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The Czarina of Russia, In Her Imperial State Cost ume, Showing the Sad,
the Skill of the Court Photographer Could Not Conceal . . .
Et Petersburg, As-met l.
I
T ts no secret that the mind of the
Csrlea of Russia hat been seriously
affected tor many years paat. She was
subject to a marked form of melancholia,
with other mental peculiarities. Physi
cians who had examined her feared that
she was drlfUnr Into hopeless Insanity.
And now, miracle ct miracles 1 Her
mental sickness has been completely cured
by the war. That which has brought such
unspeakable woe and misery to millions
of people has brought relief to the once
unhappy Carlna.
It Is the serious hard work she has been
doing as a war nurse that has benefited
the Csarlna's mind. Coming Into close
contact with pain and grim reality, with
human patience and human weakness haa
lifted her out Of her life of morbid self
concentration and exaggerated terrors, and
made ber a normal human being.
The Ciarlna has gone Into war cursing
In a most serious and efficient manner.
Bbe has established a hospital of her own,
known as "the Court HoBpltal,"' t Tsars
koe fcielo, the Tillage where the famous
Bummer palace of tbe Czar la situated.
When the war broke out the Czarina,
who Is of a very sympathetic and Impres
sionable nature, was horriSed at the ac
counts of slaughter and suffering that
reached her. At first she waa nearly pros
trated by these stories, and her condition
berime more serious than ever.
"What can I do? It la so dreadful! It
Is so dreadful!" moaned the poor nerve
racked Empress.
The response of her entourage to these
outbursts was to smother her with every
care and luxury, and to do everything pos
sible to distract her uilnd from the war by
amusements and meatal dissipations.
It wts then that tbe Princess Cedroyc,
member of the highest nobility, who has
tecoroe one of tbe most prominent women
doctors of Rusbta, obtained the confidence
ct Her Majesty, fc'he told her that tbe
Immense suffering among the soldiers
could only be relieved by Intelligent, prop
erly trained women, and that the expres
11 loo of aimless, purely emotional eynv
jpathy might do more harm than good.
The Czarina then began to throw her
elf Into the organisation of her hospital
with much enthusiasm. It was equipped
la tbe uiobt perfect manner snd placed un
der tbe direction of the 1'rlncesa Uedroyc.
The Czarina and her two older daugh
ters, the Grand Duchess Olga and the
Grand lucheos Tatlana, then took a thor
ough course of training In tbe care of tbe
-
wmrm able, to obta.ia the
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Vhy llw Czarina's Mind Has Been Restored
By A. K. Vandeventcr, Ph.D.,
The Distinguished American Psychologist
ALTHOUGH the occurrence must seem
strange to a lay mind, there Is
nothing surprising to the alienist
In the statement that the Ciarina of Rus
sia has recovered from her mental disease
under the Influence of her war occupa
tions. That which unbalances the minds
, of sane people may In some cases restore
tbe equilibrium of the mentally unbal
anced. From the accounts we bar received of
the Csarlna's former condition we must
believe that she waa suffering from a mild
form of melancholia. A sensitive and emo
tional young woman at the tiros of her
entry Into the Russian court, her whole
nature was repeatedly shocked by the ter
rorist attempts on the life of her husband,
herself and their family, by the Intrigues
constantly pursued in court circle, and
by the frequently strange and erratlo out
bursts of the Russian character. Tbe bur
den of repeated maternity tncreaaed the
strain on her physical organism, and the
best possible experience in their hospital.
