the point of joining
Napoleon Bonaparte in his conquest of India.

His son was Alexander I, who added Finland and Poland to Russia, and
founded the Holy Alliance. He was followed by his son Nicholas, who
ruled for 30 years, and crushed the Poles and Hungarians, but died of a
broken heart in the Crimean War.

Next came Alexander II, who gained fame as liberator of the serfs, and
died the victim of a Nihilist bomb thrower. Alexander III succeeded him,
and then came Nicholas II, the last Czar, whose reign lasted 22 years.
The beginning of the end was marked by the request of the workingmen in
1905 for an increase in civil rights. They were fired upon, and there
was general disorder, until the Czar proclaimed a constitution, and
established a Duma, or national parliament, which met for the first time
in 1906.

BETRAYAL OF RUSSIA'S MILITARY PLANS.

The outbreak of the war was marked by the personal decree of the Czar to
change the name of the capital, St. Petersburg, to Petrograd, but his
evident intent to eliminate evidences of German influence did not stop
the betrayal of Russia's military plans by German spys within the court
circles, and it was charged that supplies were withheld from the Russian
army by those within the charmed circle, who were friendly to Germany.

Russia was a party to the Franco-Russian and Anglo-Russian agreement,
which constituted the basis of the Triple Entente, but conditions were
such that the soldiers refused to fight, and the situation culminated in
the uprising which ended with the abdication of the Czar, in behalf of
his brother, who, however, declined to accept the throne, unless he
should be elected by the votes of the Russian people. The Duma thereupon
decided to organize a republican form of government, and so the Russian
Republic came into being in March, 1917.

Spain, a fertile country in the southwestern part of Europe, has played
a prominent part in the development of the world. She has a coastline
extending nearly 1500 miles, and there are about 200,000 square miles
included in her territory. The coastlands and the southern section of
the country are especially rich in fruits and agriculture. Although
watered by many rivers, the land, for the most part, is artificially
irrigated.

Up until 1898 Spain held possession of magnificent colonies in Cuba and
Porto Rico and the Philippines, but now her colonial possessions are
confined to a strip on the west coast of the Sahara, a