The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1883-11-01

he labored necessarily.
When, as in Russia. a, propaganda
has to be conducted secretly, and from
man to man, capacity in the mission
airy for attracting personal sympathy is
of supreme importance. 1t would be
difficult to find anywhere man who
possessed this precious gift in the same
degree as Franjoli. The enthusiasm
which was the principal trait of his
character. together with a winning
manner and natural kindness of heart,
made all who knew him his devoted
friends; and he, on his part, loved his
comrades, his pupils and his fellow
workers with all the passion of Chris
tan zealOt who sees in his converts
brethren in the Lord, children of his
Divine Master, and coheirs of a Heav-
enly inheritance.
In 1874 Franjoli. abandoning his life
in the towns, took place as a village
schOolmaster in the province of
Tchernigov, in order to begin social
propaganda among the peasants. After
few months activity in his new sphere
of duty, he was arrested under suspi-
cion of teaching revolutionary doctrines.
darmes all the village, men and women,
old and young - Notwithstanding the
terror with which a Russian peasant
always regards the emissaries of the
law accompanied Franjoli, silently and
mournfully, for several miles on his
road, and, when they left him, looked
the blessings they dared not utter. And
later, when magistrates and officers
went to the village to search for proofs
against FranjOli, not single witness
could be induced, either by promises or
threats, to testify against him, albeit he
had carried on his propaganda freely,
and almost without disguise, in the
streets, at village fetes and friendly
gatherings, as we'll as at communal
meetings and from house to house.
Three years and a half he was kept
in prison without trial. and in the end
the Judges, in default of sufficient evil
dence to convict him, were compelled
to pronounce him not guilty. On this
he was eXiled. by administrative order,
to Solvitchegodiv, small town in the
far North. On his way thither Franioli
made an attempt to escape, which well
nigh cost him his life. While his guar
dians were sleeping he jumped from
the window of a railway carriage, but
he was so badly hurt that he could not
rise, and the next morning the gen.
darmeS, when they returned to the spot,
found him lying where he had fallen.
He was then taken to the hospital of
Solvitchegodiv, and after being dis
charged took up his quarters in the
town. There he met Mile. Eugene
Zadadray, whose acquaintance he had
made when she was one of the accused
in the trial of the 1893
1t is sometimes said that contrasts are
mutually attractive. Perhaps this may
be true, yet it is much more natural
that common sympathieS should be a
bond of union and a cause of love, and
there are natures that can never SYM
pathize with their opposite natures,
whose contrasts irritate and repel.
Those are the natures that Heinrich
Heine would have called Hebraic,
whose peculiarly is to attach them
selves not to the conventionally beauti-
full and charming, but to an abstract
ideal which dominates and absorbs
them to the point of fanaticism and in
tolerance. Whether he possessed one
of those natures or not it was similarity
of character and community of ideas
that kindled the intense sympathy
which quickly developed itself between
Andre and the fair companion of his
exile; for Eugene belonged to the same
eXaltel and enthusiastic type as HIM
self. Like him she had suffered bonds
and imprisonment, and like him she
was still ready to spend and be spent in
the cause to which both had consecrated
their lives. Soon the mutual sympathy
grew into an OvermaStering love and
became one of those great passions that
absorb the entire being and consume
all the forces of che soul.
Attachments of this ardent sort are
much more common among Nihilists
than might be supposed. Men and
women meet as companion-at-arms,
they combat in the same ranks, share
the same view, gain the same reward.
The complete equality that prevails be-
tween the sexes, and the sense of ever
present danger, to which all alike are
exposed, render that lofty and romantic
love sung by poets much more fire.
quent in the wild aud infiammable
world of Nihilism than in the world of
restraint and convention. OF this sort
were the loves of Andre and Eugene.
The first months of their union were the
happiest they had ever known or con-
ceived-or were destined to know-and
seemed to both rather the realization of
a romantic dream than an episode of
real life.
A common friend, Mile A. R., who |
visited them at this time, remarked to
another common friend. little thinking |
how soon and how terribly her pre-
vision would be verified, that the atfec- |
ton of the FranioliS was greater than
life itself, and that neither could out
live the other. But love had quenched |
neither their revolutionary ardor nor |
their loyalty to the great cause in
which their friends were engaged and |
to which they devoted their lives.
Their happiness became even re-
proach to them, and they burned to
take part in the mortal struggle with |
despotism which had now become one |
of acts as well as of words. They con-
trived plan of escape In February,
1879, they left Solvitchegodiv, and |
after long and perilous journey sue
nooAol d.