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| Alexander III. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Friday,
November 2, 1894.
EUROPE MOURNS
Death of
the Autocrat of All the Russias.
SCENE AT
THE DEATHBED.
Bade an
Affectionate Farewell to His Sorrowing Family.
The Emperor
Remained Conscious to the Last and Met His Fate With Calmness and Resignation—The
Scene of His Final Parting With His Bereaved Family and His Loving Wife, the
Czarina, an Affecting One—The News of His Demise Causes Profound and Sincere
Grief the Length and Breadth of Europe. Message of Condolence From the Heads of
the Principal Governments of the Earth—His Own Subjects Read the News of the
Death of the ''Peasant Czar" With Tears In Their Eyes. Officials at
Livadia Immediately Swear Allegiance to the Czarowitch as Ruler of the Russian
Empire—Grave Fears For the Health of the Czarina, Who Is Prostrated.
ST. PETERSBURG, NOV. 2.—The Angel of Death,
in the shadow of whose pinions the autocrat of all the Russias has been lying
for many days, has beckoned, and the soul of the man who has had in his hands
the lives of millions upon millions of men was borne away.
Calmly and peacefully as a sleeping babe,
he, who could by his slightest word, have plunged Europe into a war of horrors which
would defy description, fell into the dreamless sleep which he feared not. He,
the head of a church whose members number over 70,000,000 persons, took its
last rites a few hours before death claimed him from all his greatness. At 2:15
o'clock yesterday the thunderous booming of cannon at Livadia and St. Petersburg
announced that the czar was dead, and that he who had been the Grand Duke
Nicholas, reigned in his stead.
On lightning wings the news of Russia's loss
spread throughout the world and it is safe to say that everywhere the
intelligence created sympathy for the family of him who, by his policy, had
maintained the peace of Europe.
From America came words of sympathy, for the
dead ruler had always been a friend of the great republic of the West, and
Americans have not forgotten how his father's friendship sustained the North in
the war of the rebellion.
Among the peasants of Russia he will be
mourned with a deep and abiding sorrow, for was he not the "Peasant
Czar?" None of the grandiloquent titles borne by him was thought as much
of as the one bestowed upon him by his lowly subjects, whose virtues were
magnified in him and whose vices in him were entirely lacking.
He who denies the popularity of the czar among
the lowly classes of Russia is blinded by prejudice. His kind acts to them in
their seasons of plague and famine will never be forgotten, and today in thousands
upon thousands of homes, from Vladivostock in the Pacific to the fortresses of
the Caucasus, millions of people as they kneel before their icons will pray
from the bottom of their hearts for the repose of the soul of their "little
father," who was to them as great in soul as he was in stature.
And there will be sincere mourning, too, in
the royal and imperial families of Europe. Not the conventional mourning prescribed
by rule, but the mourning of little children. For who has not heard of the
annual visits of the czar to Copenhagen, the home of his beloved czarina, when,
with the children of emperors, kings and princes around him, he was the biggest
child of them all, joining in all their sports and romping with them like a big
boy.
His death will be a most bitter loss to the
wife he loved so well, that it was a proverb in St. Petersburg that he was
"the only Russian who was true to his wife." His home life was an
ideal one and all his pleasure was found with his own family.
But as the czar and not the man he could be
as stern and unrelenting as fate itself. He has
banished men and women to Siberia, but they were men and women who sought to
kill him for the overturn of the government of which he was the absolute head,
and which he by the most solemn oaths in the mother city of Russia—Moscow—had
sworn to maintain in its integrity.
Since Tuesday, when the doctors informed the
czar there was no longer room for hope, his majesty composedly waited for the
end, attending to necessary state and family affairs in the intervals of
consciousness and freedom from pain. These were necessarily brief, the doctors
having had recourse to sedatives to procure sleep and allay pain.
On Wednesday the czar was still able to be
taken to a window of the palace, whence he gazed out upon the country he loved
so well.
The night passed with an aggravation of all
the symptoms and a continuous aggravating cough.
The doctors and the czarina remained in attendance
upon him throughout the the night only snatching brief intervals for sleep in
the ante-rooms.
The morning broke with wind and rain and
heavy clouds and the weather much colder. As the day advanced the weakness increased
so rapidly that the czar himself, still conscious, recognized that he could
live only a few hours. He expressed a desire to receive the sacrament, which was
administered to him by Court Chaplain Yanisheff and Father Ivan in the presence
of the whole family. The czar then conversed long and earnestly with Father
Ivan, concluding by again asking his family to gather round him. He spoke to
each member separately and at the greatest length with the czarina. He blessed
all his children present. The scene was one of deep pathos, all being in tears.
