: IAS ii** STORIES OF THE MODERN CZARS. In number the modern Czars of Rus sia have been five. There have been three Alexanders and two Nicholases, counting the Nicholas now in the midst of countless troubles. One hundred and five years have they ruled over all the Russians. To the other Czar Nicholas, who was the autocrat for thirty long troublous years beginning in 1825, belongs the dis tinction of being the only man who ever determined the line of direction of an important railroad merely by employing a foot rule. For a long time the engineers to whom had been assigned the task and the Czar's advisers had squabbled over the kroute of the proposed road between the empire's two capitals, St. Petersburg and Moscow. At last, the emperor, sick of the delay and the wordy war, ordered that a ruler be brought to him. Seizing it, he laid it on a map of Rus sia, lying before him on the council table, and imperiously drew a straight line between the two cities. "Let that be the route," he said, and brought the squabbling to an end. Straight as the line he drew, the road •was built; and to this day it remains the same, with many towns of commer cial importance, that the road should have touched, several miles distant from it on either side. This same Nicholas, as head of the Greek orthodox church, was petitioned by the holy synod, in a memorandum as long as one's arm to declare whether or not the existence of purgatory was orthodox doctrine. The question had long been puzzling th« great churchmen. But it was an easy one for Nicholas. He looked the memorandum over, took his pen in hand, and "No purgatory" was what he wrote on the margin of the memorial. ALEXANDER I. AND THE SUCKLING PIG. Alexander I, he who burnad Mos cow and thus contributed greatly to the ultimate downfall of Napoleon, one day went on a visit to a certain military colony, and undertook a personal in spection of each house. At the first house he and his suite found a commissariat dinner, the chief dish of which was a roast suckling pig, spread temptingly on the table. At the The Cameron County Press. second house, a similar sight met their eyes. At the third, also, and so on. Finally, when the inspection was nearly over an attendant, Prince Volk honski by name, grew suspicious that everything was not as lovely as it seemed, and in one house managed slyly to cut off the pig's tail and to slip it into his pocket. At the next house, what should he behold on the table but a roast suckling pig minus a tail! "I think," said the prince to his em peror, "that we have an old friend here." "What do you mean?" asked the Czar. Up to the table stepped ttie prince, and, pulling the tail out of his pocket, deftly fitted it to its place. Critics agree that up to this mome«it Alexander I had endeavored to up lift Russia, and had succeeded won derfully well for his time. But this evi dence of petty graft was too much for him; it was the last straw. In disgust he turned the affairs of state over to Araktcheief, and, as one historical writer has put it,"the empire returned to its old routine." "PICTORIAL,COLOR AND MAGAZINE SECTION" EMPORIUM, PA., DECEMBER 6, 1906. PUNISHMENT THAT FITTED THE CRIME. When Alexander 11, known to history as the Liberator, came to the throne he at first busied himself constantly alter ing the uniforms of his troops, and thus won for himself the sobriquet, "the mili tary tailor." Concerning this part of the Liberator's career, a prominent Russian has told the following incident: "One day a student of one of the great' crown colleges, in talking over with his comrades the reforms of Alexander 11, declared that the emperor was nothing but a tailor, meaning to insinuate that he was too fond of altering military uniforms. "These words came to the ears of the police, who carried them to the sover eign. The imprudent youth was sum moned by imperial order to the palace. His parents already saw him on the road to Siberia. And what punishment do you think was inflicted on him? The emperor ordered him to be presented with a complete uniform!" Alexander's father, the other Nicho las, on his deathbed had pleaded with his son to free the serfs as soon as he ascended the throne—and this from a Czar who had been as autocratic, and, for his day, as cruel as Peter the Great. This was in 1855. One evening six years later Alex ander, much excited, burst into his wife's salon. He held a paper in his iijifcililiirt/ iiim II ~*l Loader makes a good for its 7 memories, But- for Ihe protect ionoi your home and family get an ' y It Never Shoots Unless You Pull the Trigger | It Never Fails to Shoot When You Do Pull the Trigger | Our Booklet "Shots" Mailed Free It's full of firearm lore; Klves important facta that every owner of tlrennna should nammer know and goes Into the details and Illustrates by seetloual views the peculiar c«»n --l j strufctlon of the Iver Johnson. Hammer fire cartridge,3tf>3B crater fire cartridge fS.OoI l«r flr«- cartridge SU.OO For sale by Hardware and Sporting Goods dealers everywhere, or will llc L Bm ' t prepaid on receipt or prlcelf your dealer will not supply k V f or cwfi't htQtit on wie Ifrlp ami our mine ou the tmrnil. tfSfK New York Office: 99 Chambers Street. Pacific Coast Branch P iui?H.iitfrKe B. Bekeart Co , '£**) Alameda Avenue, Alameda, Cal. EuropeHn Vvr Umioaslbte 9U ce: 4, Hamburg, Germany linker* oft k Joknaou I'ruii Frame Blcydri ami Stitjfle lltrrtl Shotyuaia. hand and, waving it impressively, he hotly exclafmed: "Here is a description of the inhuman treatment that a proprietress has been inflicting on her domestic serfs. I shall never sleep calmly till I have put a stop to all that!" A little later twenty-three million people were added to the world's free men. ALEXANDER'S DEATH DUE TO A KINDNESS. All the world knows that this Alex ander was blown to shreds by a bomb while out driving; it is not so generally understood that he brought on death by an act of kindness. The explosion of the first bomb that was hurled tore off the back of the Czar's carriage, wounded one of his Cossack guards and a butcher's boy, but otherwise did no harm, i Even before the smoklp had cleared away the Czar was seen to get out of his carriage. "Are you hurt?" asked an officer. "No, thank God," was the reply. "I am untouched. Don't disturb yourself. Let us look after the wounded." He was especially solicitous of the comfort of the Cossack, and to both vic tims he ordered all attention to be paid. He was on the point of returning to his carriage when he beheld the would- Continued on Next Page
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers