The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-04-14
FAMOUS NIHILIST
VISITING SALT LAKE
Count Poniatowski, Exile and
Wanderer.
HE DESPISES THE CAR
BUT DOES NOT WISH TO KILL
HIM.
HE DESPISES THE CAR

Reared on vast estates in Russia, the
pampered son of a nobleman, a univer-
sity student, a friend of Count Leo
Tolstoi. a Siberian exile, a celebrated
nihilist and a VANDERBILT these
things has been Count Anton Ponia-
towski, who is now a sojourner in Salt
Lake. The count arrived quietly yes
terday afternoon and took quarters at
the Knutsford.
The count has all the suavity and pol
ished manners of a Russian diplomat
His conversation is fascinating in its
frankness when ne chooses to be frank
and in the dizziness with which he
avoids committing himself on subjects
that he wishes To avoid.
In appearance the count is a typical
Russian, full bearded and swarthy.
On the KnutsfOrd register his name
appears written in an odd. apparently
labOred, but legfble hand with the res
idence given as Moscow, Russia"
Il call Moscow my home because my
fathers estates were near there he
explained last evening, and because
that is where I attended the university
In reality / have no home. 1 am a
wanderer over the face of the earth"
Count POniatowsld is an accom-
plished linguist and speaks English
NllnOUl the IluEG OF dIl accent
Russia is my native land, however, -
he went on, and 1 shall always owe
allegiance to the country, although not
to the government
Despises All Titles.
The count ranks close behind Prince
krapotkin, who is now in New York
as a leader of the nihilists. He ad-
mitted his identity last evening"
But do not call me count" he
said, nor am I a, nihilist. I have come
TO deSpiSe all titles as much as did
your own Jefferson. Call me Mr.. Pom
iatowski. The title of count came to
one of my ancestors from the car and
1 spurn anything from such a source
am not a nihilist in the sense that it
is generally understood. Nihilist comes
from the Latin word 'nihiI'-nOthing
1t means a man like an anarchist who
wishes to destroy, to annihilate. That
IS not the purpose of the Russian pa
triotS like myself. We do not wish to
destroy Russia, for we love our native
land. But we wish to wipe out this
absolute government which is a relic of
barbarism and substitute for it a free
and enlightened government by which
our Russia will become the greatest,
grandest nation on the face of the
globe. Did you ever notice it on the
map-hoW it stretches from the Baltic
to the Pacific across two continents?
1t can be greater than your own Amer
lea if we but get the government, and
we viii do that
How will you accomplish that-by
killing the car and having a revolu-
tiOn2'' was asked.
Gar a Weakling.
We do not wish to kill the car"
was the reply. He is a weakling and
in some ways harmless But the sys-
TEN is wrong. Look at the way hun
dreds of students have been sent into
exile recently by the cars command
for an offense that in this country
would not bring them into police court.
The horrors of the system can scarcely
be imagined. I know what they are,
for have been through some of them.
I was a student in Moscow and became
interested in political economy and in
the study of the various governments
OF other lands. This very tendency
aroused suspicion. A few of US met to
study these things. We we're plotting
nothing-merely studying. One night
we were swOooed down upon and ar
rested. There were five of US. We
We're not tried. Even my family was
not notified. We were sent of to ST.
IBERIA. We had to walk. chained to
other prisoners, for mile after mile
until some dropped with exhaustion.
One woman in our party died from
fatigue and exposure She was fOrtu-
nate, for the existence in a penal col
Ony Of Siberia is worse than death. L