The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1901-04-20
TOLSToY AND RUSSIA.

At every period of the worlds history, and in every
country of the world have appeared who have been
heralded the bearers Of message" either to the
times in which they lived to the future These have
been hailed with mission, self-imposed one
and this mission has usually been the reforming of evils
the making smooth tho way for those to follow them in
the work Of thought morals theories OF
government recognized institutions
Such is Leo Tolstoy. Born to the higher Russian
hfe educated in the higher Russian schools be adopted
arms profession and distinguished himself in the
Crimea He left the army and his voice has since been
raised against all things Russian and much that is &C.
cepted in the rest of the world
To many Tolstoy is mere dreamer of dreams, man
with faDcu ideals impossible of realization; to some he
enigma to few he is the accepted ambassador from
another world, the man with message to proclaim a
mission to fulfill in the regeneration of Russian common
life He has himself recently summed up the Russian sit
uaton in condemnation of what he terms he root of the
evil" He has sent "a message to the American people,
and been interpreted" through the medium of Res
urrecton by two who authorized to speak for him
From this symposium, then all its contributions being
authoritative may form toeraby accurate estimate
of the man. and his chosen field of labor
To this reformer the times and the world are out of
joint. He nothing of good in the Russian state
nothing to redeem it in Russian society," and nothing but
misery and misery for which the state and society are
solely responsible, in the Russian peasant life He draws
miserable picture CT the peasant and the upper class as
strongly he he points the contrast between the two
After the of his kind he makes tie object of bis
socude the repository of all the virtues tho object of
his wrath the embodiment of all vlanies the same
old story SO familiar to American forty years and
more ago the good, though downrodden slave the de-
PRAYED and wealthy master He asks: "What does it
mean! Have these workingmen done anything-some-
thing very wcked-to be punished in this wave Or have
those who passed carriages and bicycles DONE or are
they still doing, something very useful important for
which they are thus rewarded?' He answers his own
questions and in his furnishes the key to all his
of Russian social life: Not at ALL On the
contrary those who work srenuousy are for the most
part moral sober, modest and Industrious the others
for the most part depraved, nsolent and idle All this
exists only because such system of life is considered
right and natural by men who affirm of themselves either
that they profess Chrst law of love toward their neoh
Dor, or that they culturedthat perfected-buman
beings. This description, he claims applies every
where: 'And the system exists not only in Russia
put in France in Italy in Germany In Spain; in
America; IN Australia in India and China Every
where, two or three in thousand live So that doing
nothing for themselves, they eat and drink in one week
what would have fed hundreds for year; thew
in palaces where thousands of workmen could have
'een housed The others, seepless and un-
ed, labor beyond their strength running their physical
nd moral health for the benefit of these few chosen
1ele is 'the root of the evil :" therefore the funda
mental cause of the evil is the doctrine taught to mankind
from it arise poverty depravy hatred executions
nd murder. 1t 10 the doctrine called Chris
anity."
For the of the evil state of affairs which so yexes
SOUL Tolstoy Offers not practical scheme of material
meoraton, but the injunction that ito attain sefrenun
ation is the blessed soluon-with its rule DO TO
theirs as ys would that they should do you Yethis
imrers and disciples rail because the prosaic world calls
ostoyism pure chimera Here is what his fnterpre- liz
rs say of him and his mission here on earth: sThese HI
" men,, of whom Tostoy is the accepted type "pro liz
aimed by common consent great cast strangely vivid b