They took examinations like other war
nurses and showed themselves thoroughly
qualified for their work. It may be re
marked that they have not had the aame
amount of study as regular trained nurses,
but it must be remembered that It haa been
found absolutely necessary In all countries
to qualify war nurses after leas than the
former period of training. The great diffi
culty of the doctors has been to protect
the soldiers from nurses with no training
at all
The Csarlna has given an amount of
hard labor to this hospital which she prob
ably never dreamed of, and which no
Queen la Europe can equal. Che works
at the hospital with ber daughters from
9 a, m. to a p. m. every day, and of tea
much later. She Invariably returns In the
evening, and sometimes, when she has a
dangerously wounded patient, ah stays
there all night
The Court Hospital accommodates two
hundred soldiers and thirty officers. There
is a perfectly equipped operating theatre,
a commodious surgical dressing ward, and
an up-to-date laboratory for X-ray work
aod research
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Worried Expression Which
knowledge that the Czar and the Russian
nation were disappointed at her long fall
tire to produce a male heir to the throne
did not lessen this strain.
The court could do nothing to protect
her against these troubles except to sur
round her with every possible luxury and
keep ber In perfect idleness. Against
secret and Imaginary terrors It gave ber
less than no protection. Under these con
ditions she must have developed a habit of
morbid self-introspection, which greatly
Increased the tendency to melancholia.
Then came the great war. In which the
life of almost everyone around her was a
stake. The habit of doing serious wont
which she then acquired, and the contact
with wounded soldiers excited In her the
normal reactions which all human beings
should experience In their relations with
on another. We must suppose that there
was no gross or serious lesion In her brain.
The sudden resumption of normal contact
wrth her fellow beings, of which she had
long been deprived, but under circum
stances very exciting and stimulating, re
stored to her deranged mental apparatus
the "tone" without which It could sot
function properly.
The Csarlna and her beautiful daughter
wear the regular nurses' uniform, which
Is entirely of white and covers tbe hair
completely. There la a red cross on the
left arm. Many men familiar with fash
ions, declare that It Is the most winning,
picturesque and becoming costume a wo
man can wear. It resembles a nun's dress
somewhat, but ts evientiaeally adapted to
the requirements of the nursing profes
sion. Tha Csarlna and ber daughters take
their orders from the director of the hos
pital and the other doctors. Just as If they
were ordinary nursea They understood
that It would cause great harm and em
barrassment if they received special atten
tion, and so they move eibout among the
others without any distinction such as
would have to be paid to them la the out
side world.
Tb ordinary soldier Is not told at first
that bla nurso la the Czarina. Bhe takes
hold of bun In a business-like manner,
hands the surgeon his instruments, ban
dagea the patient's wounds, attends to all
bla wants and glvea him bis diet.
When she has performed all her duties
h will often ait down by the bedside,
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S . I' The Czarina Assisting a 'X j. .'!'. - ' A; '
."-.ry Surgeon to Operate on 1 l" V - I H f ' " hi
' . Jl a Soldier in Her Own- " " V ,J , J i V '
Hospital.' . s -A i . I !
I
uredtbUnnappy
the Court Hospital, t Tarkoe Selo,
nl Her Self-Sacrificing
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The Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, the Two Pretty Older
Daughters oS the Czarina, Who Are Assisting Her in Her Nurs
ing 'Duties.
take the soldier's hand and chat with him
It he Is well enough to listen. By the time
he has learned that ahe Is the Csarlna ho
has become too accustomed to her minis
trations to feel embarrassed.
The two pretty young daughters of the
Czarina behave in the aame professional
yet friendly way. Many a poor fellow,
with hla spirit nearly crushed out of him
by months of privation and dreadful perils,
followed by terrible wounda. has been
cheered np and brought to life again by
the sympathetic smiles and gentlo bands
of these two charming young women.
The Csarlna had no sooner begun to do
this practical work among the wounded
than a great change waa noted In her man
ner and appearance. She lost the worried,
harassed, melancholy air she had worn
for many years. She even lost the intense
nervousness she had exhibited at the
lightest nolss, such ss the creaking of a
board or the turning of a door handle. 6be
acquired a cheerful though grave manner,
thoroughly self-controlled and self-confident
During an Interval between ber duties
at the hospital the Csarlna confessed to
the director that ahe had experienced a
complete mental and physical change since
he had been there. Her Majeety's re
marks on this subject have been conveyed
JWHBL'!! - .l
an Occupation Which Ha Restored
to yonr correspondent for she wishes
everybody to know how pleased she Is with
her experience In the Hospital.
