The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-03-09
A LECTURE ON TOLSTOI
MADAME FRIEDLAND IN MRS. SEW
ALL's DRAWING ROOM.
The Russian Woman Thinks Her Eel
Iow-Countryman Should Have
Been an Idealist.

Madame Friedland, OF Moscow, who is
the guest of Mrs. May Wright Sewall. dis
cussed before a drawing room full Of peo-
pie last evening '"Tolstoi from a Russian
Point of View" The proceeds Of the sale
OF tickets of admission will be given for
the benefit OF the womens building at the
Indiana University. The lecture was under
the auspices of the Indiana branch of the
Collegiate Alumnae The information about
Tolstoi that Madame Friedland presented
was obtained from two visits she had made
to him, from a reading OF his works and
from her own knowledge of conditions In
her country. She was by means labor
ing disciple of Tolstoi. She saw him
as a giant figure. who had produced an
agitation that could not but be OF profit to
the world. He disappointed her because he
had not done more for Russia" because in
his writings, instead of feeding his be-
loved peasants on a high philosophy or
idealistio stories, he had given them only
coarseness reflected from their own lives.
Madame Friedland also was very appar-
emily not in sympathy with Tolstois theory
of -abnegation or general return to first
principles, nor with his detestation OF the
new women" When she called on him TO
talk OF translating his THE Power OF
Darkness into English, he turned on her
and asked why she was not at home at
tending her children. She replied that she
had no children, and, resenting his attitude,
recalled to him that in his "kregtz ter
of the species, to put Ii mildly. She went on
in vivacious, casual way TO describe Toll
stofs books, and asserted that he had de-
I tod fWNxe OTfT a n
preaching philosopher, often lacking good
style and steadily losing value.
XXX
At the close of Madame Friedland's talk
Mrs. Sewan said that she knew the visitor
TO be so generous as to be willing to an
swer any questions that might be put to
her. No other person seemed prepared TO
take advantage of the opportunity at the
moment, and Mrs. Sewall gave Tolstoi's i'm
preston on her. She had read him rever-
emily, she said, and therefore was deeply
interested in Madame FTiedland's depreca-
ton of him. 1t was here that Madame
Friedland said that she recognized Tolsto1
greatness. but she was disappointed be-
cause, with his great opportunity, he had
not done more for Russia. Maxim Cork,
it seemed to her, promised TO become
greater man than TolstOi.
This little colloquy stimulated a man IN
the audience TO ask about Tolstois politics.
eminent" answered Madame Friedland,
with rising resentment. He would be an
Anarchist if ii were not for his opposition
TO murder or any form OF violence. lie
| teaches the peasants to turn the other
| cheek He tells them that all government
is wrong, and that affairs should be con-
Quoted simply according to the teachings
of Christ"
Mrs. Sewall was quick to see the appar-
ent inconsistency. 1T is strange, she
said in a Joking tone, Ito hear a Christian
| ref fer as E'riedland ha
ferred, TO the teachings of Christ. 1t is
one of the little psychological studies that
| is constantly appearing"
Madame F'riediand did not go on to ex-
! plain whether or not she thought following
! the teaching of Christ was a dangerous
policy, and Mrs. Sewan did not press her
| point. After a man had drawn from the
| lecturer the information that there are d
! few optimistic writer's in Russia-though
| the literature and the music is tinged in
varying degree with melancholy-the as
| sembage dispersed
| Madame Fredand's lecture and her ref
erence TO ''The Power of Darkness" makes
it interesting TO note here that tonight
at the Irving -place (German) Theater, New
! York. THE Power of Darkness will be
| played. 1t was presented one night last
| week in the same house. Madame Fried
land thought the American public entirely
unacquainted with the play. This is true
! to a great length-it has been performed
| only at the Thalia Theater, in the New
| York Ghetto; by the students of the Amer
! lean Academy of Acting, in New York, and
| at the Irving-place Theater. Commenting
! on it's performance at the latter place,
/ Norman Hapgood, the critic for the Com
mercial-Advertiser, said in last Thursdays
/ issue:
1T is rather a pity that it is not to be
| played oftener since it is probably the most
| powerful of modern plays, and it has never
/ hlA in a nT-n n 70 al rlra-
| sentatiOn. When 1t is played on the Bow
| cry Jacob Adler rises to heights that were
| on the other hand the whole German COM
/ pany is infinitely beyond that which sup
/ ports the great Yiddish actor. That it is
| not a difficult drama to act was shown
when the American Academy students
| made strong impression with it. The
! greatness which has for its material the
most simple thoughts and passions. with
/ out embellishments and without complica-
! ton, requires little more than soundness
! i'm its Interpretation The Irving place COM
pany came to its work with all the advan-
tages versatile training and high lit
erary tradition and the tremendous vitality
of the, dramatist made the acting often
theater and this in spite of the fact. that
| there was considerable departure from
| truth to Russian life. Here there is a diff
| ference between realistic drama and any
art which works through a more artificial
! form. 1t is far easier to act adequately
| in TOlstoi or in Ibsen than in Schiller or
| III SDakSDeaT6--eaSler. In funrmann Hen
| schel than in Die Versunkene Glocke. Toll
| stofs power in this tragedy is made by his
4 ability to tell the story of ordinary
/ crime and repentance in common language
| with gross detail but with an ethical spirit
so transcending that the observer has ex-
| actly that purified terror which was so
| long ago named as the effect proper TO
| tragedy. He deems any art counterfeit
| which relies on skill or the sense of form
| and approves only of that which, disdain-
ing all the attractions and interests of
| taste and education. presents the most
! elemental and important human facts with
] such simplicity that the peasant can have
as full share in the message the phil
| osopher. Such a gospel makes of art a
| means toward the diffusion of religion and
| nothing more, but when it is welded to
| ethical purposes with the genius of Tostoi
We need not stop TO argue for it's other
uses. Tolstois genuine spiritual impulse
| never deserts him. When lola and other
/ writers who have stamped their names
| on the doctrine of realism dwell on cor
| rupt details, We often believe that the
/ good TO be extracted from the swilI heap
| Is myth and a pretense, and that the
writer loves the topics for their own sakes
or for their fitness TO his literary manner.
| No could be blind to make such
a charge against Tolstoi. There is never
! the faintest allurement about crime ig-
| nOrance vice when he touches them
| but a moral terror fit TO give to the most
refined skeptic living sense of the reality
| and awfulness of sin.