The Truth About the Czar.

Evening Star, Issue 8773, 14 March 1892, Page 4

The Truth About the Czar.

Alexander 111. has been more than ten years on the throne; he held an independent command in a great war fourteen years ago; be has been a brother-in-law to the Prince of Wales for a quarter of a century ; yet to this day he is the least known personage in Europe. It is not alone that foreigners have little information about him. His own subjects know even less. When they have told you that he is an extremely good man, personally—that he loves his wife very much, and finds hla greatest enjoyment in being with her and the children —you discover their impressions are exhausted. The veil of mystery which envelops the Czar’s intentions almost wholly masks his individuality. In addition to his great personal goodness, it is urderstocd that ho Is a taciturn man, and it is apparent that he is very fat. Every Russian, moreover, is familiar with the fact that he wears a large full beard, a fact which is not without significance, by the way, for since Peter the Great established the cult of shaving this is tho first male ruler of Russia who has -shaved no part of his face, Rat there popular knowledge of Alexander 111. abruptly ends. It was my fortune to get to know several people—not Russians—-who sec a good deal of the intimate side cf Imperial life, and who talked wi;h a certain degree of freedom about its mure important features. It was nut much that they could toll, after all was said and done, but it at least threw some light upon the hailing enigma with which the outside world has labored sires lt>Sl. The Czn- a man of rather limited mental endowments and acquirements, who does not easily see more than one thing at a time, and who gets t<* see that -Ir.vly, In other words, he is a t or:-, “potts. re '' He has no idea t.f system and no ■ xscutivo talent. Ho would not bo selected to manage tho affairs of a village if he were an ordinary citizen. It is tb ; very irony of fate that ho has been made responsible for ih a management cf half a millio < villages. He lias as abiding sense of the euero ine.-s of thi“ responsibility, and ho toils a-.-tiduously over the task as it is given him to comprehend it. Save for hfier periods of holiday-making with his family, ho works till two or three o’clock iu tiremorning examining reports, i\ading suggestions, and signing papers. No man iu the empire hj busier than he. Tho misery of it is that all this irksome labor ia of no use whatever, 80 far as the real government cf Russia is concerned, lit might as well bo employed ia wheeling bricks from one end of a yard to the other and then back again Even when one tries to realise wh-»c “Russian government 11 is like—with its vast bureaucracy e saying the stupendous task of maintaining an absolute p ‘<so--,l supervision over every individual human unit in a mass of a hundred millions, and that through the least capable ami most uniformly corrupt agents to be found in tho world—the miud cannot grasp the inter hopelessness of it alb Too ablest man ever born of woman coni t do imxt to nothing with it—at I*av-, until he had cleared the ground by killing some scores of thousands cf officials. Ah xaivlcr 111. simply struggles on a: ore litT: corner of the towering pyramid of routine business which his Ministers p 1" up bob re him. Compared with him di-ypbm vg, a gentleman of leisure. Tui i natural iluluejs of mind and the cisormoui buffi'u o: routine went ceuaeb.-isly pressing q o • it ■;> some •vr.y towards aocountio*, f r -he ri? feature about tho C.:.r which n. .it pjzd-s oumideis —namely, tl ah ho d i.s:em to have any notion whatever os wh;t is '. 'lug on iu hia own country. He reads two rin-r —:h • ‘ N >v< <■. V'fir.yu,’ which Suvi r;. !e ■.-■ ed mm to m 1 ph-c/mg to hi) fai f- •, Pi,. .wu oc t wo he became t>, never, .-.ml mc • <i■ hdanin,’ which is suited by a bright m.m »i position for whom the Cz.r has a gn M hj, Prince Mv, v ky. To fbe r iv* c l ‘-■iM-.oi'y is ascribed the peculi >;• licen-m aH ■ red to the ‘ Graffi.iai;ii'.’ l)ii •■' ti■.i •!, limb iu it a freedom of csl--u vvni. >■■■■’ otm.r editor, not even S’.v .rin. -vui'd .i m-" vi-nture upon, Win •[u i- i- --t. j’ i • burg, fur example, the Mg- :■ a ' q lit-- Lankly dcprc'-ate.l i.. ■: , . wifi; wvicb Russia Was (huiC-c in wi-lcemf; of the JVci.'di *!• -■. Similar utterances in ai'.'.th- r p-q-.-r have involved prompt c■: tVct with fh • c-riser. Rut tho 4 Gra-shdcMib, ‘ >, chi , hew than the ‘ Novoo Vre'.ny ’ i . da- Ir i dlie;; ot wh it is called news, The n.w.-p-.perj of I’aiis, much ■ i.s we li'.ugh at *}., m, cm imnej of inform*t'oa cmniv.iMd v-i’li t.-e joum-ab of Si Petersburg. Tb-.y contain only the baldest and b,.resc sk-.-’-,■ m: .m iry of the world’s evc'tits. La in; g. • it mr-ia upon hiitlm and dc ith:j within toe id tic-blooded pile of royalty, a:v.l Mr tb.- rest '*hHly chronicling accidents, fires, t-ivi the like uoa-contentious happenings. Such politic il writing aa is peiraittcd thorn m almost wholly confined to foreign politics, and is usually in controversial comment cp -ti utterances q luted from the Rerliii, Vici.D.i, or Loudon Press. Rut these u‘ter.>,nc-:3 must have been originally harmless, or they would have been blacked out by the foreign press censor before tho Russian editors got them.

