The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-11-21
DIES AT WAR
WITH CHURCH
End Comes Peacefully to
Count TOlstcy.
UNCONSCIOUS FOR HOURS

Last Words Were Addressed to At.
tending Physicians and Were In.
tended as Rebuke-Body Will Be
Taken Back to Estate at Yasnaya
Poliana, From Which He Fled In
Search of oltude-Peasants Pay
Homage to 6enefactor.
st. Petersburg, Nov. 2t.-Count
Tolstoy, who died at Astapovo. pass.
ed away 10 days after he had left
his home at Yasnaya Poliana in
search of solitude and peace OF soul.
The physicians allowed his wife and
family TO enter the death chamber,
but the count was unconscious.
There were six doctors in attend
ance, two of them being heart spe-
cialists who had been summoned
from Moscow. Their presence drew
a Characteristic remark from the pa.
tient when Le was recovering from
the second of three violent cardiac
attacks which preceded his last
hours.
There are millions of people in
the world" said the dying count,
"and many of them are suffering.
Why, then, are you all around the
bed of one sick MANI"
These are said to have been his
last coherent words, although he
lived several hours after uttering
them. When he recovered from a
previous attack he took the hand of
his eldest daughter, Latiana, who
was beside his bed, and said: "Now
comes death. That's ALL"
His third seizure left him so weak
that the physicians saw that recov-
cry was hopeless, and then they ad-
mitted the countess.
Shortly after death the body was
clothed in the black shirt and other
moujik garments which Tolstoy
habitually wore The expression of
the face was peaceful and natural.
The villagers decked the death room
with pine boughs and afterwards the
residents of the neighborhood, of all
classes and ages, and many from
distance, walked past the bier. A
majority of those mourners were
peasants and school children.
If the present arrar gements are
carried out, the body will be re-
moved to Yasnaya Poliana this even
ing and will be buried on the Tol.
stoy estate without ceremonies,
wreath or other display. 1t is stated
that Tolstoy wished his grave to be
on a certain hill at Yasnaya Pollana.
where he was fond of playing in his
boyhood.
The count did not make any recon
ciliation with the church. There are
contradictory reports of attempts OF
ecclesiastics to visit his deathbed. II
is stated that the bishop of Kaluga
was admitted during his sickness
and conversed with him. Another
story is that the abbot and a monk
from the Optin monastery, which
Tolstoy visited en- route to Schamar-
dinsky spent some time at his bed.
side Friday, but this is denied else
where, and the monk and the abbot
are said to have vainly waited in a
idilway car for two days and nights,
hoping to see the count There is also
an improbable story of a priest try
in to force an entrance into the sick
room.
Whether the church will allow
masses to be said for the soul of the
count is as yet unknown. 1t is
stated, however, that with the view
TO averting possible popular resent
ment, the holy synod will accept the
fiction that Tolstoys personal visit
TO the monasteries at Optin and
Schamardinsky indicated his wish to
return to orthodoxy, and will con-
cede ecclesiastical rights accordingly.