New-York tribune., 1918-05-19

into the heart of Siberia, there's
lonely man with a straggly brown
beard who day after day PAGES the
hard earthcn paths in the garden
of the monastery at Abolak and who
night after night, with dingy pack
of playing cards-common, ordinary,
two-bt Bicycle playing cards--dcals
hand after hand of whist.
That man, now broken, dispirtcd,
was Nicholas II, Gar of all the Rus
sias. To-day he is Nicholas Romanoff,
outcast, prisoner.
For weeks before that August day
in 1917 when Nicholas came to
Siberia had been at the little village
of Petrovsk, on the Irish River, re-
covering from chance wound re-
ceivcd in revolutionary riot at Omsk.
The greatest excitement which that
little village had ever known came on
the day when the once royal party
passed up the river to Tobolsk, whence
they were exilcd. month later came
their transfer to the monastery, guard
cd from public gaze by long files of
soldiers of the new republic-that new
republic which was so soon to be dis
integrated by the menace of Bolshe-
visnl.
My desire to see and talk to the
former ruler can be imagined. Here
was story which the world had never
read. A czar, absolute ruler over one
hundred and eighty millions of people,
commander in chief over the destinies
of an army the greatest the world ever
had known--a man who by the slight
est word could send thousands upon
thousands of human beings to their
death-was turned by the inexorablc
laws of fate into an exile in his native
land. an outcast, with, so it seemed,
not friend on earth. What better
story could one have had?
Refused Permission
To See Gar
Ny petition was first presented to the
military commander at Tobolsk. A curt
negative was my reply: "It is impos-
siblc!" Repeated efforts met with the
same result Then, after weeks of dis
couragement, there came to the inland
citadel the commander of all the east
ern Cossacks, General Semenoff, whose
achievements in the cause of Kerensky
have placed him in the top ranks of the
military leaders of the Slavic empire.
To him my appeal that the peoples of
other nations were anxiously awaiting
news as to the treatment of the royal
family was based. And permission was
given for two weeks stay at the mon
astery, with my interpreter, young
Jew by the name of Isadore Levinsky,
product of New York City slums, and
linguist par excellence.
at was Russa's will"
Seated on a plain log bench beneath
a giant larch Nicholas Romanoff, paler,
thinner, a spectre of his former self,
thus answered my first question: "Do
you believe that pour rule was so un-
just that your abdication was neces-
sary?"
His was the attitude of a man who,
fatalist at heart, had accepted, impa
tiently, yet without rancor or recrimi-
nation, the judgment of his people. And
that acceptance was reflected in his
bearing, his manner, his speech. His
former irritability, his egotistic belief
in his Divine mission to rule, were gone.
In their place was a man without mo-
tive in life, content to drift wherever
the wind might blow. His greatest con-
cern, it seemed, was in the ultimate
fate Of his son.
"What will be the result Of the war
and the revolution? Will it end with
nv family condemned to everlasting
exile, or will we be allowed to live our
lives either as plain Russian citizens
or as residents in some foreign coun-
try?" he asked few days after my
arrival. "And do you believe that the
Russian people, as a mass, are capable
of establishing a government with
the stability and the power to take its
place among LQe uatlOuS OIL lHo WOIiO
And | was forced to give my opinion
that until t:le mass of the Russian
people had had an opportunity to
achieve a much higher plane of knowl-
edge, through the establishment of a
compulsory public school system and
other advantages of education, that
government in Russia, unless some
man strong enough to assume and re-
tain control of a dictatorship should
arise. would be for many years in q
greater or less state of dissension and
unrest.
Nicholas Merely
Misguided Ruler
Nicholas has mind as simple as
that Of the most ignorant of his peas
ants, yet mind to which knowledge
is gradually coming. He was merely
misguided ruler, trusting the words
and whispers of his advisers and his
Tcuton Queen, as against the words
and statements Of those few-those
pitifully few-real patriots who were
able to gain his ear. The real truth
hut seldom reached him in its virgin
! form-it was tainted beyond all recog-
rition by the lies and exaggerations
| CT his lieuterants. To-day-he under
stands. He has awakened somewhat