Page 1 Advertisements Column 5

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2082, 7 January 1908, Page 1

As soon as dinner or luncheon is ready to be placed on tho Emperor’s table a very elaborato system of “tasting” lias to be gone through; and when the Czar is in residence at Petcrhof, not only M. Kratz himself. but also his under-chefs and certain high officials of the Imperial army are called in to tasto every dish that goes to the Emperor’s table., after which experiment a reasonable time is permitted to elapso to see whether or not the “tasters are poisoned. This curious survival of other days comes from the time of Ivan the Tcrriblo. When tho meals prepared for His Majesty are served, M. Kratz himself begins to taste; and after tho strange “poisoning” interval _ has elapsed the dishes are placed in an electric elevator with a closed shaft, into which tho military officials are locked, and up goes the lilt to the mite-chamber of the Imperial din-ing-room. Here again the major on duty samples tho dishes under the eyes of the Czar, after which the Imperial family sit down to dinner. No dish ever served on the Czar’s table is permitted access to the din-ing-room save through the elevator shaft. Thus the food can in no way be tampered with save by the cooks them selves and t-lie military officials on diitv. It has been said by an authority that the Imperial Family of Rusisa in bygone times sat down to their meals in a dining-room constructed of cast-iron and steel, for all the world like a bank vault. This however, is not the case now: but elaborate precautions still have to be made to prevent the enemies of the Czar carrying out their plots against his life. A*-';-’ • * 7$:’ - - " -

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