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.