All this time his majesty was sitting up in an arm chair. After taking leave of
his family he grew gradually weaker and his voice become so indistinct that it
was scarcely audible.
About noon a convulsive fit of coughing was
followed by a slight rally. Then until the end the czar remained quiet, seemingly
free from pain. At 2:15 o'clock he heaved a deep sigh and breathed his last in
the arms of the empress, who then broke down with the weight of her grief. The
doctors fear the results of reaction upon her already exhausted system.
The body is now being embalmed. It will
probably be laid for a couple of days in the palace chapel. The arrangements that
will be made for the funeral are still unknown. It is believed that the remains
will be embarked on the imperial yacht Polarnai Fivezda (Polar Star) at Yalta, where
the Seventh army corps will render military honors.
The whole Black sea fleet will escort the yacht
to Odessa whence the body will be conveyed by railway to St. Petersburg,
stopping at the important towns on the route to enable the troops to render
honors to the dead. The state mourning will commence on Saturday.
The funeral will probably be held two weeks
hence.
The arrival of the Prince and Princess of Wales,
now enroute to Livadia, is anxiously awaited. A special train awaits them at
the frontier.
It is believed that the presence of the Princess
of Wales will afford great comfort to her sister, the czarina, and it is
expected that she will make a long stay in Russia.
It is reported that the populace of Moscow,
indignant at what they believe to have been the malpractice of Dr. Zacharin in
the case of the czar, are wrecking the doctor's house in that city.
The telegraph offices here are crowded with
newspaper correspondents seeking to send their reports, and peasants, officers and
merchants waiting for the latest news from Livadia.
The garrisons at Cronstadt and St.
Petersburg have taken the oath of allegiance to the new czar.
ALEXANDER
III, CZAR OF RUSSIA.
Sketch
of His Life and Thirteen Years' Reign.
THE
SUCCESSOR TO THE THRONE.
A Man of
Courage and Great Physical Power Worn Out by Living In Continual Danger—Interest
of All Europe In His Successor.
Alexander III, the recently deceased czar of
Russia, was the son of the assassinated Alexander II, who was the son of
Nicolas I, who was the brother of his predecessor Alexander I and son of Crazy
Paul, who was the son of licentious Catharine, whose husband was the stupid and
brutal Peter III. Beyond this the genealogy is subject to question, but of the
seven imperial personages here noted Peter III was dethroned and imprisoned and
finally murdered by order of his wife. Catharine died in a fit brought on by
excesses, Crazy Paul was murdered by a cabal of his nobles, Nicolas I died of
chagrin, and Alexander II was blown into eternity by a nihilist bomb. The
family has always been eccentric.
Nominally the imperial line begins with
Michael Feodorovitch Romanoff, whom the Russian nobles made czar in 1613 in sheer
desperation over the prolonged civil wars. He was only the son of an
archbishop, but the nobles managed to trace some connection by marriage with
Rurik, founder of the empire. At any rate, the horrible wars and murders of the
preceding century had left conflicting claims in such confusion that there was
nothing for it but start anew, and so the Romanoff was made emperor. His
grandson was Peter the Great, who was succeeded by his widow Catharine I, and
after her came another era of confusion which ended with the accession of
Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. Peter III was the son of her sister,
and as he was the husband of Catharine II it is assumed that the line is
regular from the first Romanoff through Peter the Great.
The Romanoff blood is diluted to a very fine
strain by frequent intermarriage with German princesses, and Alexander II
married Maria, daughter of the late Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt. Their second
son, Alexander, was born March 10, 1845. There is a story, neither officially confirmed
nor strenuously denied, that he gave the blow to his older brother, Nicolas,
which caused the latter's death. It was accidental in some rough
"horseplay," but it injured the chest of Nicolas, and he died April
24, 1865, at the age of 22, and straightway everything was changed with
Alexander.
Nicolas was engaged to be married to the
Princess Dagmar, daughter of the King of Denmark and sister of the Princess
Alexandra, who married the Prince of Wales. Nicolas was a man of kindly
disposition, and for a member of the imperial Romanoffs of Russia possessed of
much culture. Alexander seems to have been a young man of unusually morose and
obstinate disposition. He was in love with the Princess Metchereki, who was one
of his mother's maids of honor. She was a beautiful girl, and Alexander had
told her of his passion. Alexander II was not pleased with this and sent his
son away. During his absence his sweetheart was forced to accept an offer of
marriage from Paul Demidoff, prince of San Donato, and so, when the elder
brother died and it was decided that for reasons of state Alexander should
marry the Princess Dagmar, he made no determined opposition.
