Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1913 — SOLDIERS ENJOYED THE WORK [ARTICLE]

SOLDIERS ENJOYED THE WORK

Meerschaum Quickly Colored When Autocrat of All the Ruaaias Issued His Orders. A European contemporary tells an entertaining story of how a pipe was colored "by order of the Czar." An artist, who had spent some years In Russia, received as a parting gift from the Czar (Nicholas I.) ah enormous meerschaum mounted with diamonds. Noticing that the recipient waß look-

ing somewhat pensively at the gift, the Czar asked him what he was thinking about. The artist replied that he was thinking of the time it would take to color the pipe—probably five years. Learning that the artist would not be leaving the country for fifteen days, the Czar took the pipe back again, and sent it .to the Palace guard-house, where the following “order of the day" was issued: “Under pain of the knout none must smoke any other pipe but this. All

the necessary tobacco will be supplied." The Cossacks went cheerfully at the job day and night, and at the end of the fortnight the pipe was returned to its owner, inscribed: “Colored in fifteen days by order of Nicholas, Emperor."