The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-16
COUNT LEO T0LSTOI.
Authentic "reminiscences of the
Great Russian Novelist.
ERRATIc ALMOST TO INSANITY.
Wants to Establish Christ's Laws-He
Buys Things and Forgets Ar
About Them.

We had dined. my reverend friend and
|. Fond o. our cigars we had seated our
selves for their enjoyment on the balcony
of our hotel overlooking the Great South
Bay. Ii was the witching half hour OF
aiter-glow. and the air was 50 soft and
sedative that speech was irksome Hence,
long as the light lasted. We did not speak
Sight was then the only privileged sense.
and we watched the rings of smoke laziiy
break as they rolled across the lawn. and
beyond them. objects of our more
conscious contemplation we gazed
upon the yachts with dreamy sails
as they passed into the purple
harbor of the twilight. There were surg-
hngs on the shore. and hollow splashings
beneath the anchored boats. The drowned
past wanted TO come back again. Each
wash OF the incoming tide brought it
nearer 10 US. and at length we were
hernmed in By IL Ny friend. who is
doctor of divinity. a graduate of BeTne.
and a pupil of Monod and D'Aubigne.
had, Ike myself. become lost in revere,
and it was not till the amber light faded,
leaving but mist and murk upon the sur
face OF the sea. and dull russet bands
around its western margin, that ne broke
the silence.
4 have been thinking" he said, "of
queer people whom | have known One
by one they seem TO lift their heads out of
the water and go back again. Odd notion,
isn't it ?"
Yes" said. these are eccentricities
OF fancy that verge on poetry. and that
seems 10 be one Of them. But pray tell me
about some of your odd people. Who, may
/ ask. was the oldest of them ail?'
"Leoff Tolstoi,' he replied, ''the great
Russian writer about whom every one talks
more or less He was the most eccentric
and every way remarkable man | have
ever met
Ny friend. who, TO be explicit, was the
Rev. DR.. ]. Cornelius J. Calkoen. clergy
man Of the Dutch Reformed denomina-
ton, had spent ten years in Russia, four
as pastor in Odessa, and the remaining
six as the private secretary 10 and tutor of
the sons of Gregorieff ToIsfoi, the novel
lists brother. who was exiled TO Siberia by
imperial ukase in 1874
Your opportunities Of meeting Count
Tolstoi were doubtless frequent" / said.
Not so frequent as You would infer,
was the answer; .'but the incidents IN
which he figured during our casual acquain-
lance were significant. A strange, absent
minded, meteor-like character. he remind
ed me of the famous Dr. Melville, who ran
against COW in the road and took OF his
hat TO beg her pardon; regretting, at an
other time when his own wife was spoken
of in complimentary terms, that he had
not the pleasure of her acquaintance. How
far the counts peeuliarities have been
modified in the sixteen or seventeen years
since last saw him l cannot tell. But,
jldging from what | read of him from
time to time, should say he had under
gone but little change. His character
might be summed up in the phrase, lex
abrupto." Sincere, good natured, impuls-
i've, living for the comfort and happiness
of others and the good he might do. he
was, as / remember him, a rare jewel in
an extraordinary setting.
Il first met him ar Easter, ISL. We had
Just arrived the evening before al Arusa,