Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1880-07-15

fit of wild, uncomfortable sobbing. All
the passion, all the love which had been
hitherto chilled in his young heart by
his fathers repulsive severity, seemed at
that moment to stream out at once,
shaking his body from head to foot, and
mingled with half conscious feeling of
pity for himself, for his cold bleak child
hood.
And thus father and son parted. Dur
ing the four years of his studies An
drusha but rarely saw his father. The
journey to Poltava was long one. The
net of railroads which now connects the
south of Russia with the capital did not
exist even in the widest dreams of a
loyal subject Of the car. Travelling was
slow and expensive, and Gen. Saveleff's
fortune less than modest. When at
length at the end of his studies, which
he accomplished brilliantly, the young
artillery officer, Andre Ivanovitch Save
lief, came to pass the long vacation with
his father in the small country house of
Poltava, the latter was deeply struck
with the change in the appearance and
the temper of his son. Instead of a
merry, somewhat silent but healthy and
blooming boy there sprang out Of the
perikladnaya (mail cart).. the general
had awaited with such throbbing i'm
patience, an earnest, pale man with a
nervously expressive, deeply-markedf face,
with fiery, piercing and lnfinching
gaze-one of those young faces only to
be found among the Russivn generation
Of to-day, face telling tale Of deep
thought, Of premature suffering and of a
great, tormenting love. Of his former
awe, mingled with an impulsive tender
ness towards his father, no trace was to
be found. He met the latter respectful
~, but with certain air of independence
and Of manly dignity which struck the
old gentleman with utter amazement,
though it pleased him on the other hand
to find in his son something akin to his
own iron nature. They met no more
like father and son, but like two soldier
friends, one younger than the other, but
both hardened in the great battle of life.
It was, however, precisely this resem.
blance in both their natures which
brought them further apart than ever.
Both were not slow in detecting that
they had no interest, no idea, no aim in
life in common with each other. While
the son was scarcely able to answer cor.
rectly all his fathers queries about the
whereabouts of this or that general, the
newest patterns Of uniforms, or the most
recent events in the life of the imperial
family, the father felt but little interest
and showed still less understanding fol
the young officers erudite explanations
of the newest improvement in artillery
or the projected reforms in the military
administration. Besides, the son had
other studies which engrossed him, other
books, not treatises on artillery, which
he read without ever showing them to
his father. Once the latter, coming un-
expectedly into his sons room, saw the
titles of two of these books, "The Life
and Writings Of Ferdinand Lassalle -
and "Commentaries on John Stuart
Mills Political Economy" Both names
were naturally unknown to him, and the
name of Tchernyshevsky, the celebrated
Russian socialist, being not printed on
the last-named book, the brave old Gen.
eral retained no other impression from
that incident than that his con, though a
capital soldier, was somewhat of a book
worm.
In autumn Andrusha returned to St.
Petersburg and entered the military aca-
deny. He passed rapidly one grade of
the military career after the other, was
in 1870 promoted captain, the Shipka
pass affair, during which the young artil-
lery officer rendered signal services,
bringing him the dignity Of colonel and
the grand cross of the st. George order.
At the same time his name became vide
ly known in scientific circles. He became
editor of one of the best military reviews
of St. Petersburg, and his house was the
gathering-place of the best and ablest
Of civil rs well as mill
tary intelligent circles.
Thus years went on. The great
Nihilist movement broke out, holding
Russian society in a constant state Of
agitation and terror. The storm reached
even. the old general in his solitary re-
treat. His evaporation against the 'smis-
creants and murderers knew no bounds.
He even went SO far as to write letter,
addressed personally to the Gear, proffer-
ing his services for the "good and holy
cause" He never received any answer.
The great number of young mobiles i'm
plcated in the conspiracy was what
appalled, him. "Have all
those young knaves no fathers with
honor enough in their hearts to kill the
vipers they have norrished in their
bosoms?" he used to exclaim when the
papers brought to him the name of some
new aristocratic terminal" And then
he added in an undertone: "Thank God!
thank God p thinking of his son, and
what blessing it was thathe had turned
out such a serious, hard working, brave
soldier, "without any nonsense about
him."
Then came the eliminating point of
the revolutionary horrors the Winter
Palace explosion. The old generals in
knew no bounds. At the same
time strange, apparently groundless
feeling of anxiety for his son, from whom
he had not received any letters for some
time, seized him. 81 am growing old, :"
he wrote to Andre, ''and would like to
see you, perhaps for the last time. Try
to get leave Of absence and spend a
couple of months with me-
The son had obeyed the fathers wishes.
And this night, the 18th of May, he had
arrived at Dubrovka-this was the name
of the Savelieff estate. The same postil-
lion who had brought him from the
nearest railway station was also the
bearer Of letter for the general. The
latter, however, more touched and agi-
tated by the meeting with *'his child :"
las he still called the bearded coloneD
than he cared to show, put the letter
mechanically into his pocket without
looking at it, and then forgot all about
it. Long after midnight, father and son
having emptied couple of bottles of
champagne, of which the old general had
always small supply in his cellar, both
retired to rest. On entering his bed
room, where his old orderly Matveitch,
awaited him, the general remembered
the letter, and drawing the lamp nearer
to where he stood, broke open the seal.
He first read the signature: canton
Podbielsky." His brows contracted as
if painful recollection had cast q
shadow over them.
"What business has that man to write
to me?" he muttered. Podbielsky was
a Polish nobleman who had formerly
been the generals schoolmate. AS a
very vOI1np man no had hnen irnn1icofo1