The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-17

A dispatch from ST. Petersburg says
that Countess Sophia Tolstoy, wife of
her "reminiscences. The "reminiscences
comprise 40 years Of married life and
part of her girlhood.
The book will be published after the
countess death. 1t will contain several
hundred letters from eminent Russians,
including the Emperor Alexander II,
| the novelist Turgenieff and M. Pobie-
donostseff, with whom the countess en-
tered into a long polenio over the ex-
communication of the count
THE only thing my memoirs will
lack" says the countess, SIS correspon-
dence with my husband. But that is
because I have never been able to part
with him for q day.
Anton Ismailoff, author of the famous
drama Doomed has just returned
from 'Yasnaya Polyana,'' where he
covered from his illness. though con-
WINGED that his death is not far off.
Tolstoy is again writing.
ST am engaged he said, "recompil-
ing my Circle of Children Reading
And / have to hurry. l am on my way
to the grave. 1 wait death no longer
with fear, but Indifference.
IT don't see much worth reading
among the latest writer's" said Tolstoy,
Maxim Gorky has been driven from
the true path. Everything he writes is
artificial; it smacks Of composition.
And I feel the same toward most OF our
younger writer's. Kuprin is the best of
them; he is a real writer. But he, too,
suffers from artificiality.
Foreign literature is in as bad a
way. There are practically no great
men. Take France, for instance. France
has now only one really great writer.
That is Anatole France"
Tolstoy talked of politics. The Duma,
he said, produced comic effect. Com
ic,' he added, ''in the sense employed
by Schopenhauer; that is, opposed to
the natural, to the necessary. 1t did
everything that was not necessary. To
save humanity you must make people
better.
THE present troubles will end only
when society improves. There is no sal
walton in parliamentarism-
IT am not defending the government
It will never pacify Russia. There are
today more angry minds, more revolu-
tionized citizens than ever.
Yesterday a workman came to me
and asked for money to buy revolt
yer. He wanted to avenge his friends
who were in jail. I had to use all my
moral influence in order to dehyDnotiZe
him.
''This will all pass. Perhaps it is nee
essary to mankind-as a lesson. 1t is
wrong life. And after we have had
some more such lessons we will learn
how to live. Once We held slaves, and
1t seemed proper and natural; now we
see the dOTTOI Oh nat hl1Q u pAO-
gress is still going on and it is the only
progress recognize"
THE time of betterment Is still far
off, said Ismailoff
Never mindl'' cried Tolstoy, "God
has plenty Of time"
1t is rumored that William Allen
White is writing a pretentious novel
his 6rst.
The Century company has just pub
lished a book by Edna Kenton, well
known as a writer of clever short
stories. The book takes it's title from
the heroine. "Ciem." and has a 'front.'
ispiece by Charlotte Harding.
The romance of skillful diplomacy,
the charm OF buoyant and vivacious
womanhood, the vigor OF masterfui
men. the allurements Of wealth and
power to be gained by a revolution
financed by daring capitalists, all CEN
tered around q reluctantly restored
king and a daring subject as rivals for
as sweet and captivating a heroine as
can be found In modern fction-given
tn csc ingredients and the mixing which
comes from plenty Of action. the fit
mass FOR S71xnTaAr reading of 1.-THE King