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nwuunOßF THE peasants of Rus
sjF I sia had their way in
H I the bestowing of a title
fx I upon Count Leo Tolstoi,
B he would he known as
the Most-Beloved Leo
I n Tolstoi. For there is
H I no man ' n wor ' ( '
I I who has so many friends
BgjipjMM'ral anion;? the plebeians.
|r:\ f*js JSa Still Tolstoi is immense-
iy wca "hy, but that
I I '' (K ' B no,: Interfere with
H U jj which has now nearly
"SftiTvm tirawn to a close,
i He is now 80 years old and while in good health
at the time of this writing, his passing is but a
matter of a few months or years. There are two
sides to this great man. One is Leo Tolstoi, the
artist, and the other—Leo Tolstoi, the inan. As
the artist he has written fearless works and the
person or clique which has fallen under the scath
ing attack of his pen has seldom been known to
boast of it.
There is no disputing his rank as the best known
of living authors. Also he Is the most generally
read and recognized. He has attained the highest
pinnacle of fame in the literary field and it can
not bo said that he craved fame, either.
Best of all. Tolstoi is a friend of all Americans.
The traveler from the United States, visiting Rus
sia, is as welcome at the Yafenaya I'olyana estate of
Russia's great man, as if he were in his own home.
America likes Tolstoi, too, for the author is the
most democratic of men.
It is told of him that he spurns all worldly luxu
ries, even going so far as to have two tables set
within his home at each meal —one resplendent
with fancy edibles, while the other is stocked
with simple food of the peasantry. Friends of his
daughters and sons are always welcomed at the
•ore prosperous looking board, while in the same
room, Tolstoi, stated alongside of his wife, par
;akes of the necessities of life as an ordinary ple
beian would.* However, his children, having been
brought up to the luxuries of life, are allowed to
gratify their every whim, and he never allows his
beliefs to step between them and happiness. In
that respect he is an Ideal father and ho has been
praised the world over for his broad-minded man
ner of treating others who do not believe as he
does.
II" is also what Americans coll a "mixer," but
In an entirely different sense, lie meets the poor
of Ru sia on their own level, and, except for the
fact that he often pcatters money at their feet,
one would never suspect his wealth. There are
no : !i!t ".s attached to Tolstoi's gifts, and thousands
of beneficences to Russians in general, while the
benefactor's name is a secret, aro popularly laid
at the door <>f this greHt. man.
To be a friend of the Russian peasant up to a
few years ago meant to be an enemy of the gov*
ernni' iit. I'uon several occasions Tolstoi's outcry
,'ii Inst, oppress! n of the czar's, subjects has • laced
him behind the grimy walls of Slav dungeons, but
he always returned to continue the work which he
has so ably accomplished.
He Is a social reformer eC 'he 112 st water and
many of the acts ol Jti 'lee which the ilusslan gov
ernment of late ><'iu hat aecompl -bed can b.>
traced back to tli«■ work of Tol tol.
As a literary artist the count is d< ad. liis de
u.iso was a literal) suicide, and it nicum 1 IJii
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1908.
years ago, when he himself declared that his great
creative works were unworthy and altogether evil.
Here is his own account of the split in his life:
"I had tried to test science and modern cul
ture, and I have turned from them with a feeling
of repulsion because of the inability of the first
to solve the really important problems of life
and because of the hollowness and falseness of
the second."
I3y becoming chummy with the peasant Tolstoi
declares he turned to frankness, simplicity and
essential kindness, and he says he is to-day near
er mother earth than ever in his life. Ho declares
the peasant, typically, is the ideal Christian. And
thus since 1875 his writings have been almost ex
clusively polemic and didactic.
To-day Count Leo Tolstoi is a large, heavily
built man with unusually long arms, hanging
loosely at his sides, with a wide nose, somewhat
thick lips, small gray eyes, a head set on bulky
but slightly stooping shoulders and a matted
white beard. He possesses an air of strength
that is found in few great men. The power that
one finds in him is both mental and physical, and
hence of the durable sort.
