In case you weren't sure how they felt about the Czar (from the safety of New York, naturally).
This idea found a new target some decades later.
Incidentally, you can see here three versions of the prayer for the Czar and his family, including the ever-changing heirs apparent - brother George, then Mikhael, and finally son, Alexei - in these texts from siddurim printed in 1897, 1901, and 1908.
