CZAR OF RUSSIA AT HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

CZAR OF RUSSIA AT HOME.

'A CHARMING PICTURE' OF.

DOMESTIC LIFE.

A volume dealing with the private life* and mode of existence of Nicholas 11. was recently issued in Paris. The author is M. Maurice Leudet, a member of tha staff of the 'Figaro,' who some time bacK published a book dealing on similar lines With the Kaiser. 'Nicholas 11. Intime,' as the present work is called, is a quite unpretentious production, says the correspondent of the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' and deals mostly, with minor details relating to the pamHiality of-the-Czar, and in'well informed and entertaining gossip. His Majesty, ,16 appears, has an excellent memory. . M. Leudet assures us that he talks. Epglish without an accent, but it is noteworthy, that he does not venture to say as much with regard to French. Mr Heath, his Eng lish master, is credited with a. cdrdlai dislike for Mr Gladstone and a pronbuiic* ed fondness for boxing, but whether ha transmitted these tastes to his pupil Is not recorded The young princes wera brought up with as little ceremony as possible. On Sundays they It dinner the small boys and girls who were admitted to the honour of theill friendship. ■ '■> ' These parties seem to have been \ery| lively functions. 'There was no end to tha tricks the hosts and their small fiesta played on one another. From end to end of the table there used to be continuous firing of bread pellets, which ware ©erpetually striking princely noses or lauding in royal mouths. Another favourite joke was to jog your neighbour's elbow; while he was drinking, or to baptise hiat with a glassful of wine.' This 'charming picture of home life.' ass M. Leudet calls it, isp roof at any rata that there are various ways of becoming fitted for the most polite society. Still, it must not be supposed from this occasional license that the Czar's edtioatiott was neglected. He received a Very strict religious training, and the impression it! made on him may be gathered from a remark he made on the occasion of the death of Victor Hugo. He knew that.th* great poet was a freethinker,, and on reading in a newspaper an account of hi* public funeral he said that he couid not understand how such honours couldi b« paid to a man who 'had died like a dog.'

•■ The Czar rises at eight o clock, takes tea With the Empress at nine, and at halt past nine retires to his study to read the principal European newspapers. This tnslc accomplished, he goes out fGF.a short ■walk, and at eleven o'clock Is really t« receive his Ministers and attend to ttl« correspondence. After lunch he drives out with the Empress, and oil his return shtits himself up in his study, where, he ia. hard at work until eight o'clock, the imperial dinner hour. The importance Gf this meal is considerable at the Russian court, as may be imagined when it is said that over two hundred persons are engaged in preparing and serving it.