The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-03


IT
| The government will have to take thl
matter in hand and see to it that NOR
/ general instruction is given and bette
sanitary arrangements are introduced
before much can be Accomplished pu
Maria Tolstol has made good begin
ming in her own village and her al
wise and instructions are being FOLLOWED
in neighboring communities.
She has also tried to secure for tn
school children more rational teaching
than they now receive in the stereo
| typed clerical schools, but the loca
priest, with the help of governmental
pressure, stopped her work in this oil
rection. she does not believe in the
Russian church, indeed, she has bu
little faith in any church as now con
Quoted, and she was fearless enough
to incorporate in her school WORK
among the children her ideas about re-
ligion, a procedure which naturally
brought down upon her the wrath OF
the priest. He threatened to call in the
police if she did not give up her school
and although she seems to have very
little fear of the police, it was deemed
expedient to discontinue the school for
the time being.
Interesting as her various enterprises
are, she appealed to me most in CON
versaton. She is not literary, like her
older sister, and says that she enjoys
her fathers religious books much more
than his novels, but she can state her
views with most convincing SIM
plicity and earnestness.
once started in my present work,
she said to me one day, as we walked
through the village inspecting the peas
ants huts, sit seemed to me the most
natural occupation in the world. /
really like what / am doing, feel happy
in my undertakings, and enjoy the as
ISOLATION with the peasants. | learn a
great deal from them. They teach me
how to work how to get much out of
little and how to take life interestedly
If I had gone to st. Petersburg and
thrown in my lot with the women there
/ am sure that / should not be as con-
tented as I am now or have seen as
much of real life The probability is
also that I should never have discov-
cred anything that 1 could do. I al
ways wanted to do something, and +
feel that I, at least, have an immense
opportunity here"
She even goes so far in her interest
in peasant life as to be willing to live
with the peasants entirely if a salts
factory arrangement could be made at
home. Whether the man she has mar
ried has similar views and can be per-
suaded also to live with the peasants
remains to be seen, but he has, at any
rate. married girl not likely to allow
her changed home relations to affect
her deep interest in the peasantry.
To an American she was particularly
on account of her indiffer-
ance to movements which seem very
vital to American women. For clubs,
leagues, woman SUI
frage and kindred matters she seemed
to care very little, although she said
that if she lived in America her tastes
would doubtless be different.
In Russia, however, and as the
laughter of her father, she takes most
interest in working quietly as a neigh
oor, unaffiliated with any organiza-
ion, religious, political or social She
Ices not hesitate to deplore the apathy
If many Russian women toward their
position in Russia, but she sees no ne
,essity in her own case, at least, of the
or an organization. Russia
8 so big and the work to be done so
asst" she remarked to me, that ! can
,nly do little, anyhow, and | can do
hat little better alone than as men,
Yer of a Woman's society. Indeed. it
eems to me that, If women the world
ver would just take up some one thing
n their own neighborhood and say, I
will do my best right here there would
xist among them bond of union such
S no club or league can give
If Maria Tolstoi lives long enough and
er time is not taken up too much with
ome duties, she will accomplish a
york among the Russian peasants
which will give her a name as a friend
f mankind no less great than that of
er illustrious father. The Russia gov
rnment cannot afford to defeat her
imposes, and there are already signs
hat Nicholas II, Is willing to lend a
and to good works like hers. Every
ow and then rumor gets abroad that
ne government is preparing to exile her
1lnef, ana ii Is reported tildl ne Is soon
} leave Russia. 1t is very much to be
QUILTED whether he will ever leave it
f his own accord, much as he would
Ike to see England and America, and
may be asserted that the govern
tent realizes perfectly the gravity of
,rcibly sending him away Alexander
Il, said that so long as he lived no
ne would interfere with the personal
berty of Count Tolstoi This state
ent was made soon after the count
ad written a defiant letter to the gov
'nment in connection with certain
arsecutions of his followers and at a
me when the Cars ministers practi-
lily counselied exiting the old gentle
an. The probability is that Nicholas
>. will follow his fathers example and
lat Tolstoi and his daughter Maria
i'll not be seriously disturbed.-New
ork Sun.
PEACOCKS AND TIGERS.