Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-12-09
4 VISIT TO TOLSTOI.
Points About the Philosopher Reported by
Dir. Iocvenfeld of Vienna.

Worship of Count Leo TolStoi has be-
come popu ar in the literary circles of
RuSSia-hatng Vienna and several Aus
trian men of letters have been moved
by the prevailing sentiment to make
pilgrimagcS To the home of their new
prophet. One of these pilgrims, DR..
LOewenfeld, returned three weeks ago
and told the TolStoi worShippcrs of the
Austrian capital just what the poet,
prophet and moraliSt was like. DR..
Loewenfeld found him seated at table
on the veranda of the house he was born
in. On the table little coffe machine
steamed theoretically under the philos
opher'S careful supervision. Tolstoi
wore a light white cap, blue frock
and heavy girdlc. He has red face,
4 large nose, short gray beard and
heavy eyebrows. lie ploughS, sows and
reapS in his fields and makes his own
boots. His hard hands, slightly bent
back, and somewhat stiff movements
give unmiStakablc evidence that he per-
forms this work with all carneStnesS
and energy, He believes firmly in his
second birth.
when | was born, some seventeen
years ago" he said to DR.. Loewenfeld.
But, sir Count" protested the Doc
tor were YOU not born in ls2s?'
Tolstoi made gesture OF depreciation
and concluded: That was no birth,
because no life followed"
Then he related how seventeen years
since he had waited near the wooden
image of Christ at the cross roads to
hear what the pearant pilgrims said,
how be was moved by their simplicity
and ignorance, and how finally he went
out with them into the desert. Since
then the teachings and influence OF the
philosophers life have been leavening
the Russian peasant masses. As MS
books are forbidden, he writes epstlcs
in evangelical style. These cpiStleS are
copied with pen and ink mostly by i'm
poverished women of high birth and
education, and are spread broadcast
among the poor. Unofficial Russia Is
ravenouS for all the philosopher writes.
/ Even the Car has every new work from
Tolstoi's pen read to him, and, it is re-
lated, greeted the last words OF the
might of Darkness" with ''Gtand.
Grand" The Empress. on the other
hand, has expressed in marginal notes
20 al! her copies of Tolstoi'S works her
disgust with the ideas OF the sage OF
JaSnaja Polana.
TolStoi's commentary on the Evangel-
lists, which exists only in manuscript
/ form in Russia, sells for so. TolStofs
knowledge of literature DR.. Loewenfeld
found TO be cosmopolitan. He damnS
the literary world. Goethe, he said, was
no great poet because lacking entirely
the ethical. All of the great German
poems, TolStoi said, revolved around an
aesthetic, not ethical, centre.
4 comparatively unheralded and I'M
sung enterprise OF TolstOfS was his
/ founding OF thirteen schools In the vi
cinity Of his home to train, according to
his idea, the moral, as well as the phys
zeal and Intellectual natures oil
the children there. He interested in
his scheme 4 skilled German educator.
and summoned students from Moscow
to aid him in realizing his ideals. The
Government mistruSted the undertake
ing, opposed it actively, and eventually
caused the failure Of about all the thir-
teen schools.
TolStoi'S study is furnished with rig
orouS simplicity. 1t contains but one
ornament, the bust of Arthur Schopen-
hauer. whom TolStoi admireS above all
other philosophers.
TolStoi also gave Dr.. Loewcnfeld a
peep ut his life and its lessons to him.
Already in his boyhood Tolstoi pondered
over ethical problems, the injustice OF
the existing division of property, and
the sin of social classes. His parents
died early. He never knew them.
They tell me they were good enough
people,n ToStoi said. The remark gives
a key to the reflections in the "kreutzer
Sonata" concerning mothers love.
While a student in Moscow he kept him
self well away from all lectures, and
eventually hurried off to escape from the
morass of gambling debts in which he
was sinking. He went TO the eau
casus and distinguished himself ut
Sebastopol. Still consumed by discon-
tent he turned to st. Petersburg, took
lodgings i'm the same house with Tour
penieff. and wrote "War and Peace y
and anna Karcnina," both of which
he now wishes to disOwn. The great
moral problems of life left him no peace,
however. Thoughts of the inequality
of the division of property. the necessity
of doing more positively to perfect mans
development and spread the practice OF
virtue among the masses, and OF the
barbarity of war, kept his spirit IN a
turmoil. When he returned to st. Pet
ersburg, Tolstoi said, he was an atheist
in religion and a nihilist in morals. ~
tour of all Europe outside of Russia,
however, resulted in his conversion TO
the orthodox faith and in his rigid Oh,
servance Of the letter of the biblical