RASPUTIN, MYSTIC AND BLACKGUARD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 270, 27 April 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

RASPUTIN, MYSTIC AND BLACKGUARD.

His Extraordinary Influence Over Women

and the Court.

Death at the Hands of a "Council of Three."

No more astonishing tale of intrigue and personal domination has been told in recent years than tiiat which appears in a recent number of the "New Europe" under the title of "The End of Rasputin." Particulars have already been given of tho career and the mysterious death of this remarkabe man, but the acocunt from which we quote bears evdence of bsing the most authoritative, as it is tho most detailed, yet published in this country. "Germany," it is said, "loses in Rasputin a good friend, England a dangerous enemy, and Russia one of her greatest!) lackguards. What results the assassination will have cannot yet be gauged. The lapse of a week" (tho story seems to have been written in Russia) "has shown but little weakening in the phalanx of the Rasputin party. They trJk of fresh repression, of muzzling the Press more closely, of stopping those chosen by the peoplo with a yet stouter gag. With the deatn of Gregory Rasputin tho nation has taken one" step towards vctory." These aro tho frank terms in which Rasputin (who probably sprang from one of tlie Siberian families that are credited with hereditary "magnetic powers") is pictured: "Rasputin was a poor attempt at a mystic but his amorous exploits rivalled those of Casanova. Supplying religious deficiencies by a peasant's cunning and his own peculiar force, ho erected himself into a cult strongly resembling on certain sides the Bacchanalian orgies and other rites as practised among the ancient Greek colonies of Asia Minor.

oils more forcible, if more polite." So widely was it recognised that lie was a trusted agent of Empress in matters reaching beyond the palace walls that "open lament was mado at the beginning of tho war to Princess T., who happened to bo in Austria, that Rasputin had, by ill-fortune, not been at Court during tiio crisis; if he had been, it was said, Russia would never liavo declared war."

FEUD WITH THE GRAND DUKE.

"Rasputin himself mado tlie same boast: 'Ah, if I had been with him, Nick would never have gone to war. But since it happened I Said to him, "You must command our army, Nick! Go on to tho front!" And so I sent him there.' Tiiis was simultaneous with tho Grand Duke Nicholas bo ng superseded in tho chief command, and though, doubtless, Rasputm took too much credit to himself, the Grand Duko was his open enemy, and, it ts said, threatened to hang him shotild he venture into the sphere of military rule." Though his name was not allowed to bo mentioned in tno Duma or in the Press, one audacious Conservative, vocing the universal indignation, begged the Duma and tho Couno:! ot tho Empire to go in a loyal mass to the Emperor and beg Rasputin's dismissal. It was a priest who denounced Rasputin as the shame of the Orthodox Church. "Rasputin generally met new acquaintances with the question, 'Are you a journalist? I'm afraid of journal sts.' But .... he went to the office of a newspaper and sa.'d that he had made Ministers, and would go on making Ministers, let h's enemies write what tliev pleased." Tho calls for his death became more and more numerous and influential. But Rrsput n had been tnreatened and attacked before and became cautious. This is tho "New Europe" writer's account of his end:

DRINK AND DANCING

" In his own town he had kept a mystic harem. He was fond of music, ■danced for hours at a stretch, could drink a Guardsman under the table, and had a whole cavalcade of feminino admirers. A scene was witnessed not many months ago at the departure station for Tsarskoe Selo, where a handsomo lady of princely rank pursued Rasputin with cries of 'Adieu, choni!' and ho the while, 'Keep her away! Bring the young one there forward! Send tho old thing back! C-ome here, pretty!' "In tho winter of 1915 he was at Moscow, and' in the public room at Yar's (the smartest Muscovite restaurant) behaved himself in so outrageous a way that a 'proces verbal' by the polico officer on duty was inevitable. The result would have been unexpected in any other Country but Russia. The officer who mrde the 'proces verbal, the prefect of the polico to whom it was sent, and the prefect of the city wero all within a short time dismissed from their posts." This was tho sinister figure who wormed his way into the most intimate Court circles, yet who "dressed like the peasant he was, washed no more than a pea.Jint, preserved tho racy, sly wit of a peasant's talk." He was almost wholly illiterate, but his utigrammatcal scrawls hud irresistible authority. "Officially," we ire told, "he held the office of lighter of the sacred lamp in tha Palace, but although he was addressed as Father Gregory, he was never in religious orders. Yet more than h's actual person was deemed to be sacred. The doctor attending the heirapparent once discovered in his patient's bed, pressed close to tho little fretful body, a dirty peasant's shirt. When he was told wiio had placed it there ho was s'lent."

