3586. The system was very new, the electric circuit very primitive,
and so the little train seemed intent on defying the Tsars control.
3587. Poor Kutuzov, what was he to think? There has never
been a king, an emperor, or even a president about whom bizarre stories and
rumors have not circulated. One king is said to be syphilitic, and another is
said to suffer seizures. An emperor is rumored to have fits of rage resulting
in the deaths of his attendants. Nobody knows the truth, but Kutuzov had heard
the stories about Rasputin, and he became worried about his Tsar, seeing him
engaged in such childish behavior.
3588. The Tsar was no fool however, and he liked to test his
ministers in this way by making them observe his seemingly pointless behavior,
and then to study their reactions.
3589. He was happy to see suppressed signs of anxiety,
because it denoted a capacity for independent thought. If there was one thing
the Tsar could not stand it was having obsequious lackeys for ministers; anyone
without a reaction to his foolishness earned a demerit in the Tsar’s book, but
the Tsar was not being in any way foolish as he toyed with his trains. On the
contrary, he was absorbed in saving his empire from impending destruction.
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