The Providence News

DEATH NEAR.
Officials and Friends Hastening to the Czar.
Appeals to the Deity to Spare the Monarch's Life.
By The Associated Press.
London, Oct. 20.—The last red tape cordon that is always drawn around the truth by diplomacy was broken when M. de Staal, the Russian ambassador to Great Britain, admitted that telegrams that had been received at the embassy preclude any hope that the sufferer of Yalta would never again rise from his bed. Baron Mohrenheim, Russian ambassador to France, furnished the Paris Figaro with the same unwelcome news.
If this is not sufficient, the flight of court officials, the forced journeys of members of the Russian imperial family, the alarm of the various courts, the shivering bourses and the prayers offered up in churches are irrefutable testimony of the fact that the czar is dying.
Throughout the day and evening a rain of telegrams has fallen in this city. Compiled and sifted, these facts are gleaned: M. Benkendorff, the Russian court chamberlain, has countermanded every order that has been issued in connection with the proposed visit of the czar to Corfu. Many officials have started for Livadia. Princess Alix, the czarewitch's betrothed, will arrive at Yalta, where the czar is sojourning, on Monday, and she will be preceded by a few hours by Grand Duke Vladimir. The Grand Duke Alix arrived in Paris yesterday morning, and left last night on the Oriental express, which is due at Yalta on Tuesday.
Around the palace at Yalta there was yesterday placed a triple cordon of police and soldiers, in order that no access could be had to the palace from without, and that nothing from within could escape to the world unless it first passed through the crucible of censorship.
Uneasy Feeling Among Financiers.
So grave are the issues depending upon the czar's life that even the people of Russia are obliged to be satisfied with curt official bulletins so meager as to suggest in every case fully chosen word theory of the worst. This is the reading by the bourses, to which the London stock market furnished a prompt echo. Russian securities declined from weakness, but it seemed that the markets everywhere were checked later by heavy purchases which, it is reported, were made on account of the Russian treasury in order to prevent a panic. Thus the uneasy feeling among financiers found its foil.
Dispatches received from St. Petersburg report that the city wears its usual aspect, except that crowds of people are in every street grouped about the places where the bulletins were posted. Here they have been clustered, waiting the receipt of further news. Last night the theaters were open as usual, but the audiences were oppressed by a sense of calamity. In Russia this is entirely neutral.
Many Sympathizers.
What certainly is a remarkable feature of the present crisis is the sympathy developed within the past 24 hours in London for the czar, the man and the sufferer. In the clubs, omnibuses, trains and everywhere where people come together there is hardly any subject discussed but that of the czar's sickness.
The keenness of English sympathy has been deepened by the news that a nerve specialist has been called to the side of the czarina, sister of the Princess of Wales, who is herself threatened by the strain of nursing the dying emperor. Nor are the English alone in their sympathy. From Cettinje, the capital of Montenegro, Prince Nicholas this morning telegraphed to the czarewitch, saying: "In the deep anxiety and pain which the news from Livadia causes me, I can only unite my prayers with yours for a lengthening of the precious days of my great and noble protector."
Prayers For Recovery.
The churches throughout Russia held special services yesterday for the recovery of the czar. In the Cathedral of St. Isaac in St. Petersburg the highest officials to the moujiks joined in solemn petition to God to save the czar.
In the Russian church in Paris services were also held, and were attended by many notabilities. The services were marked with deep emotion, yet the thoughts of those present must have flown ahead, asking: "When the czar is dead, what then?"
The Temps answers the question thus:
"In the day when his majesty passes away, beyond dispute the prestige of Russia will not be diminished, neither will the reasons which have drawn her to France be weakened, nor will the sentiments uniting the two peoples be altered, but Europe as a moral entity will have sustained an appreciable loss. She will lack a portion of her conscience. This is great praise for a prince, Alexander alone has merited it."
London admits that a serious crisis is possible, but yet hardly probable.
His Condition Unchanged.
A bulletin issued at Livadia at 10 o'clock last night says that the czar passed Thursday almost without sleep. His general weakness and the action of his heart are unchanged. The oedema of the feet, which previously appeared, has increased. His general condition is unchanged. This bulletin is signed by the five doctors in attendance upon him.
Further news from Livadia is anxiously waited. All kinds of conflicting rumors are afloat. It is impossible to learn anything in official quarters beyond the bulletins. Several Russian journals have hurriedly sent special correspondents to Livadia. Grave fears are expressed that Princess Alix will arrive at Yalta too late to allow of her marriage to the czarewitch taking place before the czar's death.