Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-04-21


 talks and surmounted by mop of dark hair; the eyes gray, serene, slight ly defiant; the nose big, not unlike Tol- stoi's, but even more shapeless; the mouth big, somewhat grim, and the jaw square, massive and resolute. You feel at once that this Is self pos sessed, masterful man, man in whom character is even more remarkable than intellect.
 The following anecdote is revealing side light on the man:
 He went to the theater at Moscow one evening to see play by popular writer. Instead of paying attention to the stage the entire audience rose and greeted Gorky with pRodigious accla- nation. Then he delivered this ad- dress: What on earth are you staring at me for? am not dancing girl nor the Venus of Milo nor drunkard just picked out of the river? I write sto- ries. They have the luck to please you, and I am glad of it. But that Is no reason why you should keep on star ing. We have come here to see a charming play Be good enough to at tend to that and leave me alone" More delighted than ever, the audience shouted with joy. Perhaps they thought they would get another speech, but Gorky jumped out of his seat and left the theater in disgust.
 Lively Appreciation of Our Writers.
 It seems that this peasant author has lively appreciation of some of our own writers.
 q have adored Shakespeare" he says, lever since the age of fifteen, when as cabin boy on Volga steam CT I first read The Tempest and A Midsummer Nights Dream.' dislike the gloomy morals and asceticism of Dante and Milton. Longfellow's 'Hia- watha' is my favorite American poem. It is fresh, naive, strong and beauti- full I failed to understand Walt Whit man. love Byron and Shelley. have always compared Shelley to the Alps and Byron to the Caucasus
 It is somewhat surprising that Gorky does not appreciate Whitman, for the two men are alike in many ways-in their social and democratic ideals, in their lack of the conventional, in the fact that both tramped "the open road" in their elemental manhood and in their complete identification of themselves with the masses.
 Gorky's most famous long book is "Foma Gordyeef," a tragedy filled with more than the authors usual gloom, but powerful in it's character delineation and masterful in its pro- test against tyranny and aristocratic shams. His short stories are more ad- mired by the general public than his more ambitious efforts. They are orig inal and individual to the highest de gree and almost savage in their truth fulness. One feels while reading them that this is a new voice telling of Q world different from that which most of us know-a chaotic world just emerging into self consciousness, primal and naked world, brutal, strong, groping, but terribly real. The atmosphere into which he leads us is strange, but tonic.
 From the appearance of Gorky's first story, "Makar Chudra," he was watch ed by the Russian spies of the govern ment as d possible reyolutionist and dangerous character. Anybody that tells the truth in Russia seems to be regarded as a dangerous character. Gorky was thrown into Jail a half dozen times, the last time being for his fin the revolution.
 In Love With Our Freedom.
 His coming to this country was for the purpose of raising funds to help his brother Socialists in their struggle against the bureaucracy. He fell in love with the freedom he beheld here, for 1t was a revelation. He was espe- cially surprised and delighted by the fact that he saw no soldiers and but few policemen, and, wonder of won- ders, the cops he did encounter were civil. He was gratifled in his very soul to behold on the peoples faces look of hope and self reliance, not the cringing and sullenness to which he was accustomed at home. Here he beheld the democracy of which he had dreamed in his own land. He has spoken of his indescribable emotions as he first saw the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor It was the symbol of his aspirations, the goal to which he would lead enslaved and dejected Russia.
 But one untoward incident has at tended his visit to America. That was the discovery of the fact that he had not been formally divorced from his first wife or formally married to the woman he now calls his wife. His friends have explained that 1t Is al- most impossible to secure divorce in Russia, but that 1t is the custom for people to separate by mutual consent and to enter into new alliances which are universally recognized as binding. Gorky had done this, and the first Mrs. Gorky had formed a new alliance us well as himself. If it be true 1t would seem that there are other things need ed by Russia as well as liberty.
 J. A. EDGERTON.