"A very rich and fashionable young nobleman, connected by marriage with tho Imperial family, rang up Rasputin on tho telephone, and invited him to a supper party at his house. Rasputin, after some demur, consented, but stipulated that his host should come to fetch him, and come by tno back way, so that even the porter mi ght not know ho had gone out. The young man arrived in a motor-car; Rasput'n himself opened tho door, and went away with him. On reaching the'r destination they entered together, followed by the chauffeur, who was, in fact, a member of the Duma unknown to Rasputin. Rasputin found himself in the presence, not of a party, but of these two and a certain Grand Duke.

THE DEATH SCENE.

" The numl>er of versions of what took placo >'s bewilder'ng, but these aro believed to Ix 3 tho substantial facts. No women were in the place, no wine was opened; there was no friendly talk, no lots wero drawn. Lots had been drawn before among a much larger number of thoso determined to put Father Gregory out of the way. The three men informed Rasputn that he had to die, and lie was handed a revolver with which to shoot h'mself. He took the pistol, but instead of committing suicide fired r;oint blank at the Grand Duke. The latter ducked, the bullet passing over his head, and the three shot Rusputin down. The body was placed in the motor-car and driven to a deserted spot on one df the islands in the Neva, where it had a stone tied 1 round the ankles, and was dropped over p. bridge into the river through a hole ir tho ice."

POWER OYER THE PRESS.

Ho tyrannised over cd tors and writers. Even the publication of a book containing a passage on peasant storytellers and their influence, though passed by tho Censor, was proscribed by Rasputin. In a. desperate attempt to find out what was wrong, the publisher, having interviewed Prefect and Ministers without success, went to see Rasputin. Her i,s the publisher's impression of h m ("n man of middle height, with very long dark hair, and a fullish board") :

The first step taken by the authors of tho deed was to inform the police and telephone to the paper that published the news. "There was no touch of revolution or Radicalism. Rrsput'n wan killed by Monarchists, by men of high station, by men whose desire is to see Russia great, in the ordinary sense of the word." On tho day following the announcement n subscription Ist was opened for a war relief charity in Moscow in tho namo of one of the slayers, nnd ; headed with a donation of 25.000 roubles.

"Rasputin was. he said, very simple, like a peasant ))riest; lis faco w;us not bad 1 , nor his eyes, but ! had a haunted, tormented look in them, the look of a suffering man. Tito predominant thought in Rasputin's mind was, ho believed, tiie fear of lowing Irs position; this wis what mnd'o the question of tho l>ook serious for him. That he was deeply offended was obvious, and he said almost m so many word's that he bad heard of tiie matter and had personally had tiie publication stopped (as it \Uis afterwards learned, by getting one of the Court officials to telephono to tho Prefect of Petrograd.)"

" Friend* rang up on the telephone to congratulate one another on the news, and in the evening the Imperial Theatre had tho appearance of an Easter festival: members of tho audience shook hinds indiscriminately, demanded that tlio orchestra should strike up the National Hymn, and forgot the play in their c on.-entrat on on the all-engross-ng newn." In publishing this extraordinary story, tho "New Europe" as-crts its whole-hearted support of the alliance with Russia, and assure* the Russian nat'on that, "if anything like tho full truth were known in this country, it would command the British nation s keenest sympathy in its struggle for v ictory, and for that efficiency and probity in public life without which rctorv is unattainable."

Ho gained groat ascendency over politicians. Officials who resented or refused Ir's recommendations lost tlicr posit on-;. "One honest man," it is said, "kicked lnm downstairs: he was himself vjeeted on tile morrow by mcth-