Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-13

himself. who hid themselves behind
him and who moved him as they
would have done pawns in game of
chess according to their personal
aims and wants. These people it
was who nearly brought Russia to
the verge of absolute ruin, and they
would never have been able to rise to
the power which they welded had
not the empress lent herself to their
schemes. Her absolute belief in the
merits of the wandering preacher,
thanks to his undoubted magnetic in
1uence, contrived to get hold of her
mind and to persuade her that so
long as he was at her side nothing
evil could befall her or her family.
1t is not generally known outside
of Russia that Alexandra Feodo-
rowna despised her husband, and
She considered him as a weak indi-
vidual, unable to give himself an &C
count of what was going on around
him. who had to be guided and never
left to himself Her flatterers, OF
whom she had many at a time, had
persuaded her that she possessed all
the genius and most of the qualities
of Catherine III. and that she ought
10 follow the example of the latter
by rallying around her a sufficient
number of friends to effect palace
revolution which would transform
her into the reigning sovereign of
that Russia which she did not know
and whose character she was unable
to understand Love for Nicholas
TT she had never had. nor esteem for
him, and from the very first moment
of her marriage she had affected to
treat him as a negligible quantity.
But influence over him she had taken
good care to acquire. She had jeal-
Ously kept away from him all the
people from whom he could have
heard the truth or who could have
signaled to him the dangers which
his dynasty was running by the fur
therance of a policy which had be-
come loathsome to the country and
nn account of which the war with
Germany had taken such an unex-
pected and dangerous course.
The empress. like all stupid peo-
nle. and her stupidity has not been
denied, even by Der best friends, be-
lieved that one could rule a nation
by terror. She, therefore, always
interested herself whenever Nicholas
II was induced to adopt a more lib
eral system of government and urged
him to subdue by force aspirations it
would have been far better for him
to have encouraged. She had listen
ed TO all the representatives of that
detestable old bureaucratic system
which gave to the police the sole
right to dispose of peoples lives and
which relied on Siberia and the knout
10 keep in order an aggrieved coun-
try eager to be admitted TO the cir
Gle of civilized European nations.
Without her and without her alb
surd fears. il is likely that the first
duma would not have been dissolved
Without her entreaties, it is probable
that the troops composing the garri-
son at st. Petersburg would not have
been commanded to fire at the peace
full population of the capital on that
January day when, headed by the
priest Gapone, it had repaired to the
Winter Palace to lay it's wrongs be-
lore the tsar, whom il. still worship
ced at that time. She was at the
cotton of every tyrannical action
Which took place during the reign of
Nicholas II. And lately she was the
moving spirit in the campaign, en-
-ineered by the friends of Rasputin,
20 conclude a separate peace with
Germany.
in the long intrigue which came
20 an end by the publication of the
manifesto of Pskow. Rasputin un-
'lOubtedly played considerable part,
but all unconsciously. Those who
used him, together with his influ-
ence. were very careful not TO initi-
ate him into their different schemes.
But they paid him, they fed him,