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American maaazine Section of bearst’s Sunday American, Atlanta, September 21,i9i3=C~._
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Pitiful Sacrifice of the Little
Grand Duchesses Tatiana and
Olga, Hardly Out of Short
Dresses, to Profligate Princes
They Do Not Love, but Must
Vienna, September 12.
DT has been decided that two at
least of the Czar of Russia's
pretty daughters shall be sacri
ficed to the Moloch of Balkan
intrigue.
In order that Russia may Keep her pres
tige in this maelstrom of carnage and cor
ruption these two charming yotug girls,
scarcely out of the nursery, are to be mar
ried without regard to their own feelings
or the fate that may await them in the
turbulent lands to which they are de
stined.
Never was there a more shocking ex
hibition of the essential heartlessness of
monarchical statecraft and diplomacy.
The Grand Duchess Olga, the Czar’s
oldest daughter, is to be married to Prince
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The Unhappy Czarina with Her Four Daughters. Sooner or Later the Iwo
Younger Girls Must Be Sacrificed Just Like Their Two Older Sisters.
Alexander of Servia, the young heir of
the King, of Servia. The Czar's second
daughter, the Grand Duchess Tatiana, is to
be married to Prince Charles of Roumania,
who will eventually be heir to the throne
of Roumania. These two betrothals are
part of a series of alliances which have
been planned to link
Balkan countries as
closely as possible
to Russia. It is also
planned to marry
Crown Prince George
of Greece, whose
grandmother was
Russian, to Princess
Elizabeth of Rouma
nia.
There are two great
external influences
in the Balkan situa
tion. One is the
German influence,
represented by Ger
many and Austria,
pressing down from
the north byway of
Servia and the Adri
atic. The other is
the Russian influ
ence, which derives
its great strength
from the fact that
the Balkan people
ere largely of the
same race as the
Russians. Hence it
is considered most important to cement
this race relationship by alliances between
the ruling families of the countries con
cerned.
A year ago Austrian diplomats suggested
to the Kaiser of Germany that it would be
an advantageous thing for him to marry
his only daughter to the Crown Prince of
Servia or one of their Balkan princes.
The Kaiser was far too warm-hearted a
Marry to
Satisfy
Russia’s
Ruthless
• and Selfish
>
Ambition
man to follow such a suggestion.
“I will not barter my daughter’s happi
ness for all the kingdoms in this world.”
said the Kaiser with a characteristic
motion of his clenched fist.
The Czar of Russia has no such hu
mane and affectionate impulses. He allows
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“The miserable Czarina must hug
those other two daughters close—
but helpless to save them from
the crowned wolves.”
• two other daughters appeared successively
! Finally, in 1904, an only son was born tc
. the imperial couple.
This little boy has been crippled for
I life by an injury to the hip, which was at
• one time attributed to a Terrorist out-
• rage but is now more generally ascribed
C to tuberculosis. Whenever the Czare
. vitch travels he has to be carried about
i by a servants,
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bis flesh and blood
to be used pitilessly
in the game of in
trigue and plunder
which has made the
Russian empire the
most hated despot
ism in the world.
The daughters,
who are to be sacri
ficed like the chil
dren of ancient
Tiryns or Carthage,
are singularly charm
ing young girls.
Grand Duchess Olga
is eighteen, and the
Grand Duchess To
tiana not quite sev
enteen. They appear
to be older than
their years. It will
be recalled that the
Czar was made
nearly desperate by
the uninterrupted
succession of daugh
ters that were born
to him. After the
two already named
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The Grand Duchess Tatiana, on the Right, with Her Sister Olga.
The Annual Tribute of the Athenian Maidens to tjie Minotaur of
Crete. A Sacrifice Which Has Its Parallel in the Barter
of the Czar’s Daughters to the Balkan Princes.
t The Czarina, the unhappy mother of
V all these children, is a beautiful and
Lr charming woman, who has been driven
r* nearly insane by the miseries and ter-
Im tors of her position.
■ The constant attempts on the life of her
drellsm of the Czar’s near relatives,
the outbreak of a bloody revolution,
the strange and inhuman behavior
of the Czar himself, have inevitably
tended to unbalance the mind of this
gentle and sensitive woman. Again
and again she was in a state of ner
vous prostration, and more than once
It has been reported that her mind
had completely broken down. Sure-
husband, the al
most daily con
spiracies within
the palace, men
acing the lives of
herself and chil
dren, the disas
trous war with
Japan, the expos
ure of the scoun
11 the sacrifice of her daughters is suffi
cient to give the final biow to her reason.
