The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-31
T0LST0rS WIFE
IS GREAT. roo. IN HER OWN
 sFHERE.
Mother of sevemteen Chiidren, Whom She Has Educated Herself im Science and
 Lefterm.

Moscow correspondence of N. Y. World.
 Countress Toistol has come to Mos COW to open the family home in this city, and if the Count has no relapse in his present seniI-fnvalid state, he Will spend some weeks here and then Poliana.
 Ever since the Countess took forci- ble charge of her husbands financial 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.
 He will be 30 in August. Years ago he ruined his constitution by fanatical sScesses exc @ in laborInE h the fields under the country in the depths of the terri- bie Russian Winters. Today he Is a man. looking forward with childish de- man, looking forward with chIIdish de- light to the few weeks in the midst If old friends in Moscow.
 Rare Bmsfmens Manager.
 The management of all the family business and the supervision of the large farrniDg interests at Yasnala Po- ana have fallen upon the shoulders of the Countess, and at the same time she has acted as her husbands secretary, writing and rewriting his manuscript sometimes half a dozen times. Ali Of this added to the care Of her hus- band--and he iH not q patient inva- lid--is telling upon her own strength.
 sne is many years younger than her husband. the daughter of a welf-known. Moscow physician, and was a hand some, plump, black4eyed school9frl when the Count married her in 1881, he being then S3 years old and has led since manhood a confessed side of wild debauchery and mad extravagance. He took her to Yasnaia Poliania, which had coma to his family through Cathe-. rine the Greats iFfatuation for the General Tolstoi of that day and set up his household in little peasants hut on the bankrupt estate. There she lived nearly twenty years without Ro- ing to Moscow; there she became the mother of seventeen children ana edu- ratcd them herself, while her husband spent his time in Moscow or St. Peters burg or wandered on his long tramps 10 study peasant life.
 After years of extraordinary execu- tive ability and stupendous sacrifice and labor. Countess ToIstoi was able fe shove the family Into the ancestral house on the estate which had been dismantled and deserted during the Counts young manhood, everything Of The estate is now the most prosperous In the district. The enormous mort gage was lifted long ago through the efforts of the mistress of the establish ment.
 Most of the children have grown to majority. They are versed In science and literature, speak three or four languages and play the piano--the edu- unaided. They are thoroughly devoted Co her. and so far she has kept all of them from embracing their fathers doctrines or mode of life. One of tue older daughters did so for awhile. but was soon persuaded to give it up. Countess Tolstoi takes no pains to hide from the world the fact that she does not in the least agree with her fus- bands Ideas on living. but sha respects his intellectual and literary ability. Without her assistance and Judgment. his present literary career would have been impossible.
 The Counts doctrines ruined the bril- liant career of young man who was special friend of the Tolstoi's. Fol lowing the Counts teachings, he mar rfed a dfsreputabis woman, with whom he had had a long association, and who was far from being worthy of the sacri- ice. Ever since that Countess Tolstoi has preached against her husbands
 At Yasnai Poliana the family lives simply, but with a dignity bentting fame and position. In Moscow 1t en- tertains friends a great deal in a quiet
 The Countess dresses with sinple elegance, in rich black velvet or heavy silk, and has a few good jewels and much beautiful. rare lace, of which she is fond.
 Wants to See Worlds Great Men.
 She has never been out of Russia. but her children have travelled exten- sively through Europe. One os the daughters makes her home in Rome. The Countess has always desired arr women In other countries who are molding thought and making history