The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-17
New York SUM

1t was an unusual remark to be made
at The end of a meal in the open ali
on a placid hillside within eyeshot OF
San Francisco. but none of the sur
roundings could well be classed as
commonplace and unusual. 1t was q
day in March, yet the air was SC
balmy that a meal out of doors in the
shade of a spreading live oak was by
no means out of place. On the breeze
came the odorous revelation of a
spreading field of mignonette blooming
like weeds. Nearby was a stretch of
acres Of the racy clover of the Attic
hills, Glover from the warm slopes of
Hymettus, the gardener explained.
Tor / sent for the seed at the same time
that / sent to HYbla for the bees which
made this honey; it is the honey of
Greece" The meal itself had been out
of The common. There had been cavi-
are of the roe OF sturgeon that had
swum the Nolga, there had been an
cboVies from Archangel picked by the
monks Of the TrOitSa, there had been
mead such as put courage into the
hearts Of the CCssacks of the Don in
their long struggle against the Varan-
gian, there had been tea broken from
brick which carried the seven seals
OF Kiakhta on the desert confines of
: Mongolia, and the tobacco with which
the host wound up his meal was
grown in Russia. and his cigarette he
called a papiros. SO it was quite in
keeping when he cheerily proposed to
visit his grave. Yet on the horizon was
The smoke Of san Francisco, with its
intense American life; in the nearer
view were the farms of fruitgrowers
Who We're altogether American; along
the shore of the bay, not four miles
away, were the Industrious fishers of
Shrimps, Chinese, Dalmatians and
Maltese: the land itself carried the
same signs of national admiXture in
It's name, for it was a part OF the old
Spanish Rancho del Nueces V Boil
bones. With such surroundings it
Seemed more natural TO sit at meat
after the unfailing hospitality of the
Russian bread and salt and then go to
the grave of the host. Unfamiliarity
may predicate a certain grimness about
such proceeding; really it was very
simple.
The host led the way through an or
chard of gnarled and stubby olives,
with branches weighed down with the
purple fruit. He and the bees were
on good terms. for he brushed the in
dusu1ouS swarms aside as. they flew
heavy back to the hives. Here and
there he turned aside to avoid crush
ing some one of the wild flowers which
encroached on the Well-worn trail 1T
came TO my hospitality" he remarked.
with natural simplicity; Il cannot
make the Hover 1 might crush with my
tread, but / can walk around il.
Around an 0utcrop of rock the path
was steep and narrow. just a little diff
iicuit Of passage. Thinking Of the goal
to which the path led. he said: Per
haps | shall not pass here easily some
day, but after all. what matter? The
road to the grave is not easy for any
of us. But keep To the right and you
VIII lind my path passabe: keep al
ways To the right and the path to the
grave Is not so difficult, and here is
my grave. l have dug it here, where
the sun may shine forever and the
breezeS blow and my Attic bees come
and make honey. 1t is all arranged
when / shall die. My wife shall dress
me in my robes Of priest, the men from
the ranch below shall carry me here
and lay me in this grave and cover me |
up. and the spies shall report to the |
chief of the Third section the end of !
Agapios Honcharenko, priest and |
hereto, plotter for liberty and exile" |
HE Is NOT \ NIHILIST.
uled this simple moujik has been be |
fore he found a refuge i'll the hills at |
the back Of Haywards, on the road |
that leads across the Contra Costa !
range, and not more than a dozen miles |
from san Francisco across the bay.
Here in almost neighborly solitude ne |
has made his home a refuge and asy- /
lum for the trickling stream Of ''polit- |
icals' who md their way out OF ST. !
rs plain 10 all who can spell out the.
kyrillic letters OF the siEnboard which !
across the gable of the little ,
cottage and can interpret its single |
word. 'Svoboda, the liberty which |
Russia seeks, TO which this exile with
a price upon his head has devoted a
life of enthusiastic and peaceful prop !
uganda For he is not q NShiliSt, al
though the few who know him far
more than a peddler of the most saw
oIE honey IN all California call him
such.
They do not know. but I am really
no Nihilist he calls il Nigilist-"I am
Dekabris1- what in English you call De-
aembriSc. That does not seem to make
i any clearer. but the fact remains that
ne is one OF the many who fight against
he great white ear, and with the ego
ism Of the Russian race of the plotter,
-ccis that heaven may be far and the
lar may be high. Yet his plotting in the
california hills is duly reported to The
lGSocrat 5 own ears in the winter pal
ACE.
1t calls for enthusiasm even up to the
7Cint OF insanity to have the thoughts
watch have caused this man through
lie So picturesque and complicated that
'Diy the half-tamed Scythian can COM
BASS it. According to his own story.
which he viii tel8 when he has assured
himself that the visitor is not a police
lsent be has been an innocent and
peaceful plotteT ali his life. The details
le communicates TO few. He fears the
ecret police and lie knows their many
,uises. There is a Russian consul gen
raj in san Francisco. and this lonely
.Nile in the hills sees his agents in
he tramp and the farmer and the few
the1'S who pass along the little used
cad which leads over the divide to the
settled country beyond. There
s too, IN san Francisco a bishop of the
rite, and the spies of the con
ul may also be the spies of the bishop,
or the car wants TO keep the right
'a~ OF fhe bear within reach Of the
hotter, ana tie holy synod has the left
laW forever clutching at the hereto. Ii
: all a melodramatic idea of living in ,
'lol ana counserplot. but ii is very real
o the man himself; he believes it, and
/ may be true.
The exile is a native of the richest
lains Of Russia, the Tcheinosjem or
slack Earth, and he never forgets the
uXuriance of the flowers which carpet
q the fields of his childhood, pleas
mt memory and a simple one, for de- ;
pite the complexity Of his plots and his !
ears this intriguer is almost childlike 5
4 his simplicity. He was reared in {
Iiev the Holy, and there is an ancient
ostility between Kiev and Moscow, +
rhich makes it easy for the man of {