Czar As Private Soldier.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 30, 1913:
Marched Seven Miles, Carrying All the Outfit of an Infantryman.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Wednesday, July 30.— The Daily Telegraph's St. Petersburg correspondent, under the title "A Crowned Private," sends interesting particulars, just published in Russia, relating to a march made by Emperor Nicholas as a fully accoutred private in order to gain personal experience of the toils and duties of a Russian common soldier.
    There is a well-known portrait of the present Russian monarch as an ordinary infantryman, tramping along the coast of the Crimea. His Majesty is dressed in the rank and file uniform of the Sixteenth Company of Emperor Alexander III.'s regiment.
    The Czar was attired as a rifleman by a subaltern, who strapped on his Majesty's shoulders and waist the usual rolled overcoat, pouches with 120 rounds or ammunition, trenching spade, ration bag, &c., altogether weighing- nearly three-quarters of a hundredweight, exclusive of the weight of the rifle.
    After the subaltern had instructed the Emperor as to the proper use and meaning of each article, his Majesty shouldered his rifle and marched up hill and down dale for seven miles, giving the salute of a private soldier to the officers whom he met on the way. When he returned to the palace his soldier's tunic was saturated with perspiration.
    The next day the Czar entered himself, according to the regulations on the regimental roll, as "Private Nicholas Romanoff, married, of the Orthodox faith, coming from Tsarskoe-Selo."