St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-11-03

it something verging on fanaticism; he
was more ascetic in his habits. more
needless Of his own comfort, than q
monk of the middle ages.
Firmly believing in the rcgenerat.ye
force of ideas, he attributed too much
Importance to the moral perfection of
the individual and too little to the re-
form of institutions which, as political
science teaches. are the most powerful
factors in the moral regeneration of
mankind. While others discussed the
and peaceful propaganda. Andre was
preaching to his young disciples, in sea-
son and out of season, the necessity OF
personal example and an austere mo-
rality rs a means Of winning converts
to socialism. In this way he acquired
immense influence over the youth of ST.
Petersburg, Kieff and Odessa, where
he labored necessarily.
When, as in Russia. propaganda
has to be conducted secretly, and from
man to man, a capacity in the mission
airy for attracting personal sympathy is
of supreme Importance. 1t would be
difficult to find anywhere q man who
possessed this precious gift in the same
degree as Franjoli. The enthusiasm
which was the principal trait OF his
character, together with q 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 a Chris
tian zealot who sees in his converts
brethren in the Lord, children of his
Divine Master, and coheirs of Heav-
emily 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 a social
propaganda among the peasants. After
a few months activity in his new sphere
of duty. he was arrested under suspi-
cion of teaching revolutionary doctrines.
When he was led away by two gen
darmes all the village, men and women,
old and Young - Notwithstanding the
terror with which Russian peasant
always regards the emissaries of the
law accompanied Franjoh, 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 villag to search for proofs
against Franjoli, not a 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 well as at communal
meetings and from house to house.
Three years and 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 gem
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 1913.
It is sometimes said that contrasts are
mutually attractive. Perhaps this may
be true, yet it is much more natural
that common sympathies should be Il
bond of union and 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
exalted 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 oyermastering love and
became one Of those great passions that
absorb the entire being and consume
all the forces of the soul.
Attachments of this ardent sort are
much more common among Nihilists
than might be supposed. Men and
women meet as companion-at-arm
they combat in the same ranks, share