The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-10-15
tragic events inyolying. members of her family and relatives.
 Witnesses Tragedy

l or her ldHlliy duu ISldtlfts.---
 Witnesses Tragedy
 Shortly after the marriage of her son Nicholas to Princess AL exandra of Hesse, at the death bed of her husband, Alexander IIII, the Queen Mother saw 5000 people tramped to death at the coronation festival of her son
 In her late years, Marie suf- fered the loss of her fayorite sister, Queen Mother Alexandra of Great Britain. and her cher ished sister-in-law, Queen Mother Olga of Greece Fate seemed to decree that the venerable sover
 eign should leave the worlds stage only after all her family had passed away.
 l Marie-S -Sophic-F -Dagmar, which was the full maine of the Dowager Empress. was born in Denmark, November 26, 1S47. She was the daughter of King l Christian TX and Queen Louise of Denmark, who were known as if"the uncle and aunt of all Eur ope,s because of their numerous. relationships with the sovereigns of almost all other European I countries. I Betrothed at 17
 I With only seventeen years old, I Princess Marie became betrothedl I to Prince Nicholas Of Russia, first son of Czar Alexander. II, who
 abolished Russian seffdom. It
 was then her sorrows began. Her
 afianced bridegroom, Nicholas,
 died and upon his deathbed he l expressed a wish that Marie
 might marry his brother, Alex
 ander.
 Much against her wishes, the young Princess married Alexander Ion November 9, 1866, as she ad-
 mitted herself, not because of Hove for him, but for political land diplomatic reasons. The IRussian statesmen of that period iwanted the Romanoff dynasty all flied to one of the older reigning
 Families of Europe. The couple , ascended to the thrcne in 1881. a Repudiates Germany
 In her youth the Princess Wit
 messed the dismemberment of her lnative Denmark by the Germans, i, who seized the rich Schleswig- Holstein territory. This embit- : ltered her So much that, in later years, as Empress of Russia. she lopen1y repudiatcd Germany, made la strong alliance with republic lFrance, and forbade anybody to ,. lspeak in German at the Russian court on penalty of paying a fine lof 100 francs. It was during this : lperiod that, according to hither- q Ito unpublished historical doeu- : lmonts, Russia mobilized it's troops Hand prepared to attack Germany. lOnly Bismarck intervention and
 shrewdness. these documents as = sert. saved Europe and perhaps ' the whole world for 37 years from the Great War of 1s14-l8, l Empress Marie was preyented lhy Alexander IfI from playing . anything more than a secondary v role in the affairs of state of hei
 adopted country In all her 'ef-
 forts to secure a more enlfght-
 ened and progressive regime, bas-
 ed upon democratic forms, sht
 met with Sunyielding resistance
 from the mighty Constantine N Pobedonostsev. who from 1887 tt yl19O5 was the most powerful fig lure in Russia and firm believer . | in absolutism and autocracy. Q. The Mother met witl n the same policy on the part O ie her son, Emperor Nichols II pr who more and more fell unde es the influence of the Czarina Alex IL andra. Alexandra believed in tn "devine right" cf Kings, and in
 sisted on the preservation of au 's tocratic power and the tradi id tional veneration of the ritua h' of the National Church. of whicl K the Czar was the titular head.
 Sense of Humor
 II. The Empress was described b ho those who knew her as possessin ,, an attractive and sympaiheti iu, personality, combined with strik 'is ing social graces, charm. and m lively sense of humor. She spok
 Russian, English, French, Gel
 man and the Scandinavian Ian ED guages with equal facility. -Sh AL had five children, to all of whol
 she gave a splendid education. tg- She was loved and revefe fo among her own people for ht nor great charity and her constaf to solicitude for the humble an ,nl llowly. She established many se' in ondary schools for Russian girl Ia as we'll as hospitals and mate ID nifty homes for the poor
 ,ce In 1905, just before the rev, ys, lution of that year, the quet da mother urged the Czar to gi' ,ho 1.-the Russian nation the privileg '' of free regime, based upon pa
 liamentary Institutions and ;
 ample constitutional charts