Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-09-11

In his efforts to follow the example OF
Christ TolStoy refused to accept pay
for his literary work and on his copy
rights aud endeavored to give away
his personal property and his estate.
covering $500 acres but in these moves
he was frustrated by his wife, who
declared that she and the thirteen
children she had borne him should not
be impoverished. This and other
phases of the Tolstoy cult are so IN
conventional and Impractical that for
years past many Russians have be-
lieved he was crazy. In an article en-
titled The Tragedy Of Tolstoy" So
phie White. sister of Count White.
made this significant statement: THE
number of tragic. unnatural deaths and
suicides, and especially the number of
people who have become insane, in this
aristocratic family, has been astonish-
ingly great"
Though prevented from giving away
his property, Tolstoy adopted very
simply and frugal method of living
and wore the rough clothing of the
Russian peasant Once he appealed to
a peasant audience by reading 1.-THE
Power Of Darkness before his ten
ants. To his intense chagrin the peas
ants roared with laughter at the most
pathetic points in his story. But this
incident did not dim his interest in
the lowly moujiks. Early and late he
champi,.ned their rights and denounced
their wrongs under the cars despotic
rule
Cupid as the Devil.
A writer who visited Tolstoy not long
ago thus described him: "Tolstoy
reads, writes and receives his friends
In his bedroom. His couch Is quite de-
void Of mattress. sheets or pillows.
Near the couch there always Is an as
sortment Of shoemaker's materials,
with which he works when not toiling
in the field or devoting himself to writ
ing. He arises at 3 o'clock In the
morning and goes to bed early at night.
His meals are Of the simplest food and
no meat. He defends the opinion that
| man has no right to kill and consume
a living organism
Temperance finds In the great nov
elist an enthusiastic supporter. He nell
Their drinks nor smokes. and he in
cludes In the term many other indul-
gences that the ordinary adv COATES Of
temperance consider apart from their
| creed. To him romantic love also Is
| intemperance. The tender passion that
from all time has been the theme of
| the poet and novelist Tolstoy deems a
species of moral depravity. Cupid Is
the devil IN his most awful guise. Mat
rimony brought about by romantic love
he holds to be an unholy alliance. Men
| and women should love each other as
friends or brothers and sisters.
"In the matter Of land ownership
Tolstoy admires the theories of the late
Henry George. He considered George
| the greatest American citizen of his
time. Tolstoy. however, believes in
| system of communal rather than ma
| tional ownership. The ideal state Of
society. according to his theory, Is the
simple rural communes in which every
| family would have the right to till soil
enough for its own support. Govern
ments he regards as the root Of all evil
Tax collectors he considers highway
men. He looks forward to day
when men will no longer consent to
be robbed OF money nor be instructed
in the art of numbering one another In
war.
THE accumulation Of vast possess
sions by individuals the count REGARDS
as one Of the great evils. His thought
has been that the mission Of few
great American millionaires would be
to hasten the climax. He does not
think, however. that the equalization
Of property will be brought about by
violence, but by general moral awak-
ening. The great millionaires. he ex-
poets. will become convinced that they
have no right to the property they now
regard as their own and will give it
up. just as he would now be willing to
move off the family estate at Yasnia
| Polyana. America, he thinks, will set
the example. England will follow,
| then Russia"
WALTER ]. JAMES.