The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-04
THE WORST THING
In the kreutza Sonata is the
Declaration
THAT THEHUsBAND CAN BY FORCE
Compel the Wife to Love and Obey Him, Is
Col. Bob Ingersoll's Opinion
His Other Criticisms.

Especial to THE HERALD-Examiner Dispatch.i
New York, Sept. 3-Robert G.. Ingersoll
has long article in the current number of
the North american Reuiew on ''The Kreutzer
Sonata and it's author, from which the
follawing extracts are made:
Count Tolstoi is a mau of genius. He
is acquainted with Russian life from the
highest to the lowest, that is to say, from
the worst to the best. He knows the vices
of the rich and the virtues of the poor. He
is Christian, a real believerin the Old and
New Testament and an honest follower Of
the Peasant of Palestine
shocked by the cruelties and unspeak-
able horrors OF war, he became non re
ristant and ayowed he would not defend
MS own body or that of his daughter from
insult and outrage. In this he followed
the command of his Master, Resist not
evil He passed not simply from war to
peace, but from one extreme to the other
and advocated doctrine that would leave
the basest of mankind the rulers of the
world. This was and is the error of the
great and tender soul Of Count Tolstoi
Following in the path of the New Tesla
meht, he regards love as essentially impure.
He seems really to think that there is a
love superior to human love; that the love
! OF man fer woman and woman for man is
after all kind of ringdegradation that
! it is better to love God than woman. To
| him there seems to be no purity in love be-
cause men are influenced by forms, by the
| beauty OF women, and women knowing this
| fact, according TO him acts, and consequently
| both are on an equality.
| "Count TolstOi in THE kreutzer Sonata
has drawn with free hand one of the
vilest and basest of men for mis- hero. If it
be true picture of welded life in Russia,
no wonder Count Tolstoi looks forward
with pleasure to the existance of the
| human race. The story of The Kreutzer
/ Sonata seems to have been written for the
! purpose of showing that woman is at fault,
that she has no right to be attractive, no
| right to be beautiful, and that she is
morally responsible for the contour of her
throat or the pose of her body, for the
| symmetry of her limbs, for the red of her
| lips, and for the dimples in her cheeks.
| The opposite of this doctrine is nearer
true. 1t would be far better to hold people
responsible for their ugliness than for their
| beauty. 1t may be true the soul, the mind,
in some wonderous way fashions the body,
and that TO that extent every individual is
responsible for his looks. 1t may be that
man and woman thinking high thoughts
will give necessarily nobility to the express
son and beauty of their outline 1t is not
true that the sins of man can be laid Justly
| at the feet OF woman. Women are better
than men. They have greater RESPONSE
bilities, they bear even the burdens
of Joy. This is the real reason
why tGeir faults are considered greater.
But the worst thing in The Kreutzer
Sonata is the declaration that the husband
can by force compel the wife 10 love and
obey him. Love is not the child of fear it
ic- cult # 1Ovra
on compulsion. Even Jehovah found it was
impossible to compel the Jews to love Him.
He issued command to that effect coupled
with threats of pain and DEATH But His
chosen people failed to respond. Count
Tolstoi would establish slavery in every
house; he would make every husband a
tyrant and every wife trembling serf. No
wonder he regards such marriage as fail
ure. This is the destruction of the family,
the pollution of the home, the crucifction
of love. Those who are truly married are
neither masters nor servants; the idea of
obedience is lost in the desire for the happl-
ness of each. Love neither commands nor
obeys. A curious thing it is that the ortho-
dox world insists that all men and women
should obey the injunction of Christ; that
| they should TAXI Him as the supreme ex-
! ample, and that in all things follow His
teachings. This is preached from countless
pulpits, and has been for many centuries.
2 And yet he who does follow the Savior,
, who insists he will not resist evil, who sells
what he has and gives to the poor, who de-
serts his wife and children for love of God,
is regarded as insane.
'Tolstoi on most subjects appears to be
in accord with the founder of Christianity,
with the apostles, with the writers of the
New Testament, and with the fathers of
the church, and yet Christian teacher Of
Sabbath school decided, in the capacity
of postmaster general, that The Kreutzer
Sonata is unfit to be carried in the malls.
Although l disagree with nearly every SEN
tence in this book, regard the story as
brutal and absurd, the view of life pre-
sented as cruel, vile and false, yet 1 recog-
nze the right of Count Tolstoi to express
his opinions on all subjects, and the right
of the men and women of America to read
for themselves