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P,1",? J R,u,,i ln Her Imperial State Cost ume, Showing the Sad,
tha Skill Af th Pnur PknlAvk. J Mr. a t
St. Petersburj, Aujuat 1.
I
T is no secret that the mind of lh
Cs&rlns of Runl bss been seriouslx
affected for many years paaU She was
subject to a marked form of melancholia,
with other mental peculiarities. Physi
cians who had examined her feared that
he was drifting; into hopelest insanity.
And now, miracle of miracles I Her
mental slcknets 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 Csarina.
It is the serious hard work she hss been
oing as a war nurse that haa benefited
the Caarlna's mind. Coming into cloee
contact with pain end ftrlm reality, with
human patience and human weakness haa
lifted her out of her life of morbid self
concentration and exaggerated terrors, and
made her a normal human being.
The Csarlna has gone into war nursing
In a most serious and efficient manner.
6he has establlahed a hospital of her own,
known as "the Court Hospital," at Tsars
koe Selo, the village where the famous
Summer palace of the Cxar Is situated.
When the war broke out the Czarina,
who is of a very sympathetic and impres
sionable nature, was horri.lrd at the to
counta of slaughter and suffering that
reached her. At first she was nearly pros
trated by these stories, and her condition
became more serious than ever.
"What can I dot 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 dlciract her mind from the war by
amusements and menial dissipations.
U was then that the Princesa Uedroye,
a member of the highest nobility, who haa
ti&come one of the most prominent women
doctors of Russia, obtained the confidence
of Her M&Jeaty. She told her that the
Immense Buffering among the soldiers
could only be relieved by Intelligent, prop
erly trained women, and that the expres
sion of aimless, purely emotional sym
pathy might do more harm than good.
The Czarina then began to throw her
elf Into the organization of her hospital
with much enthusiasm. It was equipped
in the iwobt perfect manner and placed un
der the direction of the Princess Uedroye.
The Curina and her two older daugh
ters, the Grand Duchess Olga and Uie
Grand Luchess Tatlana, then took a thor
ough course of training in the care of the
war able tO obtain the
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Why lb Czarina's Blind Has Been Restored
Rv A W Vinrlotro4A. T31, Fl
J IUIIUVIVIIIVI) I 11,1,,
The Distinguished Amsrlcan Psycholofllst
ALTHOUGH the occurrence must seem
strange to a lay mind, there Is
nothing surprising to the alienist
In the statement that the Csarlna of Rue
sla has recovered from her mental disease
under the Influence of her war occupa
tions. That which unbalances the mind
, of sane people may ln some casea restore
the equilibrium of the mentally unbal
anced. From tne accounts we hsre received of
the Cxartna's former condition we must
believe that ahe wt Buffering from a mild
form of melancholia. A sensitive and emo
tional young woman at the time of her
entry Into the Russian court, her whole
nature was repeatedly shocked by the ter
rorist attempta on the life of her husband,
herself and their family, by the Intrigues
constantly pursued ln court circles, and
by the frequently strange and erratlo out
bursts of the Russian character. The bur
den of repeated maternity Increased the
strain on her physical organism, and the
best possible experience to 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 bad 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 nurse after less than the
former period of training. The great dim.
culty of the doctors haa been to protect
the soldiers from nurse 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 ln Europe can equal. 6he works
at the hospital with her daughters from
a. m. to t p. m. every day, and oteo
much later. She Invariably returns In the
evening, and sometimes, when she has a
dangerously wounded patient, ahe stays
there all night
The Court Hospital accommodates two
hundred soldiers and thirty offlcera. There
1 a perfectly equipped operating theatre,
a commodious surgical dressing ward, and
an up-to-date Laboratory for X-ray work
tvod research
A. A . '' . Aj . . , v
-.oiuier in
L. "II
The Czarina Assisting a
Surgeon to Operate on
a Soldier in Her Own'
Hospital.
A'
Worried Expression Which
knnwlpdr that ttta Ca and tv. Tnaal
nation were disappointed at her long fail
ure 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 her ln perfect Idleness. Against
secret and Imaginary terrors It gave her
leas than no protection. Under these con
ditions she must have developed a habit of
morbM self-introspection, which areatly
Increased the tendency to melancholia.