The marriage took place Nov. 9, 1866, and
although authorities conflict about almost everything else pertaining to the
life of Alexander III there is no doubt that the married life of the couple was
almost an ideal one, notwithstanding the unusual circumstances which led to
their union. Czar Alexander II was killed by a nihilist bomb March 13, 1881,
and his son succeeded him immediately as Czar Alexander III.
During the years that he had been heir
apparent he seems to have neglected no opportunity to fit himself for the
exalted and arduous duties that were before him. Whether his design was to so
rule Russia as to make its people happy and prosperous or simply to strengthen
the Russian throne is a question upon which there are vital and radical
differences of opinion. Certain it is that he changed the policy of his father,
who had freed the serfs and had in many ways indicated a desire to prepare his
country for a more liberal administration of the government.
The cause of popular education, which had
received some encouragement under the father, was crushed by the rule of the
son; the press, which, though restricted, had a faint semblance of freedom
under the old, was fettered absolutely under the new regime; Siberia, bad
enough always, became the horror of the century; the Jews, whose lot was never
a pleasant one in Russia, became the subjects of the most malevolent
persecution.
With a private citizen the presumption is
for innocence till guilt is proved; with a hereditary ruler the chances are
even, but with an absolute ruler, especially a Romanoff, the presumption is always
that he is despotic. We may, therefore, with perfect safety, reject all the
excuses made for Alexander III that he was kept in ignorance of the horrors of
Siberia; that the real condition of his subjects was carefully concealed from
him, and that he was only cruel where it was a cruel necessity. That he was a
devoted husband and father is to his credit; some of the worst persecutors have
been so. The hard, cruel fact remains that he reversed all the liberal movements
of his father, gave the penal laws a sharper edge, treated Jews and Poles with
atrocious cruelty, adopted the worst features of so called panslavism and to
the very last quarreled bitterly with his son for not being equally bigoted and
intolerant.
He was most fortunate in his marriage.
Indeed the whole history of the Danish
royal family is the pleasantest in the recent annals of Europe and is
delightfully colored with romance. King Christian IX and Queen Louise began
life in quite a humble rank comparatively, for he was merely the fourth son of
Duke William of Sleswick-Holstein, but when the old royal line became extinct
the great powers combined to extinguish jealousy by making this younger son
king of Denmark, and he took the throne Nov. 15, 1863. His oldest daughter is
now Princess of Wales, and his second the widowed czarina. His second son is
King George I of Greece, and the other daughter and two sons are most royally
connected. So little Denmark, largely because it is little and not dangerous,
is prolific of royalty.
Maria Dagmar became Maria Feodoronna when
she married the czarowitz, gave up her German Protestantism and became a member
of the Greek Catholic church, and by all accounts has introduced a much needed
element of mildness within the blood of the imperial family, for among a
thousand contradictions it is at least agreed that her son, the successor of
Alexander III, is purely German-Danish and quite unlike his father in form and
disposition. Five children were born to the czar and czarina—Nicolas
Alexandrowitch, born at St. Petersburg May 18, 1868; George Alexandrowitch,
born May 9, 1871; Xenia Alexandrowna, born April 6, 1875; Michael
Alexandrowitch, born Dec. 5, 1878, and Olga Alandrowna, born June 13, 1882.
Of his children the czar, as a model family
man, was very fond, and many stories are told of the methods he used to adopt
to give them pleasure. He was very fond of amateur theatricals, and he was
never happier than when getting up plays in which his children were to figure
as actors. Like Charles Dickens, he got an amazing amount of enjoyment out of
the details of improvising play, wardrobe, curtain and every accessory out of
ordinary materials and in the face of serious difficulties. Besides his own
children the actors almost invariably included the elder children at the court,
young lads who some day might rule provinces—possibly kingdoms—and young girls
destined perhaps to be the mothers of long lines of princes and princesses.
In religion Alexander III was a thorough bigot.
