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

seeming to summon men to active lives,
Boldly proclaiming he who boldly strives
'Gsinst evils that beleagner us,
And faces manfuly his worldly work,
Shall prosper well-they i'll who duty shirk.
When twilight shades Cross drearily
The sinking day, and all aield is still,
Save the vexed murmur of the restless rn
Like stone thou fallest, YEARLY,
To earth, and, sleeping in the dew thy breast
Secretly creepest to thy hidden nest.
Chambers Journal
The RUSSIAN BRUTUS.
A True Story Of the NihiIist Movement.
The full moon shed it's mellow light
over one Of those mild, dreamy land
scapes Of Southern Russia which are SO
common, so uniform and yet 50 varied in
their simple beauty; a broad stream, it's
rippled surface gittering in the silvery
rays; sleepy willows bathing their over
hanging boughs in the water; the end
less, undulating steppe, yelled in a
creamy mist, extending on the left bank
of the river, on the right of which the
ground rose in steep slope, covered
with fruit trees resplendent with the
white blossom Of spring. On the crest
of the slope, where the trees clustered
the thickest, a high wooden roof was visi-
BILE, shining in the moonlight, and from
behind the foliage the rudy light of a
lamp-lit window cast slanting ray into
the silvery night.
This ray of light was the only trace of
human life. Not sound came to dis
turb it, except those voices of the night
which, in themselves, seem to form q
part of silence-the chirping of the
crickets, the frogs choir chanting their
evening song in the reeds below, the
sleepy bark of dog in the distance. A
peaceful repose seemed to have spread
over the earth, bidding rest to all
troubled, aching hearts, peace to all
hatred and strife.
And yet the man W ho paced up and
down the short gravel walk in front of
the house hardly felt the influence of the
peaceful scene. His step was troubled
and unsteady and though his department,
evidently through long habit, was as stiff
and rigid as that of soldier pacing the
parade ground, yet the head, covered
with snowy white hair, was bowed low
on his breast. The fingers of his clasped
hands worked nervously and occasionally
suppressed exclamation or heavy,
half-subdued sigh issued from between
the frmly-set lips, with the thick, bushy
white mustache over-shadowing them.
The martial figure of this old man was
well known throughout the whole provi-
dence of Goltava, and wherever General
Saveieff, or "the old General" as he
was Familiarity called, appeared he was
gladly and respectfully greeted by every
one without distinction of age, Of class,
or Of position. Peasant or noble, young
or old, all felt an instructive respect for
him, all came under the influence of that
peculiar atmosphere with which an
honest life, straightforward nature
surround old age, winning the hearts of
the honest and awning knaves into re-
spect. After resigning his position in
the army at the close of the Crimean
war, General Savelieff retired on his
small estate as poor a man as when he
entered the government service and
resolutely refused to accept any other
office. "I am too old for these times"
he used to answer. "My emperor is
dead Che meant the Emperor Nicholas)
and I do not understand all your new
ways and reforms"
Military discipline and the will of the
car, which he considered as being an
emanation of the will of God on earth,
had been the only guiding principles
of his whole life. Benevolent towards
all, indulgent for all faults and short
comings, on these two points he was un-
finchingly severe. GA foe of the car
is foe Of God," he was wont to say.
When in 1848 he had to superintend
the execution of so-called political
criminal-a child nineteen years old-he
prepared himself for the task as for q
holy sacrifice and went to the commu-
MON on the eve of the bloody day. On
the other hand, this rigid, fanatical
loyalty did not in the least impair his
naturally honest, straightforward, be-
nevolent disposition, The poor of his
parish venerated him and even his enc
mics could not help respecting the char
acter of man whom they hated as
the ready tool Of a brutal tyranny.
He had married young the woman
be had loved when yet schoolboy.
Eight years their union remained child
less. When at length in 1847 child.
a boy, was born, the fathers Joy knew
no bounds, but was of short duration,
for few weeks after the event the
mother died. Since then all that there
was of gent eness and love in the heart
OF the lonely, rigid soldier was shed
on that one boy, the little Andrusha
(diminutive for Andre). And vet he
rarely gave vent to this feeling and his
SOD had scarcely any occasion to become
aware of it. Strict obedience was the
generals rule in education as well as in
politics; the hierarchy of sacred power
eliminating in the car began for him in
the father. Thus this strange man lived
on, proud and honest, without fear or re-
proach, one of the last true knights of a
decaying and corrupt autocracy. From
the solitude of his modest country seat
the old general neither saw nor cared to
know how the ideal, the deity he had
worshipped had long ago fallen to pieces
and lost the last glitter of it's former
prestige. For him the car was still the
father of his people, the ordained and
hallowed representative of God on earth.
Needless to say, he had educated his
49, - EAAoOAy UAAO oesAAO VACCU. H."
his tenderest infancy Andrusha had been
isolated from the outward world and
lived with his father curious life of the
past-the life of an old man, not looking
forward into the dazzling uncertainty Of
the future, but seeking in the remem-
brance of the past all that is good.
sacred and joyful. The boy grew up
behind . Chinese wall, apart from all
the joyful excitement, the busy uproar
Of his generation, "heavily laden" as
the great Russian poet Lermontoff says,
with the hoary wisdom of his sires.
When Andrusha was fourteen years of
age his father brought him to st. Peters
burg to the Corps DIES Pages, the first
military school Of the empire. On taking
Leave OF his son IN the reception room Of
the school the general for the first time
IN his Life betrayed some weakness. He
clasped Andrusha in his arms and whis-
Pered, BE good boy, become an hon
est soldier; remember you have got an
old father whose Life you hold in your
hand. If you ever should bring shame