Then came the great war. In which the
life of almost everyone around her was s
stake. The habit of doing serious worV
which she then acquired, and the contact
with wounded soldiers excited ln her the
normal reactions which all human beings
should experience ln their relations with
one another. Wo 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 not
function properly.
Ths Csarlna and her beautiful daughters)
wear the regular nurses' uniform, which,
is entirely of white and covers the hair
completely. There is a red cross on the
left arm. Many men familiar with fash
Ions, declare that tt H the moat winning,
picturesque and becoming costume a wo
man can wear. It resembles a nun's dress
somewhat, but Is scientifically adapted to
the requirements of the nursing pro ten
sion. The Csarlna and her daughters take
their order 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 about among the
ethers without any distinction uch as
would have to be paid to them la the out
side world.
The ordinary soldier Is not told at first
that his nurse Is the Csarlna. She takes
hold of him In a business-like manner,
hand the aurgeon his Instruments, ban
dagea the patient's wounds, attends to all
his wants and gives him his diet.
When she has performed all her duties
ui often alt down by the bedside.
the Court Hospital, at Tsarkoe Selo,
Her Self-Sacrificing
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The Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, the Two Pretty Older
Daughter of the Czarina, Who Are Assisting Her in Her Nurs
ing 'Duties.
take ths 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 he
has become too accustomed to her minis
trations to feel embarrassed.
The two pretty young daughters of the
Czarina behave ln the aame professional
yet friendly way. Mny a poor fellow,
with his spirit nearly crushed out of him
by month of privation and dreadful perils,
followed by terrible wounds, hss been
cheered up and brought to life again by
the sympathetic smile asd gentle hands
of these two charming young women.
The Cssrlna had no sooner begun to do
this practical work among the wounded
than a great change was noted In her man
ner and appearance. She lost the worried,
harassed, melancholy air she had worn
tor many years. She even lost the Intense
nervousness ehe had exhibited at the
slightest nolae. such as the creaking of a
board or the turning of a door handle. She
acquired a cheerful though grave manner,
thoroughly self-controlled and self-confident.
During an Interval between her duties
at the hospital the Csarlna confeased to
the director that she had experienced a
complete mental and physical change alnce
she had been there. Her Majesty's re
marks on this subject have been conveyed
an Occupation Which Hat Kestored
A VA
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loir.
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to your correspondent, for she wishes
everybody to know how pleased she is with
her experience ln the hospital.
"I have forgotten all my worries and ail
ment since I have been here." said the
Csarlna. "It la 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 miaerable
over imaginary onea. My only interest ln
life is to see my patlenta get better. It
la strange that the eight of so much suffer
ing doe 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 visit of sym
pathy, the sight would make me miser
able. That often happened to me ln other
days when 1 made visits to hospitals, but
now that I know how to do something for
them the feeling la quite different.
"Ta patience and cheerfulness with
which most of them bear their sufferings
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 thla is the best opportunity 1
have ever had to learn."
When the patients are convalescent they
are sent to recuperate in Finland, where.
-A
i A
The Czarina and Her
n....it... m i ix i.j
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 ln 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 ln a wing of the Czar's Palace.
In rooms which still retain the royal fur
nlture are white bedsteads with the
wounded lying in them. Every day a
"sanitary" train from different parts of
the theatre of war bring 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 Tsars,
vitch 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 for 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 discomfort of being carried in this
way. They are longitudinally and hori
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. The train goes as near as pos
sible to the firing line, and motor-cars or
horse vehicles are sent to advanced posi.
tlons to fetch ln the wounded. The train
arrive In Tsarskoe Selo at the Czar's prW
vats station, which Is not open to the pub
lic. The Czarina very often meets tii.
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 ths hospital to which ho la dis
patched. After ths arrival of ths wounded In hon
pltal all linen Is changed, they are bathed)
and placed in comfortable beds, and among
them all. like guardian angels, the Tsarina
and her daughters give them every help
and their sympathy. Those hundreds of.
wounded will go to different village and,
towns, to remote parte of the vast land or
Russia, carrying with them the memories
of the good Tsarina, who has shown to all
a mother' love for her children, while
he on her part must be no lea grateful
to them for having rescued her from aa
unfortunate mental condition.