The appearance of the two older daugh
ters is such as we might expect In chil
dren of the Czarina, who is said have the
saddest face in Europe. From their
mother they have Inherited beauty of a
very wistful, delicate type Evidently they
are physically delicate. Luxury has added
to their grace, but the unhappy condition
of their mother and the terrors of life
have tended to make them neurasthenic.
The surroundings to which it is planned
to sacrifice these young girls would make
any normal American parent recoil with
horror. First of all there is the Crown
Prince Alexander of Servia, to whom ft
Is proposed to marry the Grand Duchess
Olga. It is important to Russia to have a
Strong foothold In Servia. because the
enemy, Austria, is close at hand. Prince
Alexander, who is twenty-three years old,
took the place of his older brother, Prince
George, who was too bad for Servia.
Prince George murdered the husband of
one of his women companions, fired shots
at performers on the stage who did not
please him, was picked up drunk in the
gutter at Belgrade and disgraced himself
In many ways. He even engaged in a
physical struggle with his father. He was
compelled to abdicate his claims to the
throne.
Prince Alexander, his successor, has
shown symptoms of behaving In the same
manner. He has been drunk and dis
orderly many times. As there is no other
son to take his place it is difficult to dis
inherit him.
The barbarous manners of the Servian
royal family are not surprising when their
antecedents are remembered. King Peter
secured the throne as a result of the
murder of King Alexander and his wife
Queen Drags. The enthusiastic adherents
of King Peter tore this unfortunate woman
to pieces and threw her remains out of
the palace window.
The monarchs of Europe at first re
fused to recognize King Peter because he
had profited by this murder. Then the
Czar of Russia wrote him a severe letter
telling him he should pursue and punish
the murderers. As a result of the Balkan
war the position of Servia has became
vastly more important. The Czar is now
willing to sacrifice his own daughter to
protect Russian interests among the con
spirators who murdered Queen Draga.
The life of the Servian royal family at
Belgrade is barbarous in the extreme The
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royal palace Is called the Konak. The
food served at the table is usually raw
and the guests eat like ravenous wolves.
A previous king had the main dining table
screwed by the legs to the floor, because
many of his guests in their eagerness to
fight had upset It with all the food.
Now King Peter has few guests at his
table and as it cannot be reduced in size
they have to sit about six feet apart. This
gives less opportunity for fighting, but the
banquets are gloomy.
Diplomacy has assigned the Czar's
second daughter. Grand Duchess iatlnna,
to Prince Charles of Roumania. This
country often boasts of being more civil
ized than the neighboring Balkan states,
but we should not forget that It oppresses
the industrious Hebrews more cruelly
than any other state In Europe, not ex
cepting Russia. Prince Charles of Rou
mania is the oldest son of the Crown
Prince of Roumania who Is the nephew of
the King and Queen. The King and his
wife, the celebrated "Carmen Sylva,” have
no children of their own. However the
character of Roumania as a civilized
nation may be regarded, it Is certainly in
the heart of the Balkan trouble.
Roumania stepped in and snatched some
of the spoils of war from Bulgaria when
that country was embroiled with Servia.
Some day the Bulgarians will want venge
ance. Roumania is not a place where a
young queen is likely to have a happy and
peaceful life.
The proposed betrothal of the Princess
Elizabeth of Roumania to the Crown
Prince George of Greece may not be con
sidered so objectionable as the others,
since the bride exchanges one country for
another that is as much disturbed as the
first. The outlook for a Greek Queen is
not altogether bright, however. The grand
father of the young prince was recently
assassinated. The republicans are very
strong in Greece and they are liable at
any time to drive out the royal family.
Another important step contemplated
by the Russian diplomats is to link the
State of Bulgaria to the Russian Empire
by marriage. With this object they would
marry the Czar’s third daughter, the
Grand Duchess Marie, to the King of Bul
garia’s oldest son, Prince Boris. That they
have discussed this step is well known,
but they will not make any public an
nouncement of it, as the persons con
cerned are too young to be married. Prince
Boris of Bulgaria is only seventeen, while
rand. Duchess Marie is only fourteen.