The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-02-26
RUSSIAN REF UGEES
LOYALTY SUPPORT
EX|LED BRETHREN
Those Who Have Found Home
in Switzerland, and Once
Powerful, Sell Peasant
HandiWork

LAUSANNE, Feb. 25.-A large
number of Russian refugees have
| found a home in Switzerland, where
they try to earn a living by making
and selling Russian peasant handi-
work Many of them, in the old days,
were among the wealthy patrons of
the Swiss hotels. Here also is
Pierre Gilliard, the Swiss, who was
tutor in the family of the late En-
peror Nicholas for 13 years. He is
lecturing on the Imprisonment and
tragic death of Nicholas and the
membres of his family, and he turns
over all he gains from this work to
help these unfortunate exiles.
Gilliard was with the little Care
witch for nearly five years previous
to the boys death in the cellar at
Ekaterinburg, where he was shot by
the bolshevists, together with the
Gear, the Czarina and the four grand
duchesses. He accompanied the i'm
perial family in exile at Tobolsk,
Siberia, and went with them to
Ekaterinburg in the spring of 1917.
But he was not allowed to live with
the family there, and he was one OF
the few members of the Cars mousse
hold who were not executed
billiards intimate description OF
the serious malady which constantly
threatened the little Czarevich's lire,
and the shadow which 1t cast over
the life of the Czarina, the Gear
and the grand duchesses. throw new
light on the tragic existence OF inc
boy, who was in constant danger OF
suffering some slight accident which
might end his life.
slightest Shock Dangerous.
According to Gilliard the Care
witch suffered from haemophilia,
disease he inherited from his moth
err. One of her brothers and two
of her nephews died of this disease
DR.. Derevenlko, physician TO the
Czarevich, explaining the nature OF
the disease to Gilliard. said the us
sues of the child's veins and arteries
were SO thin that the slightest shock
caused internal hemorrhage. His
blood had no power of coagulating.
Consequently, any slight wound. even
a nosebleed, might have caused his
death. He was frequently confined
to bed for weeks, and near death,
as a result of slight fall. Once he
narrowly missed death from a bruise
on his hip caused by accidently
| humping into a railing on the I'M
perial yacht. Another time a slight
bruise on his ankle nearly ended his
| life.
In common parlance, a person who
suffers from haemophilia is called
bleeder. The disease was diagnosed
! in the little heir to the Romanoff
throne when he was very young. and
Gilliard attributes the melancholy
which marked the later years of the
Czarina's life entirely to the terror
lest something might end her sons
| life, and to constant brooding ovei
the fact that the child's affliction
was an inheritance from her family.
o O O
Unable to Walk When Shot.
When the boy was i'll. Gilliard
says, the Czarina would sit with him
constantly, and scarcely trust him
alone with nurses. Several of the
boys injuries caused nervous and
! muscular affections of the legs which
famed him for a long time. Two
sailors from the imperial yacht were
assigned to look after him and fire.
| quently carried him about for weeks
| at a time. He was unable to walk
at the time he was shot in Ekaterin-
burg, but his sailors had been sent
away by the bolshevists, and the
| Gear himself carried his 13-year- old
| son into the cellar the night he met
his death.
/ Gilliard declares the Czarina ap-
pealed to the Monk Rasputin to pray
/ for her son when he had serious
attacks. and apparently believed TIL
purayers of the renegade were heart
Gilliard explains. however. that tn ;
grief-strtcken mother was myati