Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-16
Maxim Gorky's Exploits.

Maxim Gorky is not for the first time
in his life receiving the attention of the
Russian police. Not long ago, becoming
apprehensive that his literary influence
might prove more baneful than even that
of Count Tolstoy, they ordered him to
leave st. Petersburg for Mini Novgorod.
He decided to go, instead, to Moscow,
where his admirers, mostly students, ar
ranged to give him an ovation. He got
away unhindered, but the police knew
what they were doing. They sent some
gepdarmeS to one of the intermediate
stations, where they quietly uncoupled the
car in which the popular novelist was
travelling. When he put his head out of
the window to inquire why his train did
not start he found that it had already
started, leaving him behind. Nor was that
the end of his trouble for before he had
was coupled to another engine and he was
Whirled away in the direction of the eau
casus.
The reason why Gorky's novels are con-
sidered harmful is worth explaining They
are, IN fact, thinly-veiled political mani
festos. 1t is tradition in Russia that
an artist must not be censored SO Sc
verely as journalist; and. in order to
take advantage of this tradition, the prac-
tice has arisen of writing politics in the
guise Of fiction. Anarchism. for instance
must not be openly glorified, but the nov
elist can get in his anarchism by call
preach any amount of political discomfort
if he presents it as philosophic pessimism
That is what Gorky has DONE and it is be-
cause they have grasped what he is doing
and can read between the lines of his
writings that the students admire him so
enthusiastically. His stories are really al
legories, though ostensibly stories of con-
temporary Russian life and manners.
Trepoff a Brutal Type.
General Trepoff, who has been appointed
by the car to preserve civil order and
public security in st. Petersburg, is one of
those cold, brutal men, types of whom
have appeared in British history in the
persons of the Duke of Cumberland and
Judge Jeffreys He is known to his men
as the ''Iron-heart." He first became no.
torious in the army as lieutenant by
sabering his orderly for disobedence He
quelled the Moscow riots by the adoption
of the most ruthless methods. and boosted
loudly of having himself shot down five
workmen with his revolver. The car holds
him in high esteem and often speaks of
him as "a man upon whom l can rely"
The danger of employing such men as this
to quell disturbances like those now ex-
listing In st. Petersburg is that his meth
oOS or barbarism are as likely to arouse
deep resentment and bitter desire for ven
geance as to instfll a feeling of dread and
thus fan the very flame they were de-
signed to quench.
The action OF the authorities In St
PETERSBURG IN HflnS upon the workmen
who We're led by priests. carrying crosses
and ikons, will doubtless do much toward
breaking down the superstitious reverence
with which these sacred embems are held
by the ignorant all over Russia. and at
the same time tend to lessen the power of
the clergy over the peasants, who vener-
ate to an excessive degree these ikons.
or sacred pictures, and firmly believe in
their alleged miraculous properties.
Now that the troops have fired and
broken holy ikons, which were thus shown
to be powerless to protect their bearers,
the peoples faith in them, like their faith
in the Little Father" the tsar, will suffer
a great shock.
The hottest and most venerated ikon in
Russia is that Of the Iberian Mother of
God. which is preserved in the chapel of
the same name just outside the Resurrec-
ton gate, leading into the great Red
square In front of the KreInlin in MOSCOW.
No Russian grand duke. not even the tsar
himself, passes this gate without stopping
a moment or two to kneel before this ikon.
The doors of the chapel are always open
and candles are always burning before the
picture.
1kon is Venerated.
The ikon represents the Virgin Mary