"I have forgotten all my worries and ali
ments alnce I have been here," said the
Csarlna. "It Is Impossible to think of my
self in the presence of all these poor fel
lows, who are enduring such real troubles
when I used to make myself miserable
over imaginary ones. My only interest In
life Is to see my patients get better. It
l strange that the eight of so much suffer
ing does not make one despondent, but the
fact that one can work for them makes
one hopeful and even cheerful. If I were
only a visitor, making them a vUlt of sym
pathy, the sight would make me miser
able. That often happened to me In other
days when 1 made visits to hospitals, but
now that I know how to do something for
them the feeling la quits different
The patience and cheerfulneej with
which most of them bear their Bufferings
xe a lesson to me. Many of them are
crippled for life, and yet they are thankful
to be alive. We who have all the material
things we can desire and yet are not
happy, have a great deal to learn from the
poor, and this la the best opportunity I
have ever had to learn."
When the patients are convalescent they
are sent to recuperate la Finland, where.
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Mind
man
The Czarina and Her
Daughters Nursing Wounded
Her
Mind to a Normal Condition.
Ordeal Amid
the Woe and
Misery of
the Army Hos
pitals Saves
Russia's Em
press from
Hopeless In
sanity amid beautiful surroundings, they regain
strength, and in most cases are ready to
return to fight the enemy. Tsarskoe Selo
Is not suitable for the last stage of treat
ment, for this little town, besides Her
Majesty's hospital, has numerous private
institutions in which several thousand
wounded are always being cared for.
The hospital which has thus been
equipped is In a wing of the Czar's Palace.
In rooms which still retain the royal fur
niture are white bedsteads with the
wounded lying In them. Every day a
"sanitary" train from different parts of
the theatre of war brings many carriages
full of wounded directly to Tsarskoe Selo.
Count Schulenburg, who was formerly the
principal court official, is the chief of the
sanitary train, which is named "The Tsare
vltch Train," after the Crown Prince
Alexis.
The train possesses an operating theatre
for urgent cases and almost every hospital
appliance in miniature. Especial care is
taken of the seriously wounded, beds are
arranged as stretchers, and one end of the
carriage can be entirely opened. Thanks
to this the wounded are thus easily moved,
avoiding all difficulties which may occur
in turning the bed through a doorway.
Those carriages which do not possess
this ingenious device are used tor patients
who are only slightly wounded; but here,
again, one of the doctors who belongs to
the staff of the train has invented a
stretcher which avoids much of the com
mon discomforts of being carried in this
way. They are longitudinally and horl-
sontally flexible, and consequently they
pass through any doorway with a semi
circular movement and all the time the
position of the patient is comfortable.
Every carriage has electric bells and tele
phones. Tbe train goes as near as pos
sible to the firing line, and motor-cars or
horse vehicles are sent to advanced post
Uons to fetch In the wounded. The train
arrives in Tsarskoe Selo at the Czar's pri
vate station, which Is not open to the pub
lic. The Csarlna very often meeta t-i
train in person. The chief of the train
gives a full account of his wounded, and
they are directed to different hospitals.
Every wounded man Is ticketed with the
name of the hospital to which he Is dis
patched. After the arrival of the wounded In hof
pltal all linen Is changed, they are bathed)
and placed in comfortable beds, and among
them all, like guardian angels, the Tsarina,
snd her daughters give them every help
and their sympathy. Those hundreds of
wounded will go to different villages and.
towns, to remote parts of the vast land of
Russia, carrying with them the memories
of the good Tsarina, who has shown to all
a mother's love for her children, while
she on her part must be no less grateful)
to them for having rescued her from aa
unfortunate mental condition.
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