Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-11-02
AMIABLE BARBARlANS.
Anecdotes Told About the Famous Rus
slams Tclstoi and McIikoff.

Anecdotes Told About the Famous Rus
slams Tclstoi and MclikoR
From the car down to the humblest
mujik the Russians are more or less
barbarians from the point of view Of
the refined west, but certainly most
amiable barbarians SO far as foreign
ers are concerned. Their hospitality
knows no limits; no trouble is too
great when it is question of obliging
a foreign visitor; but, charming as
they are, you are constantly being re-
minded of the wildness of their real
underlying nature by the strange con-
trasts of delicacy and brutality, of civ
lization and barbarism, which their
daily life offers. To hear the Rus
slams talk about the unwritten con-
temporary history of their social and
national life is like listening to the
stories of Arabian Nights" The true
narrative of Skobeleff's career and
death, and the true narrative of the
circumstances of the assassination OF
the late car, are far more thrilling
and extraordinary than print has ever
told.
As an example of the strange con-
trasts of real Russia we will cite two
anecdotes that were related to us by a
distinguished official, whose intention
was certainly not to throw dust in our
eyes, or even to astonish US beyond
measure. The conversation happened
to turn on Loris Melikoff, the famous
chief of the dreaded third section"
The emperor, we are told by our in
formant, had given Lows Melikoff I'M
bounded power to act against the Nj
hilists, and had virtually created him
vice emperor, as Melikoff himself used
to say. Now, Melikoff had discovered
that one of the leading Nihilist chiefs
was in the habit of frequently visiting
Count Tolstoi, the novelist, and one
day he went out to Tolstoi's country
house. Before the visitor had an
nounced himself Tolstoi recognized
him, and said:
"You are Loris Melikoff, chief of
the third section. Do you come to
see me officially or as private MANI
If you come officially here are my
keys; search; open everything. You
are free"
II come not officially" replied Nell
koff.
Every good" answered Tolstoi; and
calling two mujiks, he said to them:
Throw this man out of the housed"
The mujiks obeyed Tolstoi to the
letter, and Loris Melikof had to ac-
cept this treatment, for in his way
Tolstoi is mightier man than even
''our father the car" In the eyes of
the Russian people he is an exceptional
being, being more than saint, and
almost a savior
The mention of Loris Melikof
brought up another anecdote. Some
twelve years ago the emperor sent for
Meikof and announced to him that
the plaque was raging in two villages
OF the empire, and ordered him to do
whatever was needful with view to
stopping its ravages, at the same time
giving him unlimited powers.
Thereupon Loris Melikof went first
ofall to the minister of finance, inform
ed him that perhaps he should require
a great deal of money in order to car
ny out the emperor's command, and
demanded credit of so, 600, 900 rubles.
The minister of finance made long
face, but was unable to refuse. Loris
Melikof then posted to the villages in
question, and having observed the sit
uation, telegraphed for twenty fire
engines to be sent from the neigh
boring towns, had the pumps charged
with petroleum, and ordered the fire
men to approach the villages by night,
inundate the cottages with petroleum,
set them on fire, and save nobody.
The order was executed; the cottages
and their few hundred inhabitants
men, women, children and cattle
were burned to ashes, and these two
villages disappeared from the map of
Russia and from the registers of the
empire. The measure was radical,
but it stamped out the plague effectu-
ally. Loris Melikof therefore reported
to the emperor that his commands
had been executed, and then called
on the minister of finance to tell him
that out of the credit of $4,000, 900
rubles granted tc Lin he had spent
only 200 rubles to buy petroleum, and
that consequently his excellency the
minister could dispose of the balance.
In both these stories, which we
have reason to believe to be literally
exact, we find that curious mixture of
the grandiose, of ostentation and of
barbaric recklessness which are char
acteristic of the Russian temperament.
-Theo. Child in Harper's Magazine.