And the American business magazine Success, established in 1897, even put Tsar Nicholas II's picture on its cover in 1899 on the occasion of the Hague Conference:
With this text on p. 372:The Czar’s Peace ConferenceAn Autocrat Whose Aim is to Benefit and Improve Humanity Without Fostering Anarchy
On the first page of
Success appears the latest and finest photograph of the most powerful ruler in the world — Nicholas II, Czar of all the Russias. The Autocrat of the Russian Empire is the only absolute monarch on earth. His personal authority is without any limitation except that created by himself. His orders must be obeyed, without hesitation or criticism, from the Baltic Sea to Bering Strait, from Archangel to Odessa, throughout the vast area of his domains.
The Empress Catherine, who refused to sell her subjects to England to fight against Americans in the Revolutionary War, and who, next to Peter the Great, did more to extend Russian power than any other sovereign, summoned the prefect of police to her presence, one day, and ordered him to have a deceased poodle, named Sutherland, after a celebrated banker in St. Petersburg, skinned and stuffed. When the prefect hesitated, the empress thought he considered the task beneath his dignity, and laughingly repeated the command. The prefect withdrew in great consternation, for he supposed the empress meant his friend, the banker, and not the poodle, and that the banker had in some way incurred the terrible anger of her majesty. The official went with trembling steps to the banker’s office and informed him of the imperial sentence. Sutherland, horrified, begged for permission to communicate with the empress, but the prefect, fearful of exciting her wrath after his former experience, granted the favor only after repeated pleading and with great reluctance. Of course, the tragedy was averted. The incident, however, illustrates the absolute power of the Russian autocrat over his subjects.
If autocracy were ever secure from abuse in any hands, it is so in the hands of the present czar. No sovereign could have the welfare of his subjects more deeply at heart. His great ideal is that of a Russian empire leading the world in the march toward universal peace, in the direction of that millennium of which intelligent Christians, Jews, Turks and pagans have dreamed for ages. The czar, however, is not a dreamer. He realizes that the only sound way to make the world better is to build up from established foundations, — not to overturn the fabric which is the work of centuries, and which, — however incomplete, — represents the efforts, the labors, the sacrifices of many generations. Not in his own interest, selfishly speaking, but in behalf of his own people, he will maintain, unimpaired, the mighty heritage of the Romanoffs, and carry forward that policy of redemption and civilization which is turning Central Asia from a robbers’ rendezvous into a garden of industry.
First among monarchs, the czar has taken practical steps toward universal peace by inviting the great nations of the world, including the United States, to the present Peace Conference at the Hague.
Americans are deeply interested in this conference. The United States has never been an aggressive power. All foreign wars in which the nation has been actively concerned, have been defensive, excepting perhaps, the late war with Spain, and that was morally, if not actually, of the same description. The armed forces of this country have been maintained, in times of peace, at the smallest possible standards, as to numbers, and the highest as to efficiency. There is no occasion, therefore, for the United States to disarm. This country is, however, a party to the Peace Conference, and will, no doubt, be glad to co-operate with the other great nations in any practical steps looking toward the abolition of war, with due regard for the honor and safety of the American people. With this view, President McKinley has appointed commissioner to take part in the conference.
