The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-28
A RUSSIAN LEAR.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.

remarkable for the insight it gives into some of
the stranger phases of Russian life as for tue
great artistic merit which it possesses. There is
no better guide for any one who wishes to be-
come acquainted with the real characteristic pf
Russian society than is afforded by M. Tut-1e-
nieffs writings. His portraits are like photo
graphs, or rather like skilfUl drawings after pho
tographs, just as his descriptions of scenery are
so faithful that, to any one who is faililsr with
the districts to which they refer, they seem,
poetic as they are, to be careful studies OF actu-
ally existing scenes. In all probability tue
persons of the terrible domestic drama which he
has now brought before the eyes of his readers
once played their parts, at least to some extent
in real life. Aud yet their behavior, In some
respects seems to an English reader almost In
credible; for real life in Russia has, or at least
used to have, some features which must appear
at first sight unreal in the extreme to spectators
who look on from the outside only. We know
what strange ideas spring up how strongly pre-
iudices become confirmed, even at home in per-
sons who live In remote districts apart from the
healthy friction of society and the useful re-
straint of public opinion. But we can have but
little idea of the extent to which such ideas
and prejudices may have become developed In
the remote districts of so vast and stagnant q
country as Russia at a time when a social sy5-
TEN prevailed under which passionate or over
bearing man found himself free, so far as the ma
iority of the persons who surrounded him were
concerned, from most of the restraints on the
will and the passions to which we are accus-
toned to trust for safety. In the case OF the
story now before us, its general outline may
The self-sacrifce of father, whether he be
King Lear or a Pere Gorot, and the ingratitude
of his children, are themes upon which many
domestic tragedy has already been constructed
But the particular form in which the Russian
Lears resentment manifests itself and the posi-
tion which is finally occupied by the Regan OF
the story-one in which no Cordelia figures
are so extraordinary that no amount of famt-
liarity with the incidents to which English
family uuarrels may have given rise can assist
the reader in predicting them.
The Savonic counterpart of the il-starred
King of Britain is the owner of property in the
interior of Russia. Martin Petrovich Kharlof
is man of huge proportions and of immense
bodily strength In appearance he is more like
a bear than man, bulky, clumsy, prompt to
anger, and terrible when aroused to wrath. He
never boasts of his thews and sinews, but he is
beyond measure proud of his wisdom and his
strength of will, and his love of independence
amounts to o passion. OF one power alone he
stands in dread:-this giant with hero's heart
is afraid of death. At times he is liable to
attacks of melancholy, and then he shuts him
self up in his room, and gazes at picture of
which he has high opinion, representing q
lighted candle which the winds-human heads
with puifed-out cheek5--strive to blow out,
with an inscription under it, such is the life
of mani" When he is not in a SOM
wall; but when gloomy feelings invade him, he
turns it back again, shaking his head with an
air CT conviction over it, and deriving some con-
ISOLATION from listening to his favorte servant,
who reads aloud to him in strange sing-song
from the only book he has in the house. peri
odical called Diligence in Repose," such
phrases as, But the man who is prey to his
passions deduces from that solitary position
which he occupies among created things COM
pletely different conclusions" etc. To religion,
however, even in his melancholy moods, he sell
dom turns eXcusiAg himself for appearing very
rarely in church by saying that he is afraid
man of his size would inconvenience the other
woIslippers.
Such is the man who suddenly takes it into
his head to disembarrass himself of the cares
which attach to property by dividing all that he
has between his two daughters He has received
warning, he says, that death is at hand While
he lay asleep. he dreamed that black colt
bounded into his room and fell down upon him,
crushing his left side beneath its weight; and
when he awoke he found that side numb, and
he felt sure that in the form of that black colt
he had seen his own approaching death. SO he
calls his friends and neighbors together to wit
ness the transfer of his property to his daugh-
ters, made with all due formality in the presence
of the legal functionaries of the district.
The transfer scene is q very strange one, and
is admirably described. Kharlof occupies the
chief place conspicuous by his colossal form,
arrayed in his 1912 uniform, with q medal on
his breast, and sabre by his side. Near him
are his two daughters: Anna, the elder, slightly
built, with thick yellow hair, and small light
blue eyes and thin lips; and Evlampia, the
younger, tall and largely framed, with masses
of tlaxen hair, and immense dark blue eyes, eX-
pressive OF somewhat wild, untamed nature.
The elder sister is accompanied by her husband,
handsome, Jewish-lookiug young man, Slyot-
kline by name, whose characteristics are an i'm
cessant thirst for gain and q servile obedience
to the commands of his father-in-law. Evlampia
= is still unmarried.
deed of remuneration is read aloud by Slyot-
kline. By it Kharlof divides all his property
between his two daughters, reserving to himself
only the right of continuing to live in the rooms
actually occupied by him, and of receiving his
natural provision" and ten paper roubles
Cat out as many francs) a month for shoes and
clothing. The last sentence of the act Kharloi
reads himself-"And this my parental will must
be carried out by my daughters, and kept intact
as command. For l. next to God am their
head, and to no one have l given, nor am
bound to give, any account. And if they carry
out my will, then my parental blessing shall be
upon them but if they do not carry out
my will, then my parental malediction
Amen!" At the end he lifts the paper
above his head. Anna and her husband fell on
their knees before him, and bend their fore
heads to the ground. But Evlampia does not
move till her father turns to her with a 'Well,
hushes up, but makes her obeisance also to the
ground One of the magistrates then proceeds
to read a formal deed-that which had been
read aloud having been a forid and informal
composition of Kharlof's-and afterwards goes
out on the balcony in front of the house and eX-
claims what has taken place to the peasants OF
the CONAN, apostrophizing them in this style
"ListeD, devils understand, demonsl' On
which they all bowed together, as If at a word
of command, each of the devils and demons
holding his hat tight in both hands, and never
taking his eyes off the window at which Khar-
lof's figure appeared" Then a priest and Q
sub-deacon appear, dressed in threadbare
vestments the odors of incense arise from an
old brass thurible; service is performed at the
end OF which the two daughters again knee