A BEAUTIFUL EMPRESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12609, 25 June 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

A BEAUTIFUL EMPRESS.

THE TSARINA'S CUP OF SORROW. ■ Tirs thoughts of Europe are ' inevitably much with Russia at the moment, -and;to; think of Russia, says a writer 'in T.P.'s Weekly, is almost surely sooner or later to recall the figure of the! woman whom ;ah eye-witness at the great Russian Coronation a few years ago described as : looking,(in the dazzling spirituality of her beauty, more like an angel than an ordinary human being. The burden and misery of this war fall heavily upon the Empress of Russia. Sensitive and tender to an acute degree, (all the bereavements of her subjects ; will come home to her. Each fresh widowhood for Russia's sake will pierce her with understanding, each fresh parent' robbed of (a son will add: a drop of sorrow to a cup brim-, ming already. In addition to the political gravity of the situation, the Empress,- .as a woman, endures a sharpened ; reahsation of (horrors of war, and more especially when that war takes "the form of a naval . contest. ';■( (Few, i: princesses,' however, ,; have been t more prepared by ea4y upbringing for a strenuous life (than! the former (Princess Alice of Hesse. Her mother, daughter of our own Queen, was herself a very serious woman, and inculcated in her children, says an article in La Vie Henrense, the fact that duty and not happiness was the destiny of each of us. Of the life of most princesses she was inclined to speak tersely. "Illusion, disillusion, and resignation" summed up, she said, the whole business. The education of the young Princess was, however, more severe than that of an (ordinary girl. She and her sisters had to be up punctually eveiy morning at seven, and having had breakfast, at once set to work upon their lessons. With intervals for exercise work continued all (day long, and it is with real regret that we learn that dolls were not allowed, though more instructive amusements, such as magic-lanterns, phonographs, and photograph taking, 'seem to have been permitted. In the case of the Princess Alice, however, there was not a long period for childish games of any kind. After her mother's tragic death—death through the irresistible kiss to a child in pain—the Princess Alice rapidly had to become a responsible person. After the marriage of her three sisters she was for years hostess at the Palace of Darmstadt for her brother. ( * t( » ' Then came her marriage, and apropos of it the writer was told a few years ago many charming little details of the Emperor's extreme devotion to his lovely bride. According to the teller, whose- husband bad a post at the Russian Court, he could hardly in the presence of the suite refrain , from showing his feelings, while there was a story current at that time of an official entering the private apartments to find the Emperor chasing his wife down a corridor —like any other couple might do—for a kiss, and both laughing heartily at the expression of the official,:whose': discomfort at his own unprecedented position. was palpable. . (■ * ■;' ; '( ! "