It is understood that the Empress rcc :ivcs and read* the l/ndou ‘Times.’ The iviestion is often raised whether she dees not bring to her husband’s attention the facts about Rusdi'i roisg-ive-iTiuient which its St. Petersburg correspondent ha a fur years so bravely published, It is said that on occasion she h0.3 doco this, and that, moreover, upon the ?iK'g j .‘t ; on of her brother, the Crown Prince of Danmark, and the Priced and Princess cf W.d a, s hn tun tried t) put hi-iorc hi:n m -thing of tha arm/oii disgust with which Russian doings serin to have inspire! Christendom A vir curnatriutir, 1 . story toll mo of her showing him a letter on the subject from the iVincesa of Wales, at Copenhagen last month, and of his striking the table with his list and forbidding her ever to do v: ag-iiu. Hut the poor little frightened and saddened lady, over whom hangs day and night the haunting horror of a violent death for those sh-; loves, cm have hut small heart for this mT-shm. The oue consolation of her unhappy life is the tender .affection in which the weary aud puzzled big man, her husband, holds her, Why should she vex and grieve this affection by repeating to him the malicious things which outsiders are saying about his work. That they are malicious I am assured that the Czar firmly believes. How should he learn otherwise? When these German or English accusations of cruelty, cf injustice, or crime, are brought under his notice, let m vvume that ho makes inquiiiee. To whom docs he address these inquiries ? Obviously to the officials. And quite as obvious’y these i Hilda's swear with solemnity and tine unanimity that the allegations are all monstrous falsehoods. A sharper, balder, more energetic ruler might contrive t" force his way behind this barricade of official as-mraoccs which surrounds the throne, and get once in a while at something like the truth. Alexander 111. docs not even try to do this—and doubtless would fail if he did try. Indeed, under the skilful manipulation of one of these officials, these attacks upon Russian honor anil civilis.ui»a have b, d quite a different effect upon him from that contemplated, So far from awakening him to the truth, they have rendered him sullenly aud obstinately enraged at their authors aud at the foreign communities which credit them. The trait of family affection, which is developed in the Czar to almost a morbid sis. to, colors his attitude towards Russia, Ha thinks of the whole Russian people as his children ; to his mind they are all under cce roof—his roof. Above everything else, he will strive to protect their reputation. If scandals arise, his chief desire is to hush them up, to prevent their being noised abroad, lie will make an effort to see justice done, and to punish the offenders, but his foremost solicitude is that it may all be done quietly. Hence one from time to time witnesses the phenomenon in Russia of an apparently influential official being suddenly, without warning or trial, pulled down out of sight and secretely sequestered. He may never reappear again, and all that people will guess about the affair will be that in some way his misdeeds became known to “ the little father.” This quality, upon which those who are informed about the Czar lay great stress, quite naturally prevents hie taking kindly to foreign criticism. In truth, it makes him furious, and for that reason, again, he avoids reading or learning about it.

One farther jaeraoatl point and we may leave the Individuality of the Gear and take up once more the thread of evente. Alexander 111. is called by sundry enthusiasts the Peacemaker of Europe. The informants to whom 1 have referred agree that though he la by nature a kindly man, he ia not at all awayed by humanitarian views, and has no more abstract hatred of war than has any other trained soldier. His objection to war ia, however, very strong, and it is baaed entirely upon his dread of the physical discomfort to which a man of bis increasing bulk would be subjected in the saddle. This sounds almost comical, but it is given to me for sober fact.— ‘ New York Times ’