The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-10-05
THE KREUTZER SONATA.

1t is not great book, this latest pro-
duction of Count Leo Tolstoi. But no
unprejudiced man will deny that it is the
book of great man. 1t is tie mental
offspring of one who has Travelled long
and sorely for suffering and down trod-
den humanity. It's voice is the voice of
the John the Baptist Of the nineteenth
century and it's teaching that Of his great
Master. The great sympathies of him
have gone out in mighty flood towards
the woe and the misery that undoubt-
eddy exist in this nineteenth century.
He who should deny their existence is
either fool or liar. This is the record
Of man who has gone down into the
wilderness of sin and moral decay and
learned to weep with those that weep.
If he has failed to rejoice with those that
do rejoice, his failure is easy of compre-
hension. The great night of human
sorrow and misery has blotted from his
mental vision the sunlight that cheers
and warns happy homes and loving
hearts For him ''the time is out Of
joint But this is no modern Hamlet.
A dreamer he will not be; and SO, while
life and strength remain, he uses his
powerful pen to point the better way.
The world Of such man-his Russian
world-can scarcely be pleasant one.
For him the skies are no longer blue and
sunlit He is deaf to the music of the
birds. The beautiful world of inanimate
nature has for him ceased to exist.
Every pulse of his keenly sympathetic
heart throbs for his suffering and erring
fellow men. Over their fallen estate he
laments as the great founder of the
Christian faith wept over his much-loved
Jerusalem. Life for him has long been
a stern reality, terrible warfare. The
world can be no playground for think
ing, earnest men while evil pre-.
dominates almost unchecked. Society
is in his experience hot-bed of self-de.
ception and self-contentment.. Rotten
to the core, is his wall. Men whose lives
have been one long tissue of moral lax
ity demand by marriage the possession
of spotless purity. Innocent maidens
are entangled in such snares and moth
ers are consenting parties. These and a
thousand other fragrant evils Of the time
sting the heart of this modern prophet
to the verge of madness. Humanity
knows it all and still pretends."
What is the true mans duty? Fol-
Leo Tolstoi there is but one answer tc
this question. He, at least, will be nc
party to such deceit, and in biting words
he pours forth the keen torrent of hif
reproach and indignation. All the skel
etons Of the whited sepulchres of fraud
ulent responsibility are dragged to the
light Of day. The subject is not one t.
be handled with "kid gloves" The dis
ease is deep-seated. Fine words anc
sugar-coated pills avail not. It is the
keen blade of the surgeon that must
cure the cancer of modern immortality
Like true and faithful man, Tolsto
performs what to him is crying duty
We need not, few of us will, be bounc
by some of his conclusions, but we can
not doubt his earnestness and good faith
Sensuality and wrong doing of every
kind have to-day no more bitter enemies
than this much misunderstood man
"Human happiness is produced by self
humiliation" A book, whose keynott
is these noble words, can not be the bool
we were told to believe it was TIL,
postmaster general is good merchant
he may be successful Sunday sohoo
teacher; but, as literary critic, he is al
arrant failure.