Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-06

discovered she was still living and he
had thrown a bundle of rags over her
TO prevent her from being carried off
with the bodies of the dead. He told
her that the cremation and burial
squad of Bolsheviks had been in
great hurry to get It's work done, be-
cause the White Russians We're adj
vancing on the city. They had not
noticed the missing grand duchess
under the rags. He had then hastily
gathered together his mother, his
brother and sister. and, taking Anas-
tasia, started for the Rumanian
border.
Suffered From Wounds.
Between Ekaternberg. Siberia and
Rumania, 1000 miles through hostile
country, Anastasia lay in the cart,
critically i'll from her wounds. OF
the first few months in Rumania she
remembered nothing except that she
still suffered from terrible pains from
her head wounds. She did not know
how long she stayed there. Later, in
Bucharest. while at house OF
relative of the Tchaikovskys, she
succumbed to brain fever. No doctor
attended her: her rescuers packed her
head in snow. During this time she
married Tchaikovsky and had child
by him. She said that she was mar
ried as Anastasia Roma noff, but could
not recall the church where the
marriage took place. Soon afterward
her husband was killed in a street
tightly Bolsheviks she believes. Her
health improving. she determined to
go to Germany to seek her godmother,
81 DIV Of
child was placed in an orphan asylum
outside of Bucharest.
Early in 1920, accompanied by her
brother-in-law. she left Bucharest for
Berlin. The trip took many weeks.
They were without proper papers and
had to cross borders secretly. She
arrived in Berlin in a state of nervous
collapse Distraught she rushed from
the hotel they lived in. wandered to
a bridge over the LandWehr Canal and
leaped
While this story gained circulation
and Russian refugees in Berlin de.
bated it's truth or falsity. Frau Won
Tchaikovsky became dangerously i'll.
She was taken to charity hospital,
one of her arms attained with a
tubercular infection. Some time later
she was discharged, improved in
health but uncured. She went to live
with Frau Peutert in Berlin garnet.
Unable to Identity Woman.
Herr Gutenberg, a charitably in
cined police commissioner OF Berlin.
brought Crown Princess Cecile of
Prussia and the sick woman together.
The crown princess had known Anas.
tasa only as a child. She was unable
to affirm or deny that the sick woman
was Anastasia, and left greatly
mystified.
In 1925 Mrs. Harriet Won Rathleff-
Keillman. a Baltic artist and social
worker, took up Frau Won Tchaikov-
sky's case at the instance of a prom
inent German philanthropist. She was
50 impressed with the patients char
acter she had her placed in the
Marien Hospital and personally
nursed her for more than year.
Mrs. Won Rathleff communicated
with the Grand Duke Ernst of Hesse-
Darmstadt. brother of the Czarina,
begging him to come to the bedside
of the patient, who had asked for him.
He refused.
Shortly after this, however, the
Danish Ambassador in Berlin inVesti.
gated unofficially. Members of the
Romanoff family were living at the
Danish court. The first represen-
tative the Romanoff family sent was
an old servant of the Gar. He could
not recognize Anastasia, but declined
to say positively that Frau Won
Tchaikovsky was not the grand
duchess. Thereafter. however, Danish
Ambassador Zahle began to support
the invalid in the hospital, and he
continued this support more than 10
months.
Tutor Visits Her.
In December, 1926, Frau Won
Tchaikovsky was visited in turn by
the Grand Duchess olga, sister Of the
Car; Pierre Gilliard, who had been
the Grand Duchess Anastasia's tutor,
and Nine. Gilliard, who had been
Anastasia's nurse. Grand Duchess
Olga never officially acknowledged
the sick girl, but was so impressed
by intimate details of the life OF the
imperial family related by Frau Won
Tchaikovsky she treated her with
kindness and solicitude eXpllcable
only by the assumption that she be-
lieved the girl her brothers. daughter.
The sick woman recognized Grand
Duchess Olga and the Billiards. Nine.
Giliard identified Frau Won Tchaikov-
sky's feet, which are slightly de-
formed, as those of her former ward.
The Grand Duchess AnaStaSia sur
fered from a similar deformity. Nine.
Gilliard identified also several BIRTH
marks corresponding to those of the
grand duchess. NJ. Gilliard referred
to Frau Won Tchaikovsky as her I'M
perial highness."
For several months Grand Duchess
Olga and NJ. Gilliard continued to
show the greatest interest in Frau
Won Tchaikoysky case. They cor
responded with Frau Won Rathleft
Then. in the Winter of 1926. they
stopped writing. They stated on sew
eral occasions that the sick girl was
not the Grand Duchess Anastasia; but
they never vouchsafed any evidence or
reason for their changed opinion.
AS yet. members Of the RUSSIAN
imperial family have made no official
statement on the case. Some of them
have expressed privately their bellef
that Frau Won Tchaikovsky is the
Grand Duchess Anastasia. II Is
known that the question of her recog'
milton is still being discussed by them
The DoWager Empress Marie, mother
of the Car, knows nothing OF the
case She is we'll over 80 years old.
Her daughters fear that her health
would be fatally affected II she were
told.
Court Stopped Payments.
In spite Of these disappointments
Frau Won Tchaikovsky continued firm