One of this man's great themes is the Sermon
on the Mount. In this he has declared that
he found five laws of God and he has made them
his rules for faith and conduct throughout the
ljiter years of his life. These laws are sum
marized as follows:
Live in peace with all men and do not regard
any man as your superior.
Do not make the beauty of the body an occasion_
for lust.
Every man should have one v/ife and every
woman one husband, and they should not be di
vorced for any reason.
Do rot revenge yourself and do not punish oth
ers because you think yourself insulted or hurt.
Suffer ell wrong and do not repay with evil for
you are all the children of one father.
Never break the peace in the name of patriotism.
ct>aoooaoooooc3coooo<JOOO!>oaaooo , >ocKaaooooaoo 3o^ociooaocc!i>ooocooacKJoaooooo
6 ft
g 1328—HORN CN FATHER'S ESTATE AT YA3NAYA POLYANA.
g IC43—STUDIED ORIENTAL LANGUAGES 1864--CC3—WROTE HIS MASTERPIECE— g
a AT KAZAN. "WAR AND PEACE."
g 1348—RECEIVED CiPLOMA AS LAWYER 1862—MARRIED SOPHIE ANDREYEVNA g
O AT KAZAN. DEHRO OK MOSCOW. O
1851—DSSERTCD HIS ESTATE. 189 C—IMPRISONED FOR HIS TEACH- a
f] 1353—ENLISTED IN THE ARi.IY OF DAN- INGS.
ÜBE IN CRIMEAN WMR. IC97—THRUST INTO PRISON FOR A n
g 1657—VISIT ABROAD WHICH CAUSED SHORT 11M E UECAU3E OF ALLEGED g
DISAPPOINTMENT IN MODERN CIVI- ANTACCNI JM TOWARD GOVERN- <>
g LIZATION. WENT.
O O
ooc uot..,ooscioccot -
What Tolstoi has done for the peo
ple of his time in Russia is to be found
in the dress, customs and habits of the
lower classes of that absolute mon
archy, but the critics say that right
in his home his own teachings have had
little effect. The answer which close
friends of the count give to that asser
tion is that Russia's benefactor is too
broad-minded to make his home a mar
tyrdom and to inflict his beliefs upon
his wife and children if they do not
care to abide by them.
So while Tolstoi has spent his life or
the greater part of it in preaching the
doctrine of poverty and non-resistance,
his children were reared on the great estate and
from the first their lot was that of the aristocrat.
They married "well," and are said to have com
pletely renounced his views. It is told of Tolstoi
that his wife has always managed to "slip a piece
of velvet under her husband's crown of thorns
just when he wishes to press it to his head most
heavily."
That might be termed an inconsistency, but
surely it is not the count's choice.
The work which some of the critics of other
nations scoff at has reached from the thatched
hut of the poorest peasant clear to the palace of
the emperor himself.
For the sake of peace also, Tolstoi has accom
plished a great work. The first Hague conference,
which made history, would probably never have
been called had it not been for the persistent
gospel of this friend of the populace at large.
Tolstoi saw that the eventual result of his teach
ings would be some sort of a world's peace gath
ering and he expressed gratification when Czar
Nicholas called the initial session of the body over
which the dove of peace was destined to perch.
No church in the world, it is recorded, carried
out as petrified a ritual as that of the Slav. To
day, chroniclers tell us, there exists a tendency
towards softening of the customs of religion in
the czar's country. Teachings of simplicity by
Tolstoi will be accorded the honor for this change
if it is eventually wrought.
Humane treatment of prisoners and philanthrop
ic moves of the immensely wealthy men of Rus
sia are also laid to the work of the count. Tolstoi
tasted the bitter cup of imprisonment himself and
he was well pr< pared togo about that work with
a zest born of actual experience.
Simple moral truths have been the axioms of
Tolstoi throughout his later yehrs and while
skeptical persons call bis Ideas impracticable their
defender could, were he not all too modest, point
to the works which have followed in the wake
of his unique, quaint gospel.
S The Place U laj Cheap S
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3