The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-16
A VISIT TO TOLSTOI
REV. MIR. VAN MESS TRAVELS
THOUSANDS OF MILES TO SEE
RUSSIA'S PHILANTHROPIST
SAFE IN N0BILITY'S CONTEMPT
Now Which He Would Not Do If
the Government Took Him More
SeriOusly-His Love and Lab0rs
for the Peasant-DetaiIs of His
Daily Life.
''Ze train is requisitioned."


Il cannot say re English of It," re-
piled my guide IN some perplexity, cast
ing about in his mind for the right
words to use in order to make me COM
prehend. 'Ze railways; ali, zey are
re govairment, at his disposal, do you
not see? His excellency, the v'nair
gen'ral, he wishes on ze important biz
ness of state to betake himself. He and
his suite will occupy re sleep-wagon.
You must wait over and take some or
ger train"
AS nearly as I can understand it to-
day Prince D, who at that time was
acting as governor general of Moscow,
desired to go south. The through train
had but two sleeping cars attached to
1t. I presume various other travellers
besides myself had obtained tickets for
this particular train, but their tncon-
venience, apparently, was matter OF
no moment to the authorities. AS my
guide said, we would have to wait over
and be content to take the next train.
L expostulated. But my letters of in
PRODUCTION have already gone. Count
Tolstoi expects me tomorrow. 1 have
Travelled 1000 miles to meet him. L
must go somehow, some way on this
train
Again my guide goes to the ticket
window. The conversation with the
ticket seller is renewed. What is said
do not know. The large waiting room
by this time is full of men belonging to
the governor generals suite. Big, hand
some fellows they are in their splendid
snowy uniforms. 1 notice a group quite
close to the ticket window. By and by
a guard touches my guide upon the
back The guide walks over to the
group and bows deferentially. A mo-
ment later 1 am told that his excellency
presents his compliments and if the
10 I'd
as to accept the hospitality Of Prince
D., a compartment in the sleeping
car is at my disposal.
I am surprised, overwhelmed at this
attention. It seems, as I afterWard
learned, that the prince himself over
heard the conversation between the
ticket seller and my guide. Being
man who detests night travel, poor
sleeper and an omnivOrouS reader, he
seeks information and diversion from
all sources. Largely from pure selfish
ness, that is, from a desire to have the
tedium Of the trip relieved by CONVEX
sation with a foreigner, he invited me
into the sleeping car, so that in the
coming hours he might find out from
the American all he wanted to know
about the United States.
The shrek of the locomotive whistle,
the changing of the bells, the running to
and fro of station men and the station
chef and the various other fOrmal1tIeS
which always precede the movement Of
a Russian train, and we are off, bound
south vis-a-viS with no less a per-
sonage than the governor general Of
MOSCOW.
He plies me with all sorts Of ques-
tons. Wants to know about
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
our success on the plains of the West
in making plants grow (fer at the time
I had come east from San F'rancisco).
1 was amazed at his large knowledge
of the United States and its social and
economic conditions.
After he had squeezed NE dry as an
orange for his own pleasure he was
ready to turn me off, Of course, with a
polite bow. to my particular section in
the car. One question, however, of
his gave me in return chance to gain
an idea of the feeling of the aristo-
cracy toward Count Tolstoi. I had
said few moments before that 1 had
Travelled across the American continent
and the seas especially to meet Count
Tolstoi whose books were as largely
read by our people as by the Russians
themselves. The prince ard the two
members of his suite who occupied the
seats with me, were evidently much
pleased with my sincere words of
praise for modern Russian literature.
When, however, I remarked that per-
sonally was more interested in Tolstoi's
social, economic theories and his relig-
ious beliefs than in his works of fic-
ticn the governor general did not seem
quite so we'll pleased, and in what I
thought rather ali arrogant way, ig-
nored me for a few moments to talk IN
his native language to the other gentle
men. Now and again an English SEN
tence would break through for let me
say here in parenthesis that all mill
tary men above the rank of colonel in
Russia speak English or think they
do).
"A little queer here is Tolstoi,'' as
the gentleman sitting opposite to me
expressed it, significantly tapping his
forehead Why" he continued, 'Tol-
stoi actually tries now and then to
make shoes, and very bad shoes they
are too, which he sells at high price
Last spring ne tried to make a stove.
happened to meet one Of his men not
long ago and so I inquired how the
stove was getting along. oh, it fell
over, just as we expected it would re-
piled the man"
Then the prince laughed immorder-
ately at this disastrous end of the
counts latest mechanical attannnf and
50 did the rest of the party, for they
all considered it good joke; in fact.
the upper classes of Russia are in
cl1ned to look on this whole business
at Yasnai Poliana as a huge burlesoue
the latest eccentricity of a most eccen.
trio genius. On the whole it is well
that they do, for this laughing sort of
contempt is great protection to the
count and gives him opportunity to
do many things that, If the govern
ment took him more seriously, would
not even be tolerated.
This conversation, with the MANY
things I had read in foreign papers,