EVER
 BEEN 4 MYSTERY
Twelve of His Predecessors Were Murdered and An
 other Took Own Life

other Took Own Life The heir of the Car of Russia, l first reported as elevated to the
 crown and then as dead! Mystery has always enshrouded him-this nt- l tie 13-year-old Czarevitch.
 < He was nearly killed, yet no "out-
 sider" knows what happened to him. 1 A noted admiral committed suicide l because of the lad who was nomin-
 ally to preside over the destinies of ] I160,Q00,000 human beings.
 | And what Is still more startling, 1 upon the boys delicate young shoul- | ders has been said to rest the Curse of the Czarevitch.''
 Ever since October, 1912, the health of the heir to the Russian throne has been the cause of a great deal of talk and never ending rumors. The widest of these rumors was that Russian Nihilist caused the wounds 1 from which he really never fully re- | covered. It was on the 24th of Oc- l tober, in that eventful year, when
 the imperial family was on the yacht fStandart, that the Czarevitch either | became very i'll or was dreadfully in 1 jured.
 l The report that some misfortune
 had come to lCzar Nicholas little son, Alexis, was followed immediately by i the suicide of Admiral Chagin, com
 mander of the yacht This fact cou- pied with the summoning of physi- clans from all oyer the world, the ad mittedly very slow recovery of the inn perial prince, and the secrecy regard
 ing court life which made it uncer- tain whether he would recover with
 out permanent disability, gave rise l to most alarming reports. The re- 1 ports ranged from explanations that l the future Cxar had fallen while in his lbathtub; that he had slipped while climbing on a chair; and that he had
 hurt himself while diving, to the much more serious statements that he
 had been stabbkd or shot by Rus
 sian revo1utionist.
 The undeniable fact is that at that
 time the boy suffered an injury so
 dangerous that 1t kept him seriously ill for many months afterward. Re gently 1t has been reported that he had
 visited some of the Russian armies at
 the front, but host of people in Rus
 sia question whether he ever really recovered sufficiently even to take a sightseeing trip among the soldiers.
 The boy was extremely happy and gay in his childhood. It was ,believ-
 ed he was. to escape the misfortune
 that descended upon him at birth un-
 der disguise of the ''Curse of the ICzarey1tch.' Few of those who have
 borne the title during the centuries
 of Romanon rule have lived their lives
 unscathed by physical or mental mis- fortune :.
 f Ills birth, Rnssla erfpneo1sIy be- Heyed. marked the lifting of the curse The Czarina had become the moth CT of four children Then there was a prophecy that she must bear three more daughters before son would
 be born, and it Is said that the Car
 himself believed . this superstition. Consequently, there was almost hys-
 terical relief. when a fifth child was
 born at the palace of Peterhof on July 30 1904, and ti was announced that Russia's next Cxar had come to his , people.
 | The child was handsome, active, , healthy and abnorma11y bright By the time he was four years old he was I palace His instructors were driven frantic by his pranks- The bearded } Cosacks, whose special charge he was, adored him. The regiments of the Russian Guard were his slaves All Russia loved the beautiful child who
 sometime the people thought rule.
 And then the disaster aboard the | 1,f- al Ina h figure. The hope of Russia was nl at first Presently, news never since !, officially authenticated, began to filter
 out form the palace where the boy lay near death
 Of the scores of rumors the one most accepted In Russia and other : parts of Europe was the claim that 2 NIh1lists had attacked the family aboard the yacht
 Il If Russia ever permits freedom. of , the press the nature of the deed and the injuries will reach the outside | world For a time, 1t was whisper ed that little Prince Alexis had been
 so incapacitated that he could never succeed to the throne. Coupled with , this came hushed reports that the prince was suffering with kidney disease, tuberculous hip, peritonitis
 and hemophilia-an affection which , causes the blood to flow from any . wound without coagulating. Only few times have the walls of Russian secrecy surrounding the prince been pierced. Occasionally he
 has been seen outside the royal grounds and until lately it has been noticed that he dragged one leg when ! walking. That is the closest de- , scription of his ailments which has
 reached beyond the borders of Rus , sia- Little wonder that there is said to be curse over the Czarevitch when the following facts in the story of his , pred ecessors are considered. 9I He follows now 333 years after Ivan l the Terrible; he would have been the l 18th Car after Michael, founder of l the Romanoffs ,and the 18th autocrat l the first being Peter. Twelve of his 7 predecessors were murdered and one 7 committed suicide. Only three Elm } perors and thre Expresses died nat ural deaths. Three Russian Czars 7 committed open murders and nine l Czars committed murders through I |