MAJ. GEN. SPIRIDOVICH 1926
The New York Times, March 28, 1907
COUNT SPIRIDOVITCH GIVES A LUNCHEON
Russian General Entertains at St. Regis, Eulogizing Czar in a Speech.
Count A. de Jcherep-Spiridovitch [sic], a Major General in the Russian Army, and President of the Slavonic
Society of Russia and also of the Latino-Slavic League of Paris and Rome, gave a luncheon yesterday at the St.
Regis to a number of guests, among whom were Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain,) Gen. Nelson A. Miles, Gen.
Grant Wilson, Russian Consul Baron Schilling and Baroness Schilling.
After Mr. Clemens had paid some compliments to Count Jcherep-Spiridovitch, the latter said:
"I thank you for your sympathetic interest, which I attribute to my having come from Russia that old and
sincerest friend of the United States.
"While I, as a soldier, would willingly die for the Czar, the liberal-minded and brave Emperor prefers that every
one of his people should live for the progress of not only Russia, but the whole human race. He has already
immortalized himself in history first by declaring against wars in the world outside and bringing about the
creation of The Hague conference, and in the second place by granting to his people a Constitution regardless of
dangers and obstacles.
"The Constitution has been definitely introduced, but necessarily half a thousand politically trained men to work
in the Parliament cannot be produced in a day. We must wait a generation. Andrew Carnegie, one of your best
men, has already materialized the idea of the Czar by building a Temple of Peace in The Hague.
"The Russian people remember that the American Nation is formed from the cream of the best European
peoples, and Russia is infinitely more proud of every expression of American sympathy than of all other
expressions."
The luncheon was given in the main restaurant of the St. Regis on the ground floor. The decorations were red
carnations. The other guests were Mrs. James Roosevelt, Miss Virginia Roosevelt, John Bigelow, Mr. and Mrs.
Whitridge, Baron de Fersen, Gen. Cinus, Hayne Davis, Prince Henri de Croy, Mr. and Mrs. P. Williamson
Roberts, Miss Alice Hassell, Miss Purrington, W. H. Brown, Mrs. Daniel Butterfield, Mrs. James E. Martin,
Mrs. Warren Goddard, Mrs. Chickering, Mrs. Westervelt, Mrs. Jordan Smyth, Miss Tucker, Jennie Pomerene,
Mrs. Marcus Daly, Mrs. James W. Gerard, W. H. Bliss, Prof. Michael Pupin, William Sloane, and Mr. and Mrs.
Charles B. Alexander.
Note: Arthur Cherep Spiridovitch (also spelled as "Spiridovich" in various news articles) died on October 22,
1926 at age 75. He was found dead in his hotel room at Barrett Manor, Arrochar, on Staten Island. His death
was believed to be a suicide. He died on the eve of a convention he had planned for uniting the Slav nations.
The New York Times on October 23, 1926 reported, "Count Cherep-Spiridovich was a strange figure who spent
considerable time traveling between Europe and America on his self-appointed misson of uniting the
200,000,000 Slaves into one organization." The Count had sent out thousands of circulars request money for
membership in his organization and he had the ability to garner press attention with such activities as awarding
President Theodore Roosevelt a silver cup in 1907 for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. According to
the same New York Times article of October 23, 1926, "St. Petersburg said that while the Count was of a good
family he had been made a noble by the Vatican, not by Russia" and that "his title of Count had never been
recognized in Russia."
In a series of articles over the next week The New York Times continued to probe into the life of Count Cherep-
Spiridovich. The newspaper reported that the Count had left no property other than bundles of newspaper
clippings about himself. According to an adopted son, Howard Victor von Broens-Trupp, the Count died
penniless and the burial expenses were defrayed by charity. Police believed the Count's suicide was brought on
by his poverty and the failure of his plan to unite the Slavs in the United States and Europe into one republic.
Two letters from "Tcherep-Spiridovitch" to Mark Twain survive in the Mark Twain Papers at the University of
California at Berkeley. The first is dated February 7, 1907 and the second is dated March 27, 1907. No letters
from Twain to Spiridovitch are known to survive. It is unknown what opinon Twain held of Spiridovitch or
whether or he saw in him similarities to his old acquaintance Emperor Norton of San Francisco.
- Barbara Schmidt