The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-07-18
Mother Of Seventeen Children
Whom She Has Educated
IN SERVICE AND LETTERS
Manages Family Business in a Master
full Way and Edits the Counts
wntings-Steered Children
Out Of Fathers Course.

Moscow, Russia, July 1s.-Countess
Tolstoi came recently to Moscow to
open the family home in this city,
Ever since the Countess took for
chile charge of her husbands financial
affairs, ten or fifteen years ago, and
bought the Moscow home, It has been
The family custom TO pass the winter
here. But the Counts health has
made this impossible for several years.
and it is probable that the weeks he
spends here now will be his last in
Moscow
lie win be eighty in August. Years
ago he ruined his constitution by fam
atical excuses in laboring in the fields
under the hot summer sun and tramp
ing over the country in the depths Of
the terrible Russian winters Today
he is a decrepit, peevish, broken down
old man, looking forward with childish
delight to the few weeks in the midst
OF old friends in Moscow.
The management OF all the family
business and the supervision Of the
large farming interests at Yasnaia Po-
lianq have fallen upon the shoulders Of
the Countess, and nc the same time she
has acted as her husbands secretary,
writing and rewriting his manuscript
sometimes half dozen times. All of
this, added TO the care Of her husband
gnd he is not a patient invalid-is
telling upon her own strength.
She is many years younger than her
husband the daughter of well known
Moscow physician, and was a handsome
plump, black.eyed schoolgirl when the
Count married her in 1861, he being
then thirty-three wears old and having
led since manhood confessed life of
wild debauchery and mad extravaganza.
He took her to Yasnaia Poliania, which
had come to his family through Cath
crime the Greats infatuation for the
Gen. Tolstoi of that day, atnd set mp
his household in little PEASANTS hut
on the bankrupt estate. There she liv-
ej nearly twenty years without going
back to Moscow; there she became the
mother Of seventeen children and edu-
eeted them herself, while her husband
spent bis time in Moscow or st. Peters
burg or wandered of on his long tramps
to study peasant life.
After years of extraordinary execu-
tive ability and stupendous sacrifice
and labor Countess Tolstoi was able to
move the family into the ancestral
house on the estate which had been dis
nantled and deserted during the Counts
Young manhood everything of valve
being taken out OF it and sold The
estate is now the most prosperous in
the district. The enormous mortgage
was lifted long ago through the efforts
OF the mistress of the establishment
Most of the children have grown to
majority. They are versed in science
and literature, and speak three or four
languages and play the piano-the edu
cation which the mother gave them I'M
aided. They arc thoroughly devoted to
her, and so far she has kept all of |
them from embracing their fathers |
doctrines or mode of life. One of the !
elder daughters did so for awhile, but |
was soon persuaded to give it up. Coun.
tess Tolstoi takes no pains to hide from
the world the fact that she does not
in the least agree with her husbands I
ideas on living, but she respects his in
tellectual and literary ability. With.
out her assistance and judgment his
present literary career would have been
The Counts doctrine ruined the bril-
liant career of young man who was a
special friend of the Tolstois. Following
the Counts tendencies, he married 4
woman, with whom he had
had long association, and who was fay
from being worthy of the sacrifice. Ever
since that Countess Tolstoi has preach.
ID against her husbands code of ethics.
At Yasnaia Poliana the family live
simply, but with dignity BETTING
meme and position. In Moscow it enter
.ains friends great deal in quiet
way.
The Countess dresses with simple ele-
yance, in rich black velvet or heavy
silk, and has few good Jewels and
much beautiful rare lace of which she
& fond.
Wants to See Worlds Great Men.
She has never been out of Russia, but
,er children have Travelled extensively
through Europe. Ono of the daughters
makes her home in Rome. The Countess
las always desired ardently to travel
md meet the men and women in other
Countries who are molding through and
making history, and as she is still
young, it is possible that
he world at large may yet come in
ontace with this remarkable woman.
DanDIa fha Tfv,e