AS MINISTER TO RUSSIA- 1892 -1894 9 



series of apartments filled with tapestries, porcelain, carv 

 ings, portraits, and the like, to be received by the Empress. 

 She was slight in figure, graceful, with a most kindly face 

 and manner, and she put me at ease immediately, ad 

 dressing me in English, and detaining me much longer 

 than I had expected. She, too, spoke of the Chicago Ex 

 position, saying that she had ordered some things of her 

 own sent to it. She also referred very pleasantly to the 

 Rev. Dr. Talmage of Brooklyn, who had come over on 

 one of the ships which brought supplies to the famine- 

 stricken; and she dwelt upon sundry similarities and dis 

 similarities between our own country and Russia, discuss 

 ing various matters of local interest, and was in every 

 way cordial and kindly. 



The impression made by the Emperor upon me at that 

 time was deepened during my whole stay. He was evi 

 dently a strong character, but within very unfortunate 

 limits upright, devoted to his family, with a strong sense 

 of his duty to his people and of his accountability to the 

 Almighty. But more and more it became evident that his 

 political and religious theories were narrow, and that the 

 assassination of his father had thrown him back into the 

 hands of reactionists. At court and elsewhere I often 

 found myself looking at him and expressing my thoughts 

 inwardly much as follows: &quot;You are honest, true-hearted, 

 with a deep sense of duty ; but what a world of harm you 

 are destined to do! With your immense physical frame 

 and giant strength, you will last fifty years longer ; you 

 will try by main force to hold back the whole tide of Rus 

 sian thought ; and after you will come the deluge. There 

 was nothing to indicate the fact that he was just at the 

 close of his life. 



At a later period I was presented to the heir to the 

 throne, now the Emperor Nicholas II. He seemed a 

 kindly young man; but one of his remarks amazed and 

 disappointed me. During the previous year the famine, 

 which had become chronic in large parts of Russia, had 

 taken an acute form, and in its train had come typhus 



