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Show IE j f: S SERGIUS WITTE. I ; I Si As trie plenipotentiaries who are going to try I ' ; fT to adjust a peace between Russia and Japan I j; have met, especial interest centers in Sergius I I'll Yulevich de Witte, the great Russian who heads I ! ( If j the Russian delegation, because all agree that he i If I 1S reaHy the foremost man of Russia, and with j : j! such marked personality that it is impossible ; jf t0 anticipate what bearing he will assume in the I I negotiations. His mother was of the two best I I ; strains of Russian blood, his father a German, he I If j was born in the Caucasus in 1840. Physically he is : I tremendous, measuring almost exactly what the 'j g father of the present Czar did a giant among f I jw j men. The Baltimore Sun quotes Major T. G. I j If Pangborn, who has traveled much in Russia, as Si saying that: "The chief envoy of Russia is as ft straight as an arrow, carries himself with a con- f sciousness of his superiority that is most irritat- ; ' ll to a S00(l many persons in Russia, and is I II ' overwhelmingly impressive to the masses." He says of him, too, that in repose, "such an abso- , lutely impassive expression I had never before 'ml seen." But when awakened, "You would not rec- m ognize that it is the same face with the same pair , If of eyes." He says further: "When those eyes j li take on that dead look and that bearded face j H grows graven as stone, the peace conference will j ' jg adjourn for the day, no doubt about that." 1 8 ' As finance minister he is practically the auto- J JBb crat of all the Russians; he is a lib'il through H conviction, but a natural sovereign, which we con- j I strue to mean that he believes all the Russian peo- 1 Jf ! pie should have justice, but should not have it through asking, but that the sovereign power Ji should extend it to them. He was the minister , li j that raised the storm when Secretary Gage taxed i Jf ' Russian sugar when imported into this country, 11 ; jf and he was furious beyond description when Sec- I Ij retary Hay directed our Russian ambassador that 1 ; H Secretary Gage was merely enforcing a law of j Ma ' Congress, and had no discretion in the matter. 1 : j ffl Still Witte was furious and could not understand HI a government where even the president was sub- ij ject to impeachment if he refused to obey the I ,i 1 law. He worked up from the bottom. After : ; j Bj graduating he took a subordinate position on the 3 ; ; fln Odessa railway. When the Russo-Turkish war I B ! came on his rush of soldiers over the road first ' ffi attracted attention; then "the Director of Rail- 1 ' mm roads" was an office created for him. From that I U he went naturally into the office of finance min- ' :B .ister, which made him practically the head of the WR Russian government. I Wm As we look upon it, the only possible hope of J ! ! arranging a treaty with him directing his own j j , SB country's negotiations, will come through his H love of country and his absolute knowledge of the ' IB Russian army and navy, and the unrest and terror i B and flurry which are just now swaying the souls I mm of the Russian people. He will be dealing with a I view of extricating Russia from a well-nigh hope- 9 less quagmire, and all the time will be seeking to j ; 9 . lay a foundation for a restoration of Russian j ' .9 power. He does not like American institutions- r, i9 he hates all Europe except Germany he is :JB merely a natural autocrat tempered by painful |