He never once doubted that he was the Lord's anointed, ruling all Russia and
her subject provinces by divine right, and that Jews, Stundists, Mennonites and
others who did not implicitly obey his directions were in rebellion against God
and deserving of little consideration. The Romanoffs have always been given to
a sort of brutal devotion, and the natural bent of Alexander's mind was
intensified by the teachings of his tutor, M. Pobiedonotsoff, in later years
the much feared chief of the holy synod of the Russian church. Nevertheless he
taught his pupil morality, and it is claimed that Alexander III was the only
European sovereign of his time who never kept a mistress. He was frantically
devout, and his views on education were those of the Russian priests. As head
of the church he consistently opposed every form of instruction not controlled by
the priests.
Alexander III was a man of remarkable
physical force. He stood 6 feet 4 inches in his stockings, and it is told of him
that he could take a silver coin of the size of a dollar and double it between his
thumb and forefinger. When in 1888 his train was wrecked and a number of
persons were killed, it is said he saved those who were in the same compartment
with him from injury and perhaps death by supporting a portion of the fallen
roof with his shoulders till assistance came.
He was also an untiring worker, got down to
his desk as a rule by 8 a. m. and went resolutely through official papers till
1 p. m. Then he had a light lunch and took recreation and read till a 6 o'clock
dinner. He often wrote severe comments on the margins of papers presented to
him, and these were glazed over to preserve them in the royal archives. His
favorite expressions were: "What a beast he is!" "They are a set
of hogs!" and the like. The Russian word "nezooteshitolno,"
which may be translated "discouraging," was a frequent comment with
him. Once he was prevailed upon to allow a very severe comment to be erased,
"The council thought to trick me," he said, "but they shan't,
but may strike the words out."
He was
a man of unflinching courage. He proved this in the last war between Russia and
Turkey, and though during his entire reign he was in constant expectation of
being murdered. He never hesitated to show himself to his people when he
thought the occasion demanded it, and he oftentimes was accounted even rash in
his manner of doing this. For instance, on several occasions when members of
his household died and notably when his English nurse passed away, he attended
the funeral services like any common person, following the hearse on foot. It
was his custom frequently to drive a pair of horses over the public highways,
the czarina and the whole family accompanying him in an open carriage.
Perhaps the coronation of Alexander III, all
of the ceremonials of which were determined by himself, furnished as good an
illustration of his character as any incident in his life. He did not formally
assume the crown until 1883, two years after the assassination of his father.
The ceremonies were held on May 26 in the cathedral Church of the Assumption
within the walls of the Kremlin at Moscow, for though St. Petersburg is the
capital of Russia the elder city, in deference to the patriotic sentiment of
old Russia, is still the coronation city.
The czarina or rather empress, for the
Russians do not now use the word czar habitually, presented a remarkable contrast
to her massive husband. She is slender and petite, quite beautiful, and with a
refined and rather pensive air. She was long considered the best dancer in the
imperial court and was very fond of the amusement. They had various places of
residence, the winter palace being most noted, but both preferred Gatchina,
near St. Petersburg. Whenever they or either of them appeared in public there
were tumultuous demonstrations of joy, for the masses of the Russian people are
fanatically devoted to their White Father, as they call him. The nihilists come
from a very small section of the fairly well educated classes, and even the
advocates of reform and a constitutional government do not altogether include
10 per cent of the Russian people.
Brave as Alexander III was, the continued danger
of assassination finally wore him out, as it has many another brave man. He
narrowly escaped [assassination] at the funeral of his father. At another time there
was an explosion in the palace and again a narrow escape. Finally occurred the
explosion on the railway to Moscow, and the slightest of accidents alone
prevented the whole imperial family from being blown into eternity. After that
the czar lived very secluded for a long time, and his only real satisfaction
was during his long visit to his father-in-law in Denmark. There he was the
good uncle to a lively gang of children, with whom he romped and boated and
rambled in the woods all day long.
After all, he died young, and now all Europe
is asking about his successor. There is even more contradiction in the reports
about him than in those about his father. It is alleged that he is open-hearted,
liberal and progressive, and with equal force that he is too stupid to have any
marked characteristics and will be ruled by his counselors and priests. It is
agreed, however, that he is very devoted to his mother, temperate and chaste
and studious, and so it is taken for granted that, so far as he is influenced
at all, it will be chiefly by his mother and wife. A melancholy interest attaches
to the second son of Alexander III, the Grand Duke George. In his youth he was
delicate, but under the active regime to which the princes were subjected he
grew vigorous and completed the prescribed course of studies and military
exercises.
An accident, a fall while on a warship,
injured his chest, and he became consumptive. Nevertheless he served as colonel
of an infantry regiment and held command of an ironclad, and as a naval officer
started to accompany his brother in a tour around the world. While in Indian
waters he fell from a mast and injured his spine. He was ordered home, stopped
awhile at Athens on account of his health, and not improving there made a
voyage to Algiers, but in vain. He was sent to a region in the Caucasus
supposed to be favorable to consumptives, and it was soon admitted that his case
was hopeless. His father, disgusted at the liberal tendencies of the czarowitz had
designed to alter the succession in favor of his second son, but instead the second
renounced his rights in favor of the third, Grand Duke Michael, who now stands
next to the czar.
A BODY
STOLEN.
From a
Protestant Cemetery and Buried in the Catholic Cemetery.
What promises, says the Binghamton Republican of this morning, to be one of
the most sensational body snatching cases ever heard of in Binghamton or Broome
county happened early yesterday morning when a party of six persons took away
the body of Mrs. Mary Kane, who died last Sunday, whose remains had been placed
in the receiving vault of the Floral Park cemetery, and carried them to the
Catholic cemetery, forced an entrance at the muzzle of a revolver, and buried
the body in the Kane family plot. The police have not been able to find out the
identity of the party of six, and there is a general air of mystery surrounding
the case. Sensational developments are expected every hour.
The death of Mrs. Kane was very sudden and
the coroner decided that the cause was alcoholism. On this account according to
current report the authorities of the Catholic cemetery refused permission to bury
the body in the family plot on consecrated grounds. The remains were then taken
to Floral Park, a Protestant cemetery.
BREVITIES.
—The Binghamton Herald will within a few days begin the publication of a morning
edition.
—Let all Republicans be at the league rooms
to-morrow evening at 7 o'clock sharp to take part in the parade.
—Do not forget the great Republican rally
at the Opera House to-morrow evening. Doors will open at 7:30.
—Hugh Kelley of Virgil, who was arrested yesterday
for being drunk, was discharged this morning in police court.
—Twelve carloads of ties have been shipped
to Cortland and active work on the electric railroad will be resumed the first
of next week.
—Another young man was arrested yesterday
afternoon for riding his wheel on the sidewalks between the Cortland and
Messenger Houses.
—The regular meeting of the board of managers
of the Hospital association will be held at the hospital, Monday, Nov. 5, at 3
P. M. A full attendance desired.
—Mrs. E. Telyea of McLean has brought to the
STANDARD office for exhibition a curiosity which she has raised in the tomato
line. There are three perfectly formed tomatoes, each spherical in form, joined
together at the side in such a way as to form a very symmetrical figure.
—Mrs. Lesba A. Jarvis of Syracuse will begin
action immediately, through her attorney,
Wm. Kennedy, to recover $25,000 alleged damages from the Syracuse Standard, for alleged libel in an article
published, charging her with furnishing the information on which her own
obituary was based.—Syracuse Post.
—One of the pranks played by Halloween
celebrators was to fill the keyhole of a State-st. store with plaster of Paris.
The "fun" came in when the belated merchant had to chisel out the
stuff this morning before he could enter the store. He offers a large reward
for the conviction of the mischief makers.—Ithaca Journal.
—Mr. Henry Yeaw of Blodgett Mills has this
year raised some pumpkins from seed sent to him by his nephew in California. They
are genuine California pumpkins, small but hard. When they are ripe the outer
rind is still colored green, but below that the pulp is a glorious yellow. Mr.
Yeaw has favored The STANDARD with a couple of these pumpkins and we can
testify that they make delicious pies.
October's
Grist.
During the month of October twenty were
arrested for public intoxication in Cortland. Cortland village furnished seventeen
of these, of which two were women. Homer furnished three. Two vagrants, one man
for skipping a board bill and another for watering his milk, were also arrested
and convicted in Cortland. To offset these, one man for assault and battery and
one for petit larceny were arrested and convicted in Homer, making the total
grist of the month twenty-six convictions.
New
Depot at Cazenovia.
C. W. Barrett has been awarded the contract
for the construction of a new depot in Cazenovia for the E., C. & N. railroad
company. The old structure will be torn down, and the new one built on the same
location. It is to be 20 by 80 feet in
dimensions, and is to follow the same general style of the N. Y. C. depot
at Canastota. There will be no train shed, and the place of it will be taken by
the regular wide cornice familiar in railroad buildings. Work is to be
commenced on the new building next Monday morning.—Cazenovia Republican.
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