The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-11-10
VFERlAI RUSSIAN TRAGEDY STILL SF4ROUDED IN MYSTERY
Death Of the Car
inaAgainReported
but Lack Of De
tails Casts Doubt
on GreatestRoyal
Downfall ,N$

THERE seems no longer to be
serious question but that the
unhappy last Empress OF All
the Russians and every one of her
children have followed the last Of the
Cars into eternal night. dying as he
Lied. secretly for the moment. perhaps
forever abscurely; executed. which 10
TO say murdared, by their jailers, the
Bo,sheviki So far as has been
earned tina hing was done within the
summer u; Ekaterinburg In the Urals.
All competent witnesses Of the en-
olres fall have agreed in testifyins
that the Czarina was at least the In
strument by which the dynasty was
Undermined and her husband over
thrown. There Is now a sensational
-eport which certainly should be left
Tor the most careful investigation, of
evidence that she was trnitress as well
as dupe. and that the death of Kitch.
sner, who was lost of the Orkney
Stands with the British cruiser which
was taking him to Russia on a special
mission. was encompassed by the Ger
u
private telephone wire.
Champions of her memory will not
need to question that such q wire ex-
;sted. or even that the message fatal
% Lord Kitchener went over II. Both
seem eminently possible. What will be
questioned is that Alexandra Feodo-
rovna herself did or knew OF or ccunte-
nanced the telephoning and any other
1etrayals Of the kind. ...t
Characters I'm Romantic Literature
rhe question of her integrity has no
serious Importance now, but II has in
crest, and in future will have more;
the last Romanoffs will probably be
he characters of whole romantic
literature OF epics, plays and stories.
And as somebody remarked when Il
was rumored that he was dead, the
.ost Czarevitch is likely to be as
Ubiquitous for the next fifty years as
Was the lost Dauphin.
The CZarina was a strong figure, in
the sense of being imperious. infiexible
or obdurate. But she was not u
strong nature Her force OF per-
sonality was the symptom of a disease.
Exactly what this disease was the
alenists and neuroiogls;s must say.
They ARE certain TO pronounce II either
form of insanity or else one of those
Border line troubles, like obsession or
hysteria. which they term the psy-
choneuroses.
Whatever It was. its best known
effects in her conduct were mysticism
which was organized. overwhelming
superstition. and a chronic anxiety OF
a morbid kind. Ever after the first
few years OF her marriage she had
plenty OF grounds for anxiety, but a
person OF sound constitution would
have been able to deal with It; In the
Czarlna's case it dealt with her.
She was a daughter Of the Grand
Duke of Hesse. whose Duchess was
Queen Victoria's second daughter, the
Princess Alice. Thus she was King
Edwards niece. King Georges cousin
and the cousin OF Wilhelm II. BY
marriage and remotely by blood she
was related to her future husband
whose mother and the future Queer
Alexandra OF England were sisters
She was christened Alexandra AliX
and Russianlzed her name at the time
Of her marriage in Difference to the
usage OF the Russian Church.
Disposition as a Child sunny.
She was born In 1879 and lost hel
mother and one Of her sisters by diph
iberia, with which she herself wa
seriously Ill when she was six year,
old. Accounts Of her childhood repre-