The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-16
RUSSIAN AUTHORS.
Ramblers Spend the After
noon With Tolstoi and
Turgenef Yesterday.

- day WILL ItAScAzl ddlHOIS, WAS The
subject Of yesterdays Rambler meeting
at Hasbrouck Institute. It was a good
meeting, with an excellent attendance
and an interesting programme. The two
authors whose lives and works were most
discussed were T~urgeneff n Tolstoi.
Miss Margaret Page read an excellent
paper on the latter in which to show the
difficulties under which he wrote, and the
early influences upon his life, she especl-
ally mentioned his mother, Madame Tur-
geneff, whom she pictured as a proud, un-
yielding tyrant, with a violent temper,
citing many incidents by the way. one of
which, a scene which occurred in a
church is perhaps of especial interest, al
most worthy of dramatizing. a fact which
the speaker in her recital did not fail by
the infexion of the voice, to note.
Neither Church nor state" said she,
was of the least consequence if it came
into conflict with Madame Turgeneff's
demineering will. She took it into her
head once to go to confession and ordered
the priest to attend her at a certain hour
in her private chapel. All her numerous
household was called in to partake of the
Sacrament. When their mistress Knelt to
begin her confession, the priest made a
signal to all present to depart, but Mad
anne T~urgeneff promptly countermanded
the order. Stay she cried. A great con-
fusion arose, some staying and others
struggling to get out.
" 1T is contrary to the rules of the
Church to hear confession in the presence
of anyone but the priest her confessor
observed, mildly.
/" But / wish to confess before all the
world
!" But that if forbidden
/" But IL say 1t is permitted followed
in a voice like a thunder clap, whereupon
snatching the prayer book out of the
hands of the priest she began in a loud
voice to recite tho prescribed prayers.
Zone can we'll imagine what kind of
boyhood van must have spent with such
a mother. Without even inauiring into
his alleged misdemeanors, she did not
disdain to whip him almost daily with
her own hands. If, as frequently hap
pened, he did not know why he was be-
ing punished and took the liberty to ask,
she responded only with more blows,
and after having performed this pious la
Dor, she would, as likely as not, order
her daughter to read aloud to her a
ClIiPtC vi OfAA - - 1870
ton of Christ !"
Miss Page also gave the scene just after
Turgeneff had discovered VANS
intention of becoming an author. rs
a business for a nob1eman?" she
cried contemptuously. ST can understand
you might write verses, but to be
author-an author, Do o know what
it means to be an author? I'll tell you.
Author and quill-driver are one and the
thing. Both sling ink for money.
A nobleman should serve the Gar, make
a name and a career for himself in the
army and not hy-slinging ink! And who
a Russian book, anyway? Indeed,
Ivan, believe me, in the army you would
soon be promoted and then you can
When she heard that VANS books, |
she herself professed to despise,
had been publicly criticised in the press
Ia fact which to their author was very
gratifying) she flew into one of her tre-
nendous RACES which ended as usual with
J physician and anodynes.
The story of how Madame Turgeneff in
order to keep her sons poor and within
Ter power, decided to them estates as
gifts, from which she had first sold all
he corn and the coming harvest, SO that
here might be no seed for the harvest
# the following year, which gifts they
'efused, and the speaker FASTENED on to
he death scene of the tyrant and to her
late repentance on her death bed.
Mrs. Martin gave an extemporaneous
ak on Tolstoi, in which some of his
works were given, together with a sketch
f his life and several incidents of inter-
st, while Miss A. B.. Meyers ave a talk
n the entire subject, Russian Authors,
eading several extracts bearing on the
ubject from current magazines, as for
nstance, Zangwills Criticism on Tolstoi
t a Tolstoi dinner. Miss Meyers also
ave some notes on art.
The next meeting, two weeks hence,
7ill be on Russian peasantry and the GUS
oms of the people, when Miss Sarah
foe will read a paper.
Among those present yesterday were:-
Kisses A. B. Meyers, Bessie White. Sarah
Zoe, Mary Brown, Nellie Holbrook, Hat
lie Hartnett, Belle Steuck, Matte Nor
inc, Irene Phillips, Elizabeth Mclean,
largaret Page, Hattie Reynolds and Mrs.
WOMEN AND ART.