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The same patriarchal trait appeared in another sight
of the Easter festival, in the open streets. Young girls
of the upper classes of the Imperial Girls’ School were
driven in a long procession through the streets in the
imperial carriages. The pleasure for them was only
that of being allowed to take a drive in a stylish court
carriage, with coachman and footman in the imperial
livery; for there was nothing special to be seen.
The theory of this is that the Tsar stands in a sort of
higher paternal relation to all these children. When he
once a year visits one of these schools,—to which only
the children of the nobility are admitted,—it is a
custom that, as a sign of his favor, he drops his
pocket-handkerchief, and the girls all scramble for it, and it is
torn in pieces, so that each one can get a fragment. He
takes the most brilliant girl to the table, and tastes of
the food of the institution. It is valued as the highest
distinction when he gives one of the girls his plate with
what is left upon it. It is the custom and usage for her
to swallow it with delight shown in all her features.
Great was the stupefaction of Alexander the Second
when a young girl, a Pole,—from whose own mouth I
had the story,—whom the Tsar had taken to the table,
as the most distinguished scholar of the institute, and to
whom he shoved what was left of roast meat and
potatoes,—nodded to a servant, and calmly gave him the
Tsar’s plate to take away.
The Tsar has always stood in the position of their
common father to the people of the lower ranks, although
the foundations of this feeling have of late been
somewhat shaken. At the same time, as the present
government in Russia has placed itself upon a war footing
towards the advanced classes of the people by the very
act of putting the greatest impediments in the way of
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