The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1910-11-21
THE PASSING OF A PROPHET.

The GASSlNG VI n MI AAA.
Count Leo Tolstoi, social reformer
and one OF the foremost literary men
of the age, died Sunday morning in
a little hut in a Russian provincial
town, where he was stricken in HE
flight to a monastery to end his days
in quietude.
His end is an exemphfication of
one of those peculiar ironies and
humors of fate. Tolstol renowned
his manner Of living to find peace
and rest, but seems never to have
found It. He was prosecuted and
harassed by his own keen sympa-
thies for his people and his desire TO
take their burden upon himself.
Still longing for peace and in the
knowledge that his work was done,
he fed for the seclusion of distant
monastery, abandoning his good wife,
whose companionship had been the
so,ace of his long l'fe, and was over
taken in a little railroad station,
passing away in the utter discom-
fort of poor village, exposed to
everything from which he was try
ing to escape. Peace at the end
would have been much nearer at
home.
His peculiar temperament and per-
sonality are confused to us, his con-
temporaries, with his genius and
philosophy, and so, II is difficult to
offer admiration for his magnificent
gifts untempered with criticisms of
his foibles. He belonged to the no
bility and was rich in landed es-
tates; yet he dressed and lived as a
peasant. That he had greatly in
fiuenced his times, and particularly
his own country, there is no doubt;
and IL we Judge all men and all
things by their fruits, we must justi-
fy his methods by their results. Toll
gtoi lived in Russia. not in the
United States. Like the Prophet
Ezekiel he must needs adopt strik-
ing means to attract attention, and
his example as well as precept was
a living protest against Russian So
cial custom. He tried to bridge the
gap between the nobility and the
peasantry. He belonged to the caste
of the former, yet lived with and was
beloved by the latter. thus proving
that the nobility is but the same clay
as the peasantry.
Living as we do, under a system.
governmental and social, practically
founded on the theories, which Toll
stoi teaches, we resent what seems
TO us the superfciality and hypocrisy
of man. retaining his patent OF no.
bility and lands, which make him
rich. yet dwelling in seeming poverty
among the humblest of his race. The
same difference of conditions, which
prevents our understanding this
method of Tolstoi, which is accepted
very naturally by the peasants, whom
he Is trying to reach, prevents our
literary men from attaining the sub
tlety OF symbolism and imagery
which is so natural 10 writer's of
those northern European countries.
With us It Is better that man
should lead the simple life in the
environment, in which providence
has cast him; for there is no social |
caste to hinder his full development. |
and only sham and contempt could
come from the idiosyncracies of a
social reformer like Tolstoi did he
live over here.
We cannot agree with everything |
Tolstoi advocates. Living under |
conditions that have stirred his sens
tive nature TO its very depths. con-
stantE thinking upon the injustice
of society. cut off from his kind and
degree by self-imposed barriers;
every perception and con-
ception. every expression and hope
and doubt was abnormal, just as his
manner of living was TO us In one
way abnormal and incomprehensible.
Yet. while we with a certain super
Characteristic OF the
Greeks. whom